Calendar Books by Allen James - Daily Reading - "A Teacher's Daily Guide to Success"

Today, January 21st, we read from "A Teacher's Daily Guide to Success",

"Spend time with the beginning teacher" (James, 2012).

Although this reading is found in "A Teacher's Daily Guide to Success", it, like readings from each of Allen James' "Guide to Success" calendar books, is applicable to each of us, be we teachers, carpenters, sales clerks; you name it, it applies.  It's called mentoring.

A colleague of mine, said the following about spending time with the new teacher:

"After spending 22 years in education, I have earned the distinction of 'experienced teacher.'  The assumption is that I am 'wiser' and it is certainly poor manners to refer to me as 'older.'  Each year in August we bring in our new teachers and they look at me with admiration and hang on every word of wisdom I can impart upon them in three days of orientation.  I'm really proud of the warnings I give of things to avoid and the tips I can freely share to ostensibly make life easier and the classroom more efficient. Gosh, I am so smart.

"The reality of this ritual is that the advice I give to the new teachers is not the most important product of these exercises, but the eternal hope for the future of education I see in their eyes.  I am reminded of the feeling that I can and will change the world one student at a time.  Gone is the frustration with ever-changing learning standards, gone is the exhaustion of working way too many hours and gone is the sadness from the burdens some of my students had to carry that were much too heavy for their young minds and bodies.  My hope for these new teachers is that they will find the same excitement many years down the road in the eyes of new teachers that have yet to be born and the perpetuation of the dream of making our world better one child at a time remains in tact" (Dr. Linda Buerck, Director of Curriculum, Perry County #32 School District).

Spend time with the newbie....no matter your field....and always,  keep looking up.  :)   AJ