@TeachThought Reflective Teaching Blog Challenge Day 15: Strengths as an Educator

This post is part 15 of Te@ch Thought’s 30 day blogging challenge.  The purpose of this challenge is to focus on reflective teaching. 


Day 15: Name three strengths you have as an educator.

You can say nice things about yourself.  You can say nice things about yourself.  You can say nice things about yourself…Okay, here goes:

1. I love professional development and learning new things about teaching and education.  During the 2013-2014 school year I engaged in 152 hours of professional development which included conferences, twitter chats, webinars, and in-services.  I work really hard to implement the things that I learn into my teaching because how horrible would it be for me to be learning all of this stuff and not put it into practice!
   
2. I make a huge effort to connect with my students and learn about them as people.  I believe in the students getting to know me as a person as well.  I think that when relationships are built where students and teachers can see each other as real humans (you know, the ones with feelings and lives outside of the school building), the classroom experience is more positive and ultimately more effective.  No, I’m not friending my students on Facebook or hanging out with them outside of school.  I’m just taking time to listen to their stories and spending a few minutes to tell some of my stories.
3. I don’t give up.  I’ve had tough classes throughout my career.  And yes, I’ve gotten frustrated and questioned my abilities and even my purpose as a teacher.  But, I come back the next day and try again.  If things aren’t working, I change it up.  If I feel like I’m losing the students, I ask them what they think is happening and what they think that we can do together to make things better.  When I feel defeated, I have people I talk to both in my school and in my extended PLN to get advice.  It’s really hard to keep going sometimes but it’s what I have to do because I can’t give up!