Dear Teacher-To-Be,

My name is Patrick from the weblog group. If you’re going to be a good teacher you have to be nice to your students. If you respect them, they’ll respect you. Most students don’t like to be bossed around so much, so if they do something bad don’t be so hard on them. Help them understand what they did wrong. Try to be a funny teacher who will make them laugh so if they’re mad it might help them forget why they were so mad. Also try to learn as much as you can about your students. Try sitting with them at lunch so you can learn more about them. Try sitting with at least every one of them over the weeks.. Be just like my teacher, Mrs.Mateling. She taught my brother and mother when they were in fifth grade. Mrs.Mateling is a good example of an good teacher. She’s really nice to most of us, well all of us. She is really funny and she tries to get to know all about us. You try to be like Mrs. Mateling and you’ll be a good teacher too. Also I forgot you should do fun activites with your students. Sometimes let them do group work to keep them happy and they’ll like you alot. That’s all I have to say so bye!

To which Christen (my GSU student) replied:

Hey Patrick! Thanks for the great advice! I hope to teach the 4th or 5th grade soon and I need advice from students. I really liked what you said about taking time to get to know each student. That is a tip I will use when I become a teacher. Thank you so much! If you have anymore advice for me, please email me!

One more thing, Patrick – I love what you said about respect. I think that is the most important thing in a classroom.

Thanks Again,

Christen Gibbons

The best part of the day was watching the smiles on the GSU students faces as they read the posts from the elementary students. Yep, it’s all about connections. and of course, as Patrick says, “Learn all about your students.”