Procrastination

Procrastination is one bad habit. Procrastination will trouble you in any career! But especially in the teaching field. When you are a teacher, these students depend on you. You are the basis of their education and success. If you wait until the last minute or wait until it's too late to do something for them, they are the ones you are effecting. No longer are you just prohibiting yourself from success, but others as well. In order to prevent tho from happening, start fixing those bad habits now. Start setting goals as dates for yourself and make sure you stick to them. Not only will you be helping yourself, but essentially helping generations to come.

To read more about procrastination click here!

Don't let a bad habit such as this continue to effect you!!

                                                                 

Learning Activity

I'm interning for an 8th grade English class so I was limited on activities that wouldn't be too childish for my students. I thought for awhile of things that I knew that would interest them. And one thing kept coming to mind...INSTAGRAM! But how could I incorporate Instagram into education?

First, I decided that since Instagram is a photo sharing website that allows you to put short comments, I could use this as a strategy to analyze text of any sort. I mimicked Instagram's signature look by playing around on a word document. Then once I had it looking just like Instagram, I put short instructions of what the student are required to do. What is really neat about this assignment, is that it can work for any type of writing. This will help students get a deeper understanding of whatever text they are learning about, whether it be poetry or a short story. Where you would normally post a picture on Instagram, the student will draw a symbol or image that represents the text. Then where you would normally post a comment, is where the student would state the main point or theme of the text. And, just for fun, where the profile picture would normally be, the student can draw in their own. Then as a class, you discuss the variety of answers students put to create an even deeper understanding.
If you need ideas for poetry, click here for the top 100 poems!

  

Initiative in the Classroom

Initiative is the self determination to take action.

Here are ten ways to show initiative in your classrooms:

• Start working right when you walk in. Don't depend on the teacher to tell you what to do.
• Start thinkning of ways to help and sharing your ideas with the teacher
• Go on your own and make conversation with your students
• Start daily routines such as helping with attendence and warmups
• Asking questions
• Staying involved
• Talk to the teacher about ideas for future lesson plans
• Start creative activities and student led learning oppritunities
• Walk in with an attittude to succeed
• Stay proactive, do anything besides just sitting there.

For more ideas on how to take initiative or to get a better understanding of initiative go to this neat website!

Synonyms for the word initiative:

• Self-motivation
• Resourcefulness
• Inventiveness
• Imagination
• Ingenuity

This week we had a few moments of downtime and I wanted to make sure I didn't waste this opportunity. So, despite the chance of encountering an awkward situation... I went up to some of the students and started conversation. I thought I knew how they would react, with a "teacher-like" person bombarding on their student gossip...But they were quick to greet me. We then talked about their week, and before I knew it, they taught me a little handshake like game. This is just one example of how I used initiative in my classroom and it just happened to be my favorite example because I was able to get to know the students on a personal level.

Initiative is such an important quality that teachers must posses. Principals aren't going to beg the teachers to make lesson plans or to help their students. Teachers HAVE to be determined and have self-motivation. No-one will ask them do due their daily duties. If they don't have initiative, then the principal will find a new teacher who does.