The things I wish I knew before. . .

Last night we had our "New Teacher Panel" at our Monday night class. There were three teachers from the area who had all attended Luther and were there to share their experiences from the first years of teaching. I have to say that I think it is very important to remember that these three teachers all grew up in Decorah and still live in or near Decorah today. Coming from a rather big town, with very large schools, myself, I am wondering how teachers from Decorah fare in bigger communities. But nonetheless, here are my observations.

I noticed that these three teachers really liked the fact that they were able to get to know their students. This is an important aspect of small schools in a smaller community. These teachers seemed to think that Luther prepared them well for their lesson planning and observation time. I am very glad to hear that. It makes sense that being prepared will make you a better teacher. One thing in particular that they mentioned was to keep up with portfolio's, especially the on-line one. This is something I myself need to look into more. I currently do not understand the Chalk-and-Wire system we have here. It seems like it will be a good resource to have down the road so I will begin to look at that soon.

One major challenge all three teachers shared was being able to find a balance between home and work, and within the working environment itself. This is something I am dealing with now. I have more classes this semester than ever before in addition to work and choirs. I completely understand the need to find a good balance of activities. I will definitely take that advice and try to keep myself in a good place.

The most interesting conversation for me was about the technology use in schools. One teacher said that in his school all of the students had their own personal laptops provided by the school. I was amazed that each individual student had one! This seems absurd to me, but as they said, teaching will age you. I think I will need to search for and learn ways to incorporate technology in the classroom but also make sure that it isn't inhibiting the learning environment. I feel that too much technology will make social skills almost non-existent. I really hope that students will still love to read and play. I think technology can also be a crutch so that is something to keep in mind when I have my own classroom.

Overall, I think talking to these teachers was a good experience. It was reassuring for me to learn that life does go on after Luther and people are successful. Right now everything I'm involved in seems just to get through college, but I have to remember that it is in fact to set myself up for a successful future. I hope I can use what these teachers have said to improve who I will become as a teacher.