How to be a teacher

Teachers are well into their first month of the new year and classrooms should be falling into a routine. How times have changed.  Here are two sets of ideas on how to be a teacher, one from 1872 and one from 2019

How to be a teacher in 1872

·       Teachers each day will fill lamps, clean chimneys.

·       Each teacher will bring a bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day’s session.

·       Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.

·       Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church on a regular basis.

·       After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or other good books.

·       'Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly contact will be dismissed.

·       Each teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.

·       Any teacher who smokes uses liquor in any form frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.

·       The teacher who performs his labour faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty-five cents per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves.

·       You may ride in a buggy with a man if the man is your brother or your father.

How to a Teacher in 2019

·       Make sure the academic. emotional. social. psychological. mental. physical. and nutritional needs of every single student you come into contact with is met...daily.

·       Form deep, personal, caring. loving. but irreproachably professional relationships with each of those students.

·       Do not be their friend.

·       Make sure they know they can come to you at any time for any reason.

·       Hold them to the highest standards of excellence but do not put any undue pressure or expectations on them that might damage their self-esteem or world view.

·       Always give them a pencil, even ii’ you've given them one every day for three marking periods.

·       Put aside standards and tests when national or world issues of importance arise in order to facilitate meaningful conversations that will help strengthen their social-emotional learning and empathy.

·       Never talk to them about politics or controversial issues because that could be viewed as trying to force your views on them.

·       Maintain a classroom that is engaging. fun. comfortable. and visually appealing because students won't learn in an environment that they do not enjoy.

·       Do not crowd your room with too many overstimulating, colourful. interesting items that distract students from the learning process.

·       Instill a sense of growing independence and self-responsibility in every student while communicating about everything they do in school to their parents daily via email, text. phone calls. newsletters. and blog posts.

·       Focus on real-life learning that people really use like bill paying. financial investment. conflict mediation. small appliance repair. etc.

·       Make sure all students are proficient on state assessment tests that cover those issues.

·       Be prepared at all times to tackle an intruder with a gun or step into the path of a bullet for every student in your building.

·       Be aware that your job is easy because you get summers off, however, make sure you come into your classroom several times over the summer to prepare, make copies. and get things ready for next year.

·       Be a superhero. But don't be too braggy about it.