TheApple

Some of these are pretty self evident. I was hoping for something not so obvious.

I agree teachers are not perfect, but they have to be very conscious of what they are doing since teachers are role models to their students. Less talk, less mistake. You can accept mistakes but don't show your students your failure. Show them you are firm in your answers and there are some exceptions to the rule. If you think they are right, don't show them they are better than you. simply say, thank you for the additional information. Its nice to be friendly but remember to put a wall between you so they do not go beyond their limits. Let them know where they stand. But show them respect.

Always be there for them when they need you. Don't start bad-mouthing someone in your school because it will reflect the values you have. Be civil.

#9 says: "Don’t except failure, but do ask for help." Isn't except supposed to be ACCEPT?

Jill, I sent this article to our Director of Professional Development (who also manages new teacher mentoring) and to all of our Instructional Cadre. While these tips seem like no-brainers, we see teachers falling into bad habits way too much. My question is this: has anyone involved with teacher training actually verbalized these "things" to student teachers or novice teachers?

Many can be summarized by one of the wisest instructions I ever heard from one of my principals:

"Never forget that YOU are the adult!"

Note to mdmann00: I would never presume to tell a teacher "you are leaving our profession for all the wrong reasons." Your points are quite valid. However, as we may remember, most teachers who leave the profession do so in the first five years. I am an instructional coach, and when a novice teacher tells me he or she is leaving this profession, I probe to find out, "is it because you think it will never get better than this?" Sometimes it won't--brutal ugly fact. However, I try to convince the person that my first year was horrible, for many reasons (not the kids). I stuck with it and it got better.

Maybe teachers don't actually leave teaching for the wrong reasons, but I suspect some of them leave teaching without having all the facts.

What every teacher should do, as my student teacher counselor told me years ago, is to do something he/she enjoys at least once a week. We all need some pleasure to reduce stress. I'm retired now!

Thanks for the article, Jill.

I've done quite a bit of thinking about just what it means to be a professional. So much of what I've read on this website has helped me both in formulating these ideas and putting them into practice.

Now that I've given the matter some thought, allow me to add that perhaps the most fundamental no-no, one that gives rise to so many others, might be to approach teaching with the wrong attitude. And there are many, of which one might not necessarily be conscious: "I'm just in this work for the paycheck," "I get a rush out of having power over others," "I want to get through the day with the least amount of pain and effort and the fewest surprises," "Nobody can tell me what I can or can't do," "Just X number of days before the summer break," "Just X number of years before retirement." And so on.

I'm trying hard to search inside of me to find any sort of bad attitudes on my part. It might take someone else to point them out to me. If you or anyone else on this website notice any in me, please let me know! I might get mad at first, but I'll end up thanking you.

I'm sorry, but I take umbrage with one of the comments made here. What exactly are the "wrong" reasons to stop teaching? This is very easy to say, because it doesn't really say anything. Is not being able to pay one's bills a valid reason? Is feeling burned out by parents who take their responsibilities lightly or not at all and dump it in your lap while simultaneously undermining your efforts a valid reason? Is it incorrect to leave because you are tired of students insisting that your job is to constantly entertain them, as their attention spans become shorter and shorter due to the continual barrage of mindless drivel they get from society-at-large? Would it be wrong for an inner city school teacher who has gotten death threats to decide it just isn't worth it? Please, let's be specific here, because from what I have seen, the teaching profession is utterly rife with pithy statements of this type that honestly have very little meaning. Aren't a person's reasons for leaving the teaching profession PERSONAL, and really not appropriate for judgment as to rightness or wrongness by someone else? If not, then it seems we are well on our way of stripping teacher's of any semblance of humanity--we've so over-prescribed what they can and can't be and do that they hardly appear human to me anymore. It is no wonder to me that many students think we are less-than-human with little in the way of a "real life" (I hear this A LOT).

Unless you are in that teacher's shoes, you are not at liberty to claim that their reason for leaving the profession is "wrong."

And just in case TechConnie thinks I am an "angry person," too--yes, I must admit that I am. We do the teaching profession a disservice with comments like this. Much of the challenge we encounter is quite frankly our own fault for giving people outside the teaching profession a severely warped view of it and not doing anything to correct it. I love teachers immensely, but come on.

I enjoyed this article. It seems like common sense, but sometimes a reminder of etiquette is needed.