Lessons From Children

From inexperienced novice instructor to head teacher, students have been a life-changing part of my adventure in Japan. Here are some key reflections and takeaways:

• Prepare to encounter and encourage brilliance.
• Silliness overcomes language barriers.
• When students understand your heart to see them succeed, they will learn more.
• Teaching is an exercise in patience.
• Being your students’ best friend, all the time, doesn't work well. There is a balance between kindness and structure.
• Some of the best lessons are improvised. Most of the best ones are planned for.
• You must speak to a class with the expectation that students will listen to you.
• High expectations bring the best out of a class.
• Classroom culture shift starts with encouragement, some discipline, and reasonable consequences.
• Some students will always forget their water bottle, and that's okay.
• Find that extra 10% of your personality and interest you can add onto the curriculum, it makes all the difference.
• Take time to speak to students individually, and in groups. Address any problems early on.
• Flexibility will always need to be mixed into your best formed lesson plans.
• The time you need for your lesson is always a bit too short, start early.
• Train students to manage their time well in class. Model this as well.
• Share out as much responsibility as you can to as many kids as you can.
• Investing in students and young people is a lifestyle, it goes beyond the classroom. Teaching and people skills are always relevant.
• Merely managing students behavior will end in frustration.
• Figure out what the general classroom attention span is. Switch things up immediately if you ever suspect your kids have checked-out.
• No need to reinvent the wheel. Find the best activities, lesson plans, and ideas from other teachers to use and adapt.
• Dress up sometimes. Bring in props.
• Use gestures consistently as a memory aid for key lesson points. Get your kinesthetic learners to mimic your gestures.
• Kids age 6-9 will enjoy nearly any activity that involves a ball. Catch, etc.
• Rock, paper, scissors is an effective way to solve a vast number of minor disagreements.
• Identify the young leaders in your classroom and train them to lead their friends.
• Don't worry about making messes, especially in art class. Kids really benefit from and enjoy a messy project. It also teaches them responsibility when they help you clean it up.
• If you’re not having fun, likely the kids aren’t either.
• Don’t stop praying, and never give up on the students that are harder to teach.
• There is always something you can add to help students learn, or make the classroom a better place.
• Jesus loves little guys and girls so much.

What have you learned from working with kids?