Most Important Skills for a Science Teacher at Education for Change
For a science teacher, organizational skills and time management are crucial for navigating "a lot" of responsibilities and avoiding burnout. Christina emphasizes empathy as the most important skill, noting that maintaining this skill, along with setting boundaries, is vital for teacher retention and preventing "losing their patience" with students.
Organization, Time Management, Empathy, Classroom Management, Resilience
Advizer Information
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Christina Craig
Science Teacher
Education for Change
UC Davis 2015
Loyola Marymount University - Masters in Urban Education
Psychology
Education, Nonprofit, Foundations & Grantmaking
Education
Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Organization: Science teachers need to be highly organized to manage materials, lessons, and the classroom environment.
2. Time management: Effective time management is crucial for lesson planning and other tasks outside of classroom instruction.
3. Empathy: Empathy is essential for building positive relationships with students and navigating challenging situations in the classroom.
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
Being in the classroom, I think there are a couple of skills that are incredibly important. Number one, I would say, is the organization piece. You need to be able to organize everything you have going on, because there is a lot. This includes organizing your materials, your lessons, and your classroom, making sure it's all in order.
Another very important skill is time management. We spend most of our day in the classroom in front of students. We don't actually have a lot of time for planning during the school day. So, it's really important that you're able to manage your time so that you're not staying up super late the night before lesson planning.
Probably one of the most important things is empathy. Being able to practice empathy in a classroom with students is so important. Unfortunately, as you spend more time in a classroom, you see a lot of teachers tend to lose their patience and their empathy. It's hard work, and you can have some really challenging students that can make the days feel really long and difficult.
Being able to practice empathy with your students is so important to give you the strength to make it through your day and the school year. If you don't have that empathy, time management, and you're not setting boundaries for yourself, then the burnout is real. That's how you see teachers leaving in the middle of the school year.
Again, it is a hard job. If proper supports are not in place at a school, and you don't have those boundaries set for yourself, and you're losing patience and having a hard time empathizing with kids, it can be very difficult to make it through the year. So, those are very important.
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