The Real Deal

Organized Chaos tagged me in a meme about "real" teaching resumes well over a week ago and I am finally ready with my response! The idea is to capture some of the IRL (in real life) skills and talents that teachers possess that don't go on a resume (but should!)

So here goes...

• Can settle recess disputes with the therapeutic likeness of Dr. Phil
• Can motivate a reluctant student using only the power of voice inflection
• Can spontaneously break into song in order to captivate wandering minds
• Can infuse educational value into time spent waiting in line for lunch
• Able to use Pavlovian principles to train kids to come to the carpet upon hearing a particular song
• Can use flyswatters as educational tools
• Can make missing items appear when lost in the depths of student desks,
• Can set a record for most pencils sharpened in a minute
• Able to utilize color coding for a multitude of different reasons
• Able to keep a straight face when confronted with burps, toots, and unidentified stinkiness
• Capable of making every student that walks through my door feel like a winner, a thinker, and a champion learner! (I hope!) :0)

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On a different note, today was a fantastic day with all of my kiddos! I tried a new strategy with one kiddo that seemed to work pretty well. I sat back and bit my tongue to see how much my HS friend could do without help in solving a trigonometric problem and he did the WHOLE thing! I taught a student who had been absent several days last week about converting fractions to decimals to percents and she got it like a whiz! 

I had a chat with my good friend last night about a kiddo in her class that we both desperately want to help to achieve success. This child simply marches to his own beat and although very smart, struggles with the daily expectations of school. We had a great conversation tossing around some "what ifs" and when we tried one today, it seemed to work well. I love it when teachers can collaborate and are willing to throw out something that might not be working and try something that just might be better for a kid. Since all kids don't learn the same way, sometimes you just have to think outside the box and I am hoping we came up with an idea that helps this particular kid get more accomplished during his school day! 

Did you know this week is 

Teacher Appreciation Week!

Let's Celebrate!!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all of the dedicated, hardworking, and fabulous teachers out there!

How does your school celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week? (We got a nice spread of German breakfast items this morning including Dunkin Donuts coffee from the US MMMM!)

What are your special teaching talents that really should be part of your resume?