Blog Post# 9

What I've Learned This Year Volume 4 by Mr. Joe McClung.

In this reflective post of Mr. McClung ‘s fourth year of teaching he tells his audience that he is going to write about two themes that are “You Gotta Dance With Who You Brought to the Dance” and “Challenge Yourself”. In his section, “You Gotta Dance With Who You Brought to the Dance, he states that this year he has struggled a lot with trying to define himself as a teacher. He has allowed himself to become concerned with how his peers see him as an educator. He tends to let this affect his mood throughout most of the year; however, I think this is a bad mistake to make because not only is he in a bad mood it also will affect his ability to teach his students in the classroom. I believe that personal problems can stress teachers out and lead them to act differently towards students in certain situations. Also, Mr. McClung states that he has came to an conclusion that he cannot change himself as a teacher based on the opinion of his peers and he believes that he needs to stick to his rule that has got him his title as a teacher. He informs us that the rule is making sure his kids are having fun. I agree with his rule, because I believe if the kids are learning and having fun at the same time that they will be anxiously looking forward for the next day of class. Mr. Clung states that by worrying about his perception of how adults see him has got him nowhere in life; therefore, he stresses that taking care of his students and enjoying class has been wonderful. From this section, I have learned to never evaluate myself as a teacher based on the perception of adults; however, teachers should evaluate themselves on the grades and accomplishments of their students.

In “Challenge Yourself”, Mr. McClung states that it is his third year of teaching the same subject, which is Social Studies and Arkansas History at the same school. He informs his readers that over the past years he has also taught other courses but Social Studies and Arkansas History were the backbone of what he taught. He realizes that his ways of teaching are becoming to be a routine and that he is starting to lack in creativity. After realizing his problem, Mr. McClung is surprised when he gets an opportunity to teach pre-AP Civics and American Government at a different grade level. Mr. McClung is aware that it will require hard work and dedication to learn the material and develop lesson plans for the classes but he thinks it is well worth the change. He states that this year he has learned a valuable lesson in what can be the outcome of not changing your lesson plans. I believe that kids will become bored of the information if we use the same lesson plans annually because technology is advancing and better ways of teaching are changing constantly. From personal experience, when I was in grade school it seemed as if we did the same thing in every class just with different subjects, which led to me daydreaming into space because I was dying of being boredom. From this second part, I have learned that teachers also need to be creative and change up their lesson plans so that students can continue to enjoy lessons.
What I've Learned This Year (2010-11) by Mr. Joe McClung.

In this reflective post it is Mr. McClung’s third year teaching and his second year being at the same school. Mr. McClung was now more than a teacher; however, it is his first experience as a head coach, coaching cross-country, and being a computer applications teacher. In the first section titled “ Know Who Your Boss Is”, he informs his readers that our decision making process should always be student centered and not centered on pleasing other adults. I agreed with this statement because teachers are human beings just like everyone else and they can have personal situations that could easily alter their performance in the classroom. The kids are the reason we get up everyday to go to work; therefore, I think we should have our attention on our students 110 percent. The next section was “Don’t Expect Others to be as You Are”, where he is stating to his readers that there are always going to be people that are against new ideas and don’t give them a chance to work. Then, he states that you have to embody the aspects of teaching that you enjoy and not allow others to influence or steer you away from that. I think what he is saying is that teachers need to stick to their way of teaching no matter what other people thinks about it. In the “Don’t Be Afraid to be an Outsider” section, McClung demonstrates to his readers how he was not afraid to be an outsider at school because his focus is on his students more than someone that seeks approval from other teachers in the building. He gives the reader examples of how he is an outsider, he says that he plays his music too loud, he eats lunch with his students, and he enjoys interacting with his students through blogging and social media.

In the “Don’t Touch The Keyboard” section, Mr. McClung enlightened me with some advice that was passed to him from one of his co-workers at school about how she was formally an airline tech support trainer. While she was working there she told McClung that the main points the company instilled in their employees was to never touch the keyboard when training an employee. This was some very useful advice to me because I feel that the only way our students are going to learn a task is if they have to practice. The main point of this section is to inform teachers to not always take over and do the work for the students; however, we should make the students think critically to figure out the task in order for them to fully accomplish the skills of the tasks.

In the last section “Don’t Get Comfortable”, he stresses that the biggest fear of any teacher is becoming comfortable. He informs the reader that he is going into his fourth year as being a teacher and that he is realizing that his work is becoming a routine. I think this is true because everyone has something that they are really good at which usually leads them to not look into trying to improve. He shares ways with us that stopped him from feeling like his career as being a teacher was beginning to be a routine by joining committees that he would have never volunteered for and going to professional development sessions. This section he is informing us that teaching shouldn’t be done in traditional ways and that teachers should be advocates for the changes that we need in schools.