Luther Graduates Forum

Wow! It was really great to have these teachers come talk to us on Monday night... very helpful I felt! It was really neat to have the perspective of very new teachers, all under less than 10 years of experience. It was also very sweet that all of them attended Luther, so I think I felt more of a personal connection to them, and vice versa. They really understand what we are going through as ed students at Luther and I think all of their responses really fit into something we could relate to and understand. I just felt like their discussions were very relevant into my life because that will be us hopefully very soon! It was nice to have someone so close to us in age explain how they have coped with situations thus far in their beginning teaching careers. To get into more specifics, there were two very important points they brought up that really hit interest with me. The first thing being that sometime teaching takes twists you don't expect it to. For example, the teacher that ended up going back to school to get her special education degree because she was wanted for that position. I think that's really need that she was able to be so flexible and change pace to find something she truly now has come to love and enjoy doing! I think it's always good to be flexible, just like they explained. The other really important point they brought up was in response to a question about NCLB. The math teacher explained that she used to teach to the test because she was in a school that was on the list, but now that she found her groove she doesn't feel she needs to do that, especially at a new school. She reminded us that you can't be too much of a perfectionist. She explained that she always had all these high hopes for what to accomplish in a day, but you can't always get everything done and you just have to be happy you got some learning accomplished. The main point I took away from their visiting was that you need to be ready to expect everything! Be ready to be on your feet ready to tackle any new challenges that come to you! I'm even more excited to be a teacher now! I feel like I need to start a list of all these things I want to remember to do when I'm a teacher, so many people have such good advice. But like the music teacher explained, you have to take all of that knowledge and create yourself, into the teacher you are going to be!