I never tell teachers how to teach. But I listen when experienced teachers offer good advice. Here is some that just was posted as a comment to an aspiring teacher:
…absolutely keep listening to those mentors. You learn so much in your education preparation program, and then you learn so much more on the job. I remember feeling woefully underprepared for teaching after I graduated. I learned more by doing than I had learned in my undergraduate classes, but the most important lessons I learned in college were from my cooperating teachers. They were invaluable resources.
Teaching is a people-centric act. We are taught to teach lessons, but what we are really doing is preparing lessons and teaching people. When you enter your classroom, always remember the importance of communicating with your students. Be real, be prepared, be on top of your lesson and its objectives, and always, always be ready to adjust the lesson so that you can foster an atmosphere of relevance for your students. All the things they taught you in school are useful in the mind. To truly put them into practice, you need to wholly connect WITH those people in your charge. That is, above all, your greatest objective. Best of luck to you.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is excellent advice. We “older” teachers can also help you keep things in perspective. We’ve seen the trends come and go and come and go and come again. Don’t dismiss our words as jaded or cynical. We’ve been through this crisis before, and we know that our daily work with our amazing, dynamic, fascinating children is ALL that matters in the end.
Unfortunately what you have stated is not enough anymore. We can’t just close our doors and teach and learn because the monster in the hallway is so big now it’ll rip the walls apart to get at you. You’re right that all that should matter is the teaching and learning process with the students but it just isn’t so anymore.
I always taught with my door open until we had to keep them closed due to new security rules due to violence in schools. I never had the proverbial “monster in the hall” until around 2005 or so.
Unfortunately, while the “monster” was highly credentialed and overly “de-greed” he/she had no teaching experience (but an uncle on the board). So, I, as a highly successful and experienced teacher with glowing recommendations was now having to go against everything I knew about teaching in order to keep my job. At the same time my new “hoops to jump through” were taking me away from the students who needed me.
When I hear of someone planning to go into teaching I make a concerted effort to let them know they will never “teach” in the way that they remembered being taught. We no longer get to do those things that engage children in projects they considered fun, but we knew we were imparting important knowledge and skills.
I never understood what a “bad” teacher was until I went to another state and watched a 1st grade teacher teach from a chair and tell the kids to open their books to p 332 and she proceeded with her “lecture”. I walked around the room and found students in the wrong book, on the wrong page (many 1st graders don’t know what three-hundred-thirty-two is), one had the book upside down, and one was playing with toys on his lap. She never once got up to walk amongst the students. I now understood what a “bad” teacher was; I had never seen this before.
As a teacher one should know you have to write the page on the board, say it at least three times, and ask the students to see if “their neighbor” is on the same page. My advice to new teachers would be that if you were never taught the simple procedures to get your students attention and get them in the right book, on the right page, at least start there. Know that you must have your students’ (all students’) attention focused on you or the activity and you must circulate amongst them. Sounds rather elementary, but I seldom see it with new teachers and I know it contributed in great part to the success I had with my students.
I have seen some of the best teachers beaten down by the system, but the most important thing to remember is that we still CAN communicate with our students in our classrooms by being real people to them.
Do you know how many students you have influenced for the better, Duane? I’ll bet there are far too many to count. They are the most important people here–not the monster. The most important thing to remember is to focus on the students. Focus on the students. They deserve to have that relationship with you, and you, them. All the rest is bureaucracy in the end. And ten or twenty years down the road, when you think back to your time teaching, remember the best stuff that happened with your students because that is all the “stuff” that truly matters…in the end.
Lg,
I have not a clue how many students I have positively influenced over the years. Every now and again I get some clues. I hope it’s more than I know about, but even then that ain’t bad. It’s one of the things that keeps you going!
“They are the most important people here–not the monster”. Thank you for that simple reminder!! I know and understand that as the year begins but I’m in my summer mode and attempt to at least verbally attack “the monster” and it is one. We know that the vast majority of teachers prefer to have it so that when the year begins all they need to worry about is the teaching and learning process with the students he/she has.
That’s called being “professional” and all the deformers who would deny it can suck eggs-not very professional but I’m still in my summer mode-ha ha!
You are completely right to point out that more likely than not a public school teacher has positively influenced far more students than they realize! And Thanks for pointing that out!
Our obligations to and relationships with our students are what keeps us in the classrooms and out of despair. That is not to say we should close our doors to the fight for public education. We just need some sanity in order to continue teaching, and it often comes from the students. They are, after all, what matter most.
I am currently in college studying to be an elementary teacher. During high school I was volunteering at my old elementary school (I knew God was calling me to be a teacher) and all four years all the teachers I worked with gave me great advice on teaching. It is such a shame that corporate reformers and some administration thinks we need to get rid of the older teachers to bring in fresh new teachers. Excuse me?! As one of those “fresh new teachers” I will tell you that ANY advice given to me by a rookie teacher will be kept to heart because they have been there, and still are! I value SO much of what these teachers have to tell me because its true, and I can go to them for support. I value those teachers so much it would be a shame for them to be forced out. If you had a school full of only fresh new teachers I could guarantee it would probably be unsuccessful. So as someone who will soon be teaching I give a HUGE thanks to every rookie teacher who has been there, and for giving us new teachers your advice. From the bottom of my heart I thank you!!!