Blog Assignment #9

What I've Learned This Year
In this blog post Mr. McClung describes his first year as a teacher. He shares some of the problems he ran into as well as what he learned through the year. He makes some very good points about what it means to be a teacher and about how to avoid common mistakes and make it better for your students. He explains that through college we are so focused on being assessed by superiors that when we begin teaching sometimes we forget that the audience is the important part. Another good lesson he shared is to be flexible. He says that a lesson will never turn out exactly how you plan it and you should make the best of it instead of getting upset. He also says that communication and being reasonable with expectations of students are very important.
 My favorite quote from this post is, "Our job as teachers is to simply pick them [students] up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again." This is such a good way to look at teaching because it isn't about us but about the students and making sure they get a good education. The parts that most relate to this class are "Don't be afraid of technology," and "Never stop learning."  I thought this blog had great advice for future teachers and even teachers who are having trouble with some of these aspects of teaching. It was helpful of him to share his experience with us and he gave great advice. I am very happy that i got to read his blog and I will definitely use his advice.