The Responsibilities of a Teacher

The Responsibilities of a Teacher ‡ Loving your students ‡ Taking into consideration their home life and circumstances ‡ Getting to know each student, until they become your "kid" ‡ Being an authority figure to between 20-24 students every day from 7:45-3:00 ‡ Being patient ‡ Remembering to smile ‡ Teaching students to read, write, understand math, science, and social studies ‡ Prepare students for classroom, district, and state assessments ‡ Making sure everyone is "on level" no matter where they started when you got them atthe beginning of the year ‡ Prepare lessons that engage students ‡ Don't forget to keep the kids moving, but not so much that they lose focus ‡ Listen to each child's hurts and stories ‡ Put the technology available to good use ‡ Register all students on all the computer programs, keep up with their usernames andpasswords, teach them how to use each program, find time for each student to utilizeeach program ‡ Attend staff development ‡ Further your education by participating in evening classes, which give homework to getcredit ‡ Attend meetings to hear about everything you are not doing ‡ Contact parents and keep a record of when, who, and what you discussed ‡ Guided Reading groups every day and don't forget to record what you taught thestudents ‡ Adapt the curriculum for all levels of learners, but not too much ‡ Refer students who qualify after you have looked at their assessment data, day-to-dayactivities, behavior, work from the previous year, and the paperwork that is neededbefore you can refer them for services ‡ Prepare lesson plans and have them turned into the office by Monday morning ‡ Provide a safe and loving classroom ‡

Tutor the below level students and keep a record ‡ Monitor behavior, but don't send kids to the office until it is a last resort ‡ Keep up with new laws governing special education, 504, and schools in general ‡ Don't refer too many kids, because we are only allowed to have a certain percentage ‡ Hold parent conferences ‡ Attend open house ‡ Attend at least 2 PTA meetings ‡ Have a plan for homework- what they will do, when or how often, how you will grade orrecord if they turned it in ‡ Keep track of all completed papers, grade, and return to students ‡ Make sure you take a certain amount of grades weekly, put them into the grade bookbecause parents have access to their child's records. ‡ Hand out spelling words on Monday, provide practice during the week for the student'swho don't have help at home, test on Friday, communicate results to students andparents ‡ Send home a newsletter every week with upcoming events and important dates ‡ Update your class website weekly ‡ Leave what is happening in your personal life at home, because it shouldn't come toschool with you ‡ Deal with children with anger, depression, loss of family members, foster care, livingwith relatives, seeing fights, hearing profanity, parents who have court dates and shareway too much with their children, visiting or hearing about family members in jail, needglasses, not clean, lice, tantrums, disrespect, low expectations, mean to others, nocontrol ‡ Celebrate student's birthdays and make them feel special ‡ Buy Christmas presents (which I love doing) ‡ Teach students kindness, respect, love, and responsibility ‡ Control students talking so you can have a productive classroom ‡ Make sure they walk in line quietly ‡ Teach ELL students and try to overcome the language barrier ‡ Communicate with parents who don't speak English ‡ Follow a dependable schedule every day

‡ Make copies for student work, but not too many because we only have a certain amountof paper ‡ Prepare lesson materials ‡ Hand out books for student book bags to take home ‡ Be a positive role model ‡ Remember to send kids to pull out programs daily ‡ Team meeting every week ‡ Keep a lookout for abuse and report it ‡ Be on the lookout for bullies ‡ Share a love of learning and books ‡ Provide school supplies for students you come without ‡ Use music in lessons and transitions ‡ Post and state the student expectation at the beginning of each lesson ‡ Put in work orders when classroom computers break ‡ Carry your keys everywhere ‡ Teach students to read with expression, good phrasing, and overall fluency ‡ Cover all the TEKS for your grade level by the end of the year ‡ Teach to the depth and complexity of those TEKS ‡ Use and expect critical thinking, even when students are at a beginning level for thatconcept ‡ Try to be creative ‡ Teach students to be responsible for their work and materials ‡ Help students organize their desks and keep them that way ‡ Deal with arguments, lying, tattle tales, whining ‡ Get to school early and leave late ‡ Take things home to learn, plan, or create ‡ Try to keep the classroom clean and organized ‡

Make sure your students have something to take to the cafeteria every day for whenthey finish eating ‡ Keep up with student name tags and replace them when they are lost ‡ Check your email, but don't be on the computer when the students are in the room ‡ Look at student's folder daily to see if there are notes from parents, to write a note toparents, send papers home, and record behavior ‡ Prepare reminders and send them home ‡ Attendance on the computer before 10 AM ‡ Morning duty once or twice a year ‡ Stay with your students after school until they are picked up, even when that is 30 ormore minutes after the bell ‡ Be patient ‡ Lead by example ‡ Give assessments that are not developmentally appropriate ‡ Take pictures of students to share on the yearbook ‡ Worry about students who are not getting the material ‡ Find ways to spend extra time teaching those students ‡ Send students to the nurse when they are sick and be able to know the differencebetween sick and needing some attention ‡ Reward good behavior, best efforts, and high performance ‡ Build self-esteem ‡ Keep track of tardys, alert parents, after 4 student must serve a detention ‡ Keep track of absences and report them to the administration for them to contact theparents ‡ Try to integrate literacy stations and/or math stations ‡ Make sure you have enough grades for each student ‡ Create activities and papers for students to use in the classroom ‡ Scour the internet for innovative lessons ‡ Teach students to speak, read, and write with good grammar and sentence structureeven though their role models do not

‡ Don't forget the technology curriculum or social skills curriculum ‡ Spend your day in the company of children who depend on you ‡ Make millions of decisions ‡ Be a peacemaker