Confidence

Half of good teaching strategies is thinking of your good teachers and your bad teachers and learning from them. Of course, we all hear about teachers who lament, "Why should I try to be a fun, interesting teacher? My teachers didn't!" I could dedicate an entire blog griping about certain, older generation teachers that stopped trying years ago, but I'm here to help YOU in a positive way.

Having confidence is important for a teacher, especially in rough schools. Students are like lions and dogs. They smell fear. Imagine the many times you went to some professional development class and the teacher spoke in a self-effacing manner and a quiet, non-confident voice. He/she said on many occasions, "Uh" and "Um kay." (Yes. That was a South Park reference.) It's difficult to learn in that environment. Remember the movie Stand and Deliver? One of my favorite lines from that movie was Escalante's line, "You wanna know why? Because I'm the best [teacher]." Most kids love a self confident teacher! The worst kids require it. In my first high school, I had to on many occasions pretend that I would fight a student right there. It was very much like like 2 gorillas beating their chest or 2 birds ruffling their feathers.