High School Teacher Career Information

Video Transcript

"My name is Dianna Gutierrez and I'm a high school teacher in San Jose. Some things that I wish I would have known before my first year, be ultra prepared. Be over prepared. And by this I mean know what your lessons for the day, know minute to minute what you expect from your students, and when you're planning your lessons, really see it from their perspective. Ask yourself the question what are they doing right now? Because if it's all lecture, we all know that only goes on for so long. You have fifty minutes to get your kids engaged and to hopefully have them apply what they learned for the day. So really structure it within like ten to fifteen minute chunks because that's all high schoolers will focus. Let's be honest. Another tip is to be consistent. A lot of people think, "oh, they're in high school. They're mature, they don't need rules." Don't call them rules. Call them expectations and be consistent with them every single day. Spend the first two weeks modeling what you want them to do. A lot of people say, "oh, it takes from the curriculum," but no. If you have your classroom in order and the expectations are laid down, then your class will run smoothly. If you have to have consequences, follow through on those consequences the second any of them is broken. This is in the first two weeks. If you break from that, it'll be really hard to get them back on the train with you. The last tip is to be unpredictable at the same time as be consistent. Be consistent with your rules and expectations. Be unpredictable when it comes to delivering your lessons because we always know that the outside, the more outside the box thinking you can do, the more that they'll retain the information. If you present the lesson as a lecture and group discussion one week, change it up the next week. Maybe have them role play to show you that they understand the material and then have them write a group essay. The way you do that is just check in with yourself. What would you want to do as a student? What do you think is going to engage them? And you'll be on your way to becoming a better teacher and possibly their favorite. My name is Dianna Gutierrez and I'm a high school teacher in San Jose."