"What I've learned this year" by Mr. McClung

The author of this blog, Mr. McClung gave a great insight on his experience as a first year teacher. He demonstrates the humility and courage that teachers in this age must embrace in order to become a successful teacher. There are some very important highlights that had a tremendous effect on me as an educator and an individual. I'll begin with teachers must learn to listen to their students. As he mentioned, students really appreciate that quality in a teacher. Also, teachers must be willing to form relationships with their students. I myself believe that this is critical to gaining their trust and respect which often makes teaching them and learning from them a bit easier and productive. He makes a great point about teachers must be willing to continue to learn. As we have heard several times before, if we aren't willing to learn in an environment in which we encourage students to learn, we simply won't be good teachers. The most important thing I came away with after reading his blog was the fact that he seemed to really enjoy teaching and learning from his students.