I am sure I am behind the times with the blog creation, but I thought I would give it a try. My name is Cameron Wood and I teach high school English. I love what I do, and being surrounded by so many kids all day is entertaining to say the least.
I try and teach them a little about grammar, MLA formatting, and whatever it is that Shakespeare tries to say within his poetry. But, in my first half year of teaching, I have found that I am learning new things as well. I have found out that most teenagers do not have an attention span that will last the entire class period. I have learned that high school isn't the same as it was 6 years ago when I was a senior. Most importantly, I have learned that the best way to teach a student is to be yourself, because the students somehow know the difference.
High school has changed since 2007. Students have no problem telling me that my class is boring, and then tweeting about it on twitter to all their loyal followers. When I first started this year I was a fresh faced newbie with a lot to prove. I had worked at my school for 2 years prior as a basketball coach, so now I had to transition from "fun coach" to "respected teacher." The transition was a lot harder than expected. I was told before the first day of school that I needed to be strict. "Don't smile before Christmas" "Put them in a seating chart immediately" "Don't accept any late work" "Don't be afraid to be tough." "Don't use informal language when talking to your students" With all this advice my head was spinning with confusion.
The first day of school eventually came, and the bell rang for my first class. I was calm and confident (at least that's what I wanted my students to think). The students started pouring in, and I greeted them while sitting at my desk. When the second bell rang and it was time to begin class, I walked to the front of the room and said, "What's up everybody? My name is Mr. Wood." Immediately I thought to myself, "Crap, I just broke one of the rules. Why would I say what's up?" Luckily, the class didn't erupt into complete chaos, so I thought maybe that wasn't too bad. I proceeded with the class period and it went great. As the bell was about to ring, I told the class to have a nice day and I would see them tomorrow. Then it happened, out of nowhere a student said, "You too bro!!"
It hit me like a ton of bricks, I felt like I lost all respect from the class, and it was only the first day. I didn't know what to do and my mind started racing. Do I get mad at the student for calling me bro? Do I let it slide? Should I just ignore the whole thing? Then I realized what happened, I was so worried about following all the advice from my experienced colleagues, and at the same time trying to figure out how to relate to the students, that I over-thought everything about being a teacher. The class didn't revolt, and I didn't burst into flames for not following the advice from my professors at college. I knew that in order to succeed at this wonderful job, I needed to be myself. Of course, I was still looking to build some respect, so I kindly told the class that my name was Mr. Wood or Coach Wood, and anything less would be unacceptable. To this day I have never had a problem with that student and we have a mutual respect for one another.
The point of this is that I was bombarded with advice from everyone under the sun. Although it was much appreciated, I quickly learned that in order to succeed I needed to find out what worked for me. I quickly trained myself to not say "What's up?" However, I always make it a point to be me when I am in front of the class. I am a strong believer that I have the best job in the world, I was so caught up on following rules and advice, and making a difference, that I forgot how to be myself. With anything we do in life, I feel it is important to just relax and enjoy the ride. Obviously, we want to do the best that we can, but let us not forget that we need to enjoy our experiences as well. Don't take life too seriously because you will miss the beauty that surrounds you. I just never thought I would have learned that lesson from a high school senior calling me bro!!
Cameron Wood
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