Ten Things I Learned as a Teaching Fellow

Jessi Worde is a Second Year Teaching Fellow at Van Buren Middle School in Albuquerque, NM. She is a UT Austin Alum, Class of '06.  1.)  Just because something works once, or 10 times, does not mean it will continue to work.

2.)  Students love it when you embarrass yourself—and it’s worth it.

3.)  Being a middle schooler is very hard.  The more people are kind to you, and care for you, the greater your chances of surviving adolescence with grace and success.

4.)  Keep it, change it, flip it.  That’s how you divide fractions.  I relearned all the basic math skills I never understood, or had forgotten.

5.)  Giving students power will make your job easier and your students more invested.

6.)  COB stands for “close of business.”

7.)  Education is changing in profound, exciting, and scary ways.  We have a chance to bring out the former 2 adjectives and diminish the latter.

8.) You are weird.  You are old.  You are embarrassing.  (In the eyes of those born after 2000).  And it’s fun.

9.)  Beware student snacks.  One day you’re deriding how yuck Takis are and the next day you’re pulling a bag from the grocery store shelf, thinking, “Just this once…”

10.) Teambuilders and games can actually be fun.  And I can have team pride (full disclosure: I never went to a single UT sporting event) when it’s something in which I’m directly involved.

Apply for the Citizen Schools Teaching Fellowship by the final deadline May 18th.