Teaching Tip #147

Teacherscribe’s Teaching Tip #147

I think we can all use a little of this in our classrooms: Happiness.

Here are the five steps this blogger suggests for achieving happiness in the classroom.

1. Be yourself.

2. Act the way you want to feel.

3. Remember to be grateful.

4. Forget about results.

5. Ask for help.

I don't know if all five of those will necessarily work, but I think you absolutely have to be yourself.  Your classroom - as far as I'm concerned - has to ooze your personality.  Make it an interesting place for students to spend at least five hours a week.

I think forgetting about results is vital too.  The more we focus on the tests and teaching to them and prepping for them and all that other stuff, the more we move away from connecting with kids and making an impact on them.  If you do the latter, you can teach kids almost anything.  If you just focus on raising scores, you'll teach them nothing.  And that's why ever since NCLB began the scores haven't risen (and in most cases when they have, there's been cheating involved).