Be awesome with students: your only “back to school” goal

Posted on by Stephen Maguire, ME.d

SMART goals, UBD, curriculum maps, PBL, etc… are fine. However, if you are an educator, regardless of how long you have been teaching, my advice is that you have ONE goal this school year. Pretty simple…be AWESOME with students. I don’t mean be really good or great… I mean be AWESOME with them. They need that more than anything else you will spend time on this school year. Kids need reality based, joyful, enthusiastic, supportive and passionate educators in their lives. If you are struggling with any of these words or not a lot of those words resonate with you I hope they will at some point this school year. If you already starting off the year dredding your time ahead, it’s going to have such a negative impact on students and your other colleagues.

I begin with 23rd year teaching in a public classroom this September. I love my job. No, I don’t love EVERYTHING about my job and that’s fine, because that is reality. However, I know that the most important role I can have is being happy, positive, joyful, supportive for kids and be contagiously enthusiastic about what I teach. If we are delivering that EVERY CLASS and EVERY DAY to students, that is what they will remember.

I know that few to no students have ever left my classroom saying “wow, that curriculum map was awesome!”. NO WAY. If you are happy, positive, joyful and supportive they are walking away saying “Wow, I love being in that class…” regardless of what you teach.

Being AWESOME with kids is as simple as these 5 things…

  1. Get to know their names and use their names often
  2. Find out what their passion is and check in with them about it
  3. Be present in your teaching. Really. Put your phone away until your prep or lunch time. Welcome kids in the door. Stand at the door, EVERY CLASS, EVERY DAY as they are leaving to tell them “Thanks for coming, have a good day”
  4. Talk with them and not at them.
  5. Have fun and laugh every class. Add some joy to their experience Everyone feels good about something if they are enjoying it

Be the teacher that you look back on and say “Wow, that person was AWESOME!” Kids deserve it.

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Thanks for reading! My name is Steve Maguire and I am public school teacher and professional education consultant. In September of 2019, I began my 23rd year teaching. Sixteen years ago I started my own professional speaking and consulting business. Most of my business years have been spent speaking, training, and consulting with day and overnight summer camps. However, I have always loved working with teachers and schools. I am beginning to work more with these groups. I am excited to begin this new journey into presenting and consulting in the education space. I have facilitated all-district keynote addresses as well as some full and half-day professional development training. I named this blog "Game Changer Teaching" because I want folks to be able to add some new ideas to their classroom that can be game-changers for them. It's all about the kids, getting better with kids, and building positive relationships. If you can do all those things in a way that is practical, effective, and fun even better! I live and teach in southeastern Massachusetts in a town called Scituate. We're located about:45 minutes southeast of Boston. I have been married to my wife Jess for 14 years and we have four children... Nolan (10), Emmitt (8), Greta (7), and Scotia (5). I hope this blog is a help to you in making you a game-changer teacher!