Mr McClung's post, "What I've Learned This Year," is a list of tips for first-time teachers, or, in fact, teachers in general. Mr. McClung himself had only taught for a year when he had written this post, and decided to pass on his newfound knowledge to others. He spoke of how we as teachers need to realize that how we plan a lesson is going to be very different than what the lesson actually turns out to be. We need to be flexible as teachers and allow students to be a part of our lessons as well. Mr. McClung mentioned that first-time teachers put far too much emphasis on the lesson itself, instead of on the students, who are the most important. Without the students, what good is the lesson, no matter how fantastically it is prepared? Also, Mr. McClung mentioned in his blog post that one of the main ways students know that the teacher respects them is if the teacher listens to thier input. Students want to feel like they're part of the lesson, which is how it should be. They are the whole reason why we are up there teaching in the first place!
And Mr. McClung keeps on learning! Take a look at his After Year 2 Reflection. And, as you can see from the readings this week, Mr. McClung is even a better teacher in Year 3.
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