Last week, my Introduction to Teaching students had a chance to visit the elementary school classrooms where they’ll be helping out a couple of days a week for the rest of the school year.  I asked them to just sit and observe master teachers at work and to notice the physical lay-out of the classroom.  I told these future teachers that they can diffuse 80% of their discipline problems through careful planning before the children ever enter the room.  They made sketches of the various desk arrangements they observed on the white board in our classroom, and they discussed their favorite room designs.  Mostly my students and I have been in awe at how well the first through fifth grade teachers handle 30+ students in one classroom.  It is truly mind-boggling.

Yesterday I talked to my students about finding their passion for the subject(s) they’ll teach.  Several of them had a difficult time putting into words what they loved about math, science, literature, art, writing, etc., but our conversation was filled with earnest laughter and emotion.  I told them that it’s easy to get buried under the pressure of standardized tests and textbook outlines and state standards, but at the end of the day, their students should clearly see this passion.  Like parenthood, teaching is too difficult a job to do well unless it is filled with joy.