10 Things I've Learned From Teaching- Linky Party

Teaching is such a fun career, and everyday I learn something new. Today I’m linking up with Miss Kindergarten for the Top Ten Things I’ve Learned from Teaching. I hope you enjoy reading my top ten and reflect a little on all the things you have learned too.

1.  Be Prepared – Especially at the beginning of the year while you are trying to feel out your kiddos, always have more planned. You never know when you might need a little something extra to keep your kiddos busy.

2. Be Flexible – Things come up. I sometimes laugh that my lesson plans are the greatest fiction that I have ever wrote. I try to follow them each day, but we have fire drills, assemblies, teachable moments, and just the every day silly stuff.

3. Teach your kiddos that respect is important. Yes, I want my kiddos to be successful academically. But even more, I want to be proud of their character and the content of their hearts. Teach your kiddos to respect others.

4.  Differentiated Instruction- In college, differentiated instruction is the buzz word that everyone hears constantly. But… differentiating instruction is so important to meeting the needs of your kiddos.  I love checking out A Differentiated Kindergarten blog. She has the most amazing ideas of differentiation in kindergarten.

5.  Be organized- Your students will thrive in an organized and structure environment.

6.  Teaching is more than coloring. In college I couldn’t stand the people who said that the field of education was a coloring major. Teaching is so much more than coloring.

7. Never Stop Learning- The best teachers are the ones who never stop learning and never stop trying to learn the best practices in education.

8. Don’t try to be their friend. You are not there to be liked. You are there to be the teacher. The students will respect you for teaching them.

9.  Start a diary- Every night at dinner I have a hilarious story or two to share with my husband. Write these stories down. On the bad days, it is always fun to read through the funny things. Remembering the child who was thankful for cheese, starfish, and penguins at Thanksgiving or the child who asked Santa for deodorant for his daddy makes my day every time!

10. Teaching is an AMAZING career. It is a job that I can’t wait to get up and go to each day!