How has the way you teach changed over the years? What lessons have you learned?

As a young teacher, I remember envying the "seasoned" teachers who chatted during planning periods and left school with the students. I couldn't wait until I got that notebook of lesson plans finished so that I, too, could relax during the day. Twenty-six years later, I'm still waiting for that notebook to materialize. Each year, information and situations change, necessitating a shift in teaching. The personality of each class requires a modification in technique. Nothing stays the same. And the most important lesson I've learned in all of this is that it shouldn't.

What advice would you give to a teacher who's starting their first year and feels overwhelmed?

Organization is the key. Anyone who knows me well will laugh when they read that, but I truly believe it. In the course of the day with children coming and going, papers flying past, and phone and email messages accumulating, it's very easy to get lost in the shuffle. Streamlining is important. One piece of advice I've never forgotten is to handle a piece of paper only once. Keep a pen in your mailbox so a paper needing a response can be returned immediately. Set up a filing system on your desk that meets your immediate needs. Nothing is as overwhelming as being awash in a sea of papers.

The second piece of advice I might offer is not to hesitate to ask for help. Every teacher has experienced the horrors of the first year and most are not shy about relating those stories. Through the years, they've learned quite a few tricks of their own and are equally willing to help out with any difficulties encountered. Just ask.

What do you think the key has been to your success as a teacher?

I am a firm believer in the key to success being a good sense of humor. If you fail to see the humor in a situation, you'll drive yourself nuts. A good teacher doesn't take himself too seriously. At the end of the day, you have to be willing to look back and laugh at your mistakes and the little things that make the day seem somewhat bizarre. If you aren't able to do that, those 180 days will be endless.

How do you involve the community in your classroom?

In my case, the community comes to my classroom every day. My classroom houses our preschool laboratory where we teach three- and four-year-olds each day. The students plan and teach daily lessons that include all the components of a preschool program. In addition, we use the resources of the high school to add to the curriculum. Our preschoolers attend plays and concerts, cheer at football games and graduate on the stage. Often, the younger ones are graduating along with their older siblings from the same high school as their parents did years before.

In addition, twenty of my students travel to neighboring schools each day to assist in classrooms. There, they work with small groups, help with management duties, remediate individual children and perform other tasks as needed. These students are exploring the career of teaching as they make their post-secondary school decisions.