Page 28 - 1916 February - To Dragma

TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 107

y THE COLLEGE GIRL AND GRADE WORK

M A T T I E R . CARSKADON, K ' 1 4

es Teacher of Fifth Grade, Tome School, Port Deposit, Md.

e, When a girl begins her first year of teaching, she is usually given
so much advice that, for self-preservation, she casts all aside, except

y perhaps a few fundamental principles, and plunges boldly in, with
o. enthusiasm as an only guide. This enthusiasm is a splendid thing,

and vet I wonder if it doesn't often lead us astray?
After teaching for several months my first year, I began to feel

that something was wrong with my work. I was interested, and,
d to a certain extent, the children were, yet we did not seem to be get-

ting any place. Then, one day, the supervisor came, and after
classes were dismissed and we were going over the day's work, her
first remark gave me the cue. "The spirit of your room is splendid,
but where is the system that guides the spirit?" she asked. I thought
over her question carefully for a few days, and then I realized just
e what she meant. I t rather surprised me that I was lacking in system,
for in college I had done tilings in a more or less methodical manner.
d. Without giving much thought to a clearly defined system, I imagined
- that I had one. That is just where the college girl entering grade
work must bring her ingenuity into play. She is not given the
d valuable normal training, that places so much emphasis on "system"
l, and "plans," and she must learn from personal experience in the
y classroom.
6 It is most important that a teacher have a clear outline of her
work, and that once having made this outline she follow it rigidly.
- There should be "an order" of recitations, and the children should
understand that this "order" is law. The daily lesson plan should
also play an important part, and although it may seem a stupendous
task to form a plan for every lesson every day, yet i f the habit is
formed gradually—the teacher soon realizes the help it gives her
at recitation period, and she willingly gives the extra time. There
must not only be "system" in the work but there should be "reason"
in the teacher's every action. We all know the difference between
two schoolrooms—one where order and industry reign, and the other
where an anxious, nervous teacher keeps exclaiming, "Sit down,
Mary." "Put your feet under your desk, John." Yet how easy
it is for us to fall into the habit of not making our words count.
Children are splendid judges, there are none better, and there is no
better test of a teacher's ability than the attitude of her students.
Think, then, how careful we, as teachers should be to give and
demand the best.