New Teachers

I was thrilled to connect our discussion with the newer teachers in the Decorah school district to the book that our group has been reading. In The Freedom Writers, one of the very strong points you see is that you don't need to be an older teacher to be an expert teacher. And just because you might be a new teacher doesn't mean that you're inexperienced! I was disappointed by the comments these teachers made about feeling as if they're not listened to by older teachers just because they're younger and aren't experienced. I really hope I don't have that sort of a situation!

One great thing that I heard at this interview was that we are all lifelong learners. It seems like such an obvious statement, but it's very important to remember! When you aren't constantly seeking out information or trying to improve, then you begin to level off and teaching isn't nearly as exciting as it once might have been. You start to believe that you know everything that you need to know about the subject that you teach, and this is when you begin to decline as a teacher and the school day becomes a chore, not a new adventure to help students achieve success!

I was also very glad that there was a music teacher present! Sometimes I feel like it's hard to relate this class to how I would conduct a choir because it's very different than teaching core subjects, so it was good to see how some of these ideas are applied to him!

Amy Streck