KEEPING THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING

I'll keep this short. The main thing is making connections with kids. Everything else is secondary. Now this assumes you know your way around your content area, but if you survived college and came out with a teaching degree (and your not a moron) you've probably got a pretty good handle on it. 

"Kids don't care what you know until they know that you care." Bring on the jeers. I know it's a cliche. I'm not an idiot.Cliche or not, it's been stuck in the teachers lexicon for decades for the simple reason that, more times than not, its true. 

Make connections with kids, that's the job. Thats the WORK. The rest should be fun. Unless you hate it, in which case you should get out of it all together. I think we all have met those teachers that stay in it for the summers off. They need to step down. We need teachers who have the heart for kids. If that is you, don't be afraid. Kids can be stand offish, but you have 180 chances to break the ice. (Bringing donuts never hurts)

Take care mind shapers.