Great Teachers Sometimes Play Hangman
When I was student teaching, my student teaching professor visited my classroom one time the entire semester. He came on a Friday afternoon in late April. I would love to say that I was doing some amazing hands-on science activity, but that would be a lie. We were playing hangman. Although my professor reassured me that it was okay to be having a little downtime, I was still concerned that, just a few weeks short of graduation, I would be failed for playing hangman!
As a first year teacher, I did activities with my students that I was a little embarrassed about later on. Not that they were horrible activities, just not as engaging or thought provoking as the activities that I used later on in my teaching. I remember a first year teacher that I worked with who had planned on showing a video one afternoon. She had parent volunteers who were supposed to stay for one hour, who informed her when they got there that they wanted to stay the entire afternoon. She spent the afternoon digging out every worksheet she could find rather than show the video with the parents present! She was a great teacher, and great teachers sometimes play hangman!
As teachers, we need to give ourselves permission to not be as great a teacher today as we're going to be in the future. Had I given myself this permission, I might still be in the classroom. As it was, I basked in my great moments, berated myself for every worksheet and hangman game, and eventually left the classroom because I couldn't be a great teacher every single moment of every day.
As a first year teacher, I did activities with my students that I was a little embarrassed about later on. Not that they were horrible activities, just not as engaging or thought provoking as the activities that I used later on in my teaching. I remember a first year teacher that I worked with who had planned on showing a video one afternoon. She had parent volunteers who were supposed to stay for one hour, who informed her when they got there that they wanted to stay the entire afternoon. She spent the afternoon digging out every worksheet she could find rather than show the video with the parents present! She was a great teacher, and great teachers sometimes play hangman!
As teachers, we need to give ourselves permission to not be as great a teacher today as we're going to be in the future. Had I given myself this permission, I might still be in the classroom. As it was, I basked in my great moments, berated myself for every worksheet and hangman game, and eventually left the classroom because I couldn't be a great teacher every single moment of every day.
