Advice for students who want to become teachers:

Teaching is all about relationships.  Building trust and respect with your students is the foundation for learning.  Sounds easy, right?  Not so easy!  Here's how I think it works for me:

1.  Be real.  Not scary real.  We are talking about children here.  Just be genuine.
2.  Don't believe the "Don't smile until January" advice.  I am a smiley person, so I smile.  (See advice #1.)
3.  Hug or handshake?  I try to say every student's name at least once a day.  I stand at the door at the end of the day and offer "hug or handshake?"  Some rascals will try to dodge me, but it's just for show.  Very few kids refuse.
4.  Names are powerful.  I learn their names quickly and try like crazy to pronounce them the way they prefer.  No one is allowed to tease someone about their name.
4.  It's okay to not know it all.  "I don't know.  Let's look it up," is a brilliant answer.
5.  Learn to make peace with "good enough".  There will always be too many meetings and too many student pull-outs and too much student assessment and waaayyyy too many papers to grade.  Don't let it pull you to pieces.  It's the relationships that count.
6.  Have a life.  Find a non-school thing that you love to do and enjoy!!  Zumba, surfing, book club, music, walking, talking and good coffee.  Just remember to find the joy in each day.

Teaching is crazy-great.  It's life with a big purpose, especially when you love helping others.  When things get bad, go do that non-school thing you love, get a good night's sleep, and keep on trying.  The kids are worth it.