What I Wish I Knew Coming Into Teacher Corps

1) How to be an Asshole. I'd heard it probably more than Ben's hackneyed "This is the hardest thing you'll ever do in your professional life" speech, but I still didn't really believe it: "Don't smile until Christmas." What does that mean? Why? The kids are like wolves and can smell happiness like a wounded animal? I didn't know. So I paid it no heed. Big mistake. And I don't necessarily think it's true, but I think way too many of my classroom management problems (and let's face it, those are the biggest problems for virtually everyone) stem from the fact that I was cracking jokes and singing Coolio in class from the get go. I'll admit it: I wanted to be the cool teacher. But somehow there's a mixed message in telling a kid to sit down now while also making fun of the sag in his pants. I should have been a hard-ass. And when it finally hit me (about December) that my style wasn't working, it was almost too late to turn it around... especially with my worst class. I wish I could have taken pictures of their faces the first time I told them "I don't care... sit down now" when they started in on their lits of excuses why they had to get up out of their seats for the fourth time. I thought that by being understanding and appealing to their sense of reason while also showing them that I'm young and hip enough (I know, I think my intention was lost by just using the word "hip") to sympathize with their situations that they would respect me. They don't respect compassion or humor, they respect fear. At least at first. It's quite an over-exaggeration not to smile for 6 months. But I'd say for the first 5-6 weeks, be an asshole. That doesn't mean you make a kid cry (although there'll be plenty of days when you want to). It just means be curt, blunt, crude, and straightforward in telling students what you want them to do and doling out the consequences when they inevitably don't do it. Don't explain yourself more than you have to. Don't be understanding in front of the class. (Tell the kid that's about to tear your head off for giving him a writing assignment he can see you after class if it's that big a problem.) Don't give second chances. Let them see you as an authoritarian dictator and let them adjust. Then, as the weeks wear on, crack a "yo mama" joke. Laugh at yourself for tripping over the wires around your desk. Do an impression of another teacher. Let them see your human. But please wait until the point where they're scared and wonder if they should laugh at all.
2) How to Teach to the Level of My Students. Going in, partially because I was teaching juniors and seniors (two of which were Honors classes), I tried to make my classroom as much as a college setting as possible. Bad idea. Your students are not college students. The majority of them will not go to college, at least not a 4 year college. A large percentage of those who do eventually enroll in a 4 year college will not graduate college. So by doing what I did, you're preparing the minority. My biggest tips to getting kids to actually learn the material: Review as often as possible. Stop every 20-25 minutes and review what you've just gone over. Review at the end of class. Review every day at the beginning of your lesson. Review before tests. I know it may seem tedious and weary, especially to you, the teacher, someone who's been trained to memorize minute facts in very little time, but these students' brains do not work like ours -- they haven't had the conditioning. They need things repeated and reiterated over and over again. It's something I'm still working on, especially since the level of comprehension in my classes is so wide, but it's something I feel a lot better about now than I did when I started.