Reflection 1

The First Day:
I am extremely surprised at how much emphasis is placed on the first few days of your teaching experience. It seems that every page of the textbook refers to the first few days and how they will make or break the students as well as the teacher.

Be Organized:
Make a good first impression through how you look, speak and hold yourself. Also, have a well organized plan of attack for the semester or school year. Students crave organization and order, if you set out what is expected of them in the first few days then they will know to what standard they must live up to. They will also know what you expect of them as well as what to expect of you. How they view you, your appearance and your attitude in these first few rendezvous seems to determine their basic respect level for you as a teacher. However, that level of respect can easily fall if the instructor is not consistent with their teaching.

Be Consistent:
Along with being organized comes being consistent. Give your students something to respect and trust with their education and stick to it. Don't deviate or shy away from what you have and are portraying. Students expect and trust you to be a teacher. If you loose that trust it seems that you loose your students.

Ask for Help:
You as a teacher will feel very alone your first few days of school, maybe even the first few weeks. It is important to use the resources that are at your disposal.
-The District: A good district should have a new teachers' program for success.
-Other Teachers: It is not bad to ask seasoned veterins for aid in similar situations.
-College Professors: Just because you are graduated doesn't mean that YOUR teaching and instruction is over.

Be Positive and DON'T be afraid:
You owe it to yourself and your students to be positive and unafraid. They need to learn to trust you and believe that you are teaching them correct principles. If you are negative, you will hurt yourself and your teaching will be just another job. If you are afraid, your students will not be able to trust you to instruct them.

These are just some of my reflections on the instruction we've received in class, but primarily this has come from the reading. The most surprising of which to me is how important the first day of school is and how that fact is reiterated over and over again. Every one of these principles listed mentioned "from the first day" or some variation of that phrase. You must set the standard early and continually reinforce it to be an effective teacher in your student's lives.