Dr. John Shufeldt, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP introduces High School Teacher, Maribeth Sublette, in Outlier TV Segment Four about classroom management and recommendations for aspiring educators.
In the beginning if this Outlier TV education career segment, Dr. Shufeldt asks what advice Maribeth has for those who strive to become teachers.
Maribeth reminds people how they must not only love their content, but they need to love students as well. She also emphasizes the importance of finding a mentor for new teachers to build a support system and learn from the best. Having someone who is a sounding board is critical for a new teacher.
Dr. Shufeldt wonders what Maribeth would have done differently if she were able to turn back the clock. Without thinking twice, Maribeth immediately said she would have read Harry Wong’s The First Days of School before her actual first day of school. Harry Wong is classroom management guru known throughout the education world. The First Days of School explains classroom management, student achievement and teacher effectiveness. Maribeth continues to describe how Harry Wong’s ideas changed her ideas about classroom management and helped shape the kind of teacher she is today.
Maribeth is big on proactive classroom management. You can check out a blog she wrote about it here (http://www.ingredientsofoutliers.com/…) or you can read more about it in her chapter from Outliers in Education for free here (http://www.ingredientsofoutliers.com/…).
Full transcript:
[intro music]>>JOHN SHUFEDLT: Hello everybody, welcome back to Outlier TV. I’m here with Maribeth Sublette, talking about what it’s like to be a teacher. Alright Maribeth, we’ve touched on a few different aspects of your teaching career. What would you recommend for someone who wants to be you?
>>MARIBETH SUBLETTE: Well, I don’t know if they necessarily want to be me. I loved what I’ve done and I think a lot of what puts me in that position is the fact that, not only did I love my content, I love literature, I love writing, I love reading, but I love kids. And I can appreciate their idiosyncrasies as oppose to being upset about them. I think if anyone is going into education they absolutely need to make sure that they love kids. You don’t just love your content, but you love students. So, as amazing as you can be at your craft, it doesn’t mean that you can teach.
>>JOHN SHUFELDT: Right, and I mean I absolutely have professional life value and absolutely who are book smart and knew it well, but they cannot impart that knowledge. So taking that, what advice would you have for someone going in to be a teacher?
>>MARIBETH SUBLETTE: Find a mentor. Find a mentor. I was fortunate enough when I was in college, I had a guest lecturer come into class, Dr. Kathy Deacon, and she absolutely changed my teaching career. She is an unbelievable teacher, I was able to student teach underneath her and I know that experience made all the different in the world. Once I got into the classroom, I found a teacher on campus that I really respected. She was just a masterful teacher, and Karen Crane, every day there was times-this is an embarrassing tid bit- but I would go to her in tears, just so upset about things that had happened or something that I went to try and it didn’t work out or why did this flop. She was always there for me, she was a confidant, she was a beautiful sounding board, and she gave me some of the most quality advice that I could’ve ever received.
>>JOHN SHUFELDT: Are you still connected with her?
>>MARIBETH SUBLETTE: Yes. Absolutely.
>>JOHN SHUFELDT: I figured you would be. Okay, if you had to do it again then, what would you do different? Knowing everything you know now.
>>MARIBETH SUBLETTE: I would read Harry Wong’s The First Day of School, before the first day of school.
>>JOHN SHUFELDT: Is that like Harry Potter?
>>MARIBETH SUBLETTE: Pretty much.
>>JOHN SHUFELDT: Okay, no, I don’t know what Harry Wong’s is.
>>MARIBETH SUBELETTE: Harry Wong is the guru of classroom management is how I would describe him, he’s amazing. His videos, his books, changed the way that I looked at classroom management. I always kind of had a negative outlook on. I thought that classroom management meant that teacher looks down on students, teacher tells students, students behave.
>>JOHN SHUFELDT: Stage from the stage.
>>MARIBETH SUBLETTE: Exactly, and that is not how management really is. Quality management is, it sets the stage for quality learning, it makes it possible for students to engage in a meaningful way and not be distracted by other things. So, I would have spent a lot more time reading about classroom management. I mean, as much, as much as you can read and learn, it is through that experience is really the best teacher and that is what is so hard about the first year of teaching. However, I would have set myself up a little bit differently.
>>JOHN SHUFELDT: Yeah, I think pretty much everybody in their career says, boy that first year, or my first year as a physician. Yeah, I mean, yeah scary.
>>MARIBETH SUBLETTE: See, and I did not do a whole lot of research, or have a lot of experience with the population that I ended up working with. So, I did my student teaching in an affluent area, and I loved the students, they were amazing, the school was great, that is not the type of school I ended up working in and I loving. I mean I love, I love the students I worked with.
>>JOHN SHUFEDLT: Kind of a disadvantaged, well at least some of them.
>>MARIBETH SUBLETTE: Yeah, definitely a different background than what I was used to.
>>JOHN SHUFELDT: So, perfect, thank you so much, that was awesome. We are here with Maribeth Sublette, again teacher extraordinaire, and someone I had the pleasure to work with and interview for the book Outliers in Education. Thank you so much for watching.
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