What I Have Learned...

I am entering my fifth year of teaching.  I feel like I have learned so many important things in a short amount of time and I am excited to learn even more as I continue to teach.

1.  Plastic Tablecloths and Fabric make great backing for bulletin boards.
2.  Hot Glue keeps posters on the wall (Cinder Block) all year while still being easy to remove.
3.  Take the time to make a Sub Folder (I keep mine a draw marked Sub Plans.)  It may seem pointless and time consuming now, but they come in handy when you least expect it.  I keep an updated seating chart, schedule and classroom expectations/routines inside a file folder.
4.  Rubber play mats make a great Orff area (or a place where students will spend a lot of time sitting.)
5.  Students love interactive bulletin boards.  If they are boards that show individual progress, have students be responsible for moving their clip.  This makes it less time consuming for you and it is easier to manage.
6.  If you have waxed floors, talk to your janitor about using acrylic paint.  It will come off with the wax, but students will not be able to pick at it.  I use it to paint a large staff on the floor and to paint seating boxes.
7.  Get to know your secretary and janitors.  Especially as a music teacher, these people are vital to your happiness.
8.  Have an area in your room for books.  It is important to surround our students with literacy.  They need to see that it is not a separate activity.
9.  Take time to eat lunch in the staff room.  It is easy as a specialist to feel like you live on your own island.  It is important to take the time to foster relationships with coworkers.
10. Electronic Calendars make lesson planning easy.  Use the yearly repeat option to copy your lesson plans from year to year.
11.  Keep an up to date class website.  This won't eliminate the use of paper copies (in all schools) but it will help keep parents up to date.  It is vital to keep parents involved and informed.  In most cases, it is harder to cut a program if they know what is going on.  It may seem like people do not care what happens in specials, but this is not an excuse to not keep them informed about your classroom: grading, expectations, events and units of study.
12.  Setup Electronic Portfolios to help parents and the community see what is going on inside your classroom.  Specials have changed a lot over the years and many parents do not truly understand what happens in those classrooms.
13.  Embrace Social Media.  Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook are great tools to reach and communicate with other teachers.
14.  Create a classroom that is unique to you.  Include your personal interests/hobbies and traits that will make your classroom different then others.
15. Create a positivity wall. I moved my desk into my store room and have turned it into a little office. On the wall facing my desk, I have taped many of the cards and poster I have received from students. All teachers have rough days now and then, this wall helps me remember that I am good at my job, even when I feel frustrated or overwhelmed. 

16. At my school we are asked to take all of our bulletin boards down at the end of the year. This is so nothing falls off when they wax. A trick I learned from another teacher is to use paper to cover your bulletin boards. This way nothing will fall off, nothing will fall in the wax and you don't have to take down all the bulletin boards. 

What are the biggest lessons your have learned throughout your teaching career?