When I first started teaching, I compared myself to veteran teachers. I wanted to know what I could do to be as good as they were. I longed to have their know-how. Today, I wonder, am I a veteran teacher? I’ve been doing this job for over seventeen years, yet I don’t feel like a veteran. I still reinvent myself every year. I constantly question my teaching even though I’ve been doing this for so long. Back when I first started, I thought I would get to a point where I knew the best way—where I would have it down cold. Yet, seventeen years later, I still seek the answer to the same question I had when I began my career: What can I do better? The difference now is that I know it is good to question my teaching. In fact, it makes me a better teacher.
Lori McLain
7th Grade Language Arts Literacy Teacher
Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School
Bridgewater, NJ
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