New year! New you?

Oh god! New year's day for teachers is tomorrow! How do you feel about our new start?

We are here to remind you a few things before your first session on Monday.

• We are not miracle workers, so do not expect everyone to be amused, excited or even interested in your lesson. Some will learn, some will refuse to try, some will have fun...

• Don't try to do everything during the first weeks, or month! Let me remind you that these kids had two rough years (with Covid and everything). So, be calm and get to know them the first week or two.

• Have a nice and productive relationship with other teachers and/or admins.

• Try to have a good rapport with the parents, but don't let them teach you how to to do your job. They should inform you about a divorce, or anything that might be stressful for your student, but they don't have to tell you everything.

• The first week, or so, have a nice conversation with your students about your classroom rules, general guidelines, AND how to treat other students, and people in general. It is so importnat to teach them about different kinds of people, with different abilities and characteristics.

• Have a calm, happy, colorful classroom (if you can). Technology is a must, but a clean board is much more important.

Finally, I want all of you to remember the most important thing for our job. Sometimes, we are trying so hard to teach the subject, that we forget our students. We forget that they are human, that they are so young! So, remember:

You don't teach the subject; you teach the student.

It's like that: You don't play the game; you play the player.

You have to know your material, learn new methods, attend seminars, or webinars, or talks, but, what matters the most, is to know your kid, how he/she learns, what makes him/her excited or bored.

Have a fantastic, productive, fun, amazing school year!

Trust your insticts, trust your little humans!