Advice for Beginning Teachers July 7, 2009

Advice for Beginning Teachers

13 Rules for New Teachers

This past school year I had my first experience acting as a Praxis II mentor.  The experience was wonderful for me.  It was my first time teaming up with a new teacher and helping them through the dreaded first year of teaching.  My mentee and I grew very close, becoming really good friends. 

Throughout the year, there were many times when I thought to myself, I wish I would’ve had someone to talk to my first year, or I wish I would’ve had someone to tell me about this or that.  My own first year was a very lonely, frustrating experience.  I have often wondered what ever possessed me to keep teaching after that first year. 

With both experiences in mind, I have come up with a set of New Teacher Rules to guide a new or first year teacher through their new position.  This is my advice for a new teacher:

1. Accept what you cannot change.  There will be days that are pure chaos because of unannounced schedule changes, pep rallies, assemblies, or whatever the administration wants to throw your way.   You cannot do anything to change this and you are better off just letting it go.
2. You will not like every student you have in class.  No matter how hard you try, there will eventually be a student you cannot and do not like.  The thing to remember is to not let them or anyone else know that you don’t like them.  You don’t have to like them, but you need to be fair to them.  Remember, that child is someone’s little boy or girl, and you wouldn’t want one of your children’s teachers treating your child badly.
3. No two classes will ever be alike.  Classes are made up of unique individuals that are combined with other unique individuals.  Like a chemical formula, adding or removing just one will change the entire mixture.  Sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes it is a bad thing.  Keep in mind that due to this unique chemistry, what works in the form of discipline or classroom management with one class may not be effective in another class.
4. Take it one day at a time.  Do not stress over next week or next month.  The first year is a challenge that you must face one day at a time.  If you concentrate on the day you are facing, it makes the task seem a lot less daunting.  In the back of your mind your motto should be “Fake it till I make it.”  No one will ever know.
5. Don’t stress out over your lesson plans.  Yes, write plans; they are important.  They are your guide.  Your plans are there to keep you on track and outline what you need to cover.  However, don’t be afraid to edit or even completely deviate from the plan.  Even the best teachers change their minds.  There have been days when my plans didn’t work and I had to make a change; I’ve even changed my plans for every period.  Recognizing that something isn’t working and making adjustments is what good teachers do.
6. Be yourself, Trust yourself.  A good teacher feels comfortable in his/her classroom and can be him/herself.  Self-confidence will reflect in your teaching.  When I quit worrying about what others were thinking about my teaching, when I closed the door and taught the kids the way I thought they should be taught, that is when I became a better teacher.  No one is better at being you than you.
7. Let yourself off the hook.  It is okay not to be perfect, none of us are perfect.  In fact, sometimes it is better to not be perfect.  Imperfection shows that there is room to grow, to improve.  It is good for our students see us learning and making mistakes.  It shows that we too continue to grow, to improve, to strive for more.  What a great way to model for our students.   Trust that as you are growing, your students are growing too.  That is all that really matters.  Remember, revision is a way of life.  We learn from our mistakes and make changes.  Our students need to learn to do the same.
8. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  You do not know everything about how your new building works; no one expects you to know everything.  Sometimes, however, we forget you don’t know.  So ask us!  Don’t feel dumb or silly, just ask.  Most of us remember what it was like to be new and will be kind and tell you whatever you ask us.  Sometimes we just forget to share what we already know.
9. Get to know your students.  Spend time with them, talk to them, listen to them, get to know who they are.  Knowing your students is key to teaching your students.  Learn their likes and dislikes.  Find out what is happening in their world.  These are the things they are focused on, what they worry about.  They cannot concentrate on a math problem or scientific theory when they are worried about other “stuff” in their lives.

10.  Keep a journal of your first year.  Keeping a journal is a great way to record what happened each day, your thoughts, and your feelings.  It is good to have a way to vent, think, and plan.  It also can come in handy as a reference point if you ever need to document behaviors of students (good and bad).  Be faithful in your journaling, do it every day.  The journal is just for you, so be honest.  It will not help you if you only write the sunny, happy thoughts.  Also, be sure to keep your journal in a safe place away from the eyes of curious children.

11.  Remember they are just kids.  There are times when it is easy to forget that they are just kids.  Kids make mistakes, kids goof off, kids are not perfect.  Try to remember what you felt like when you were their age.  Also, remember that these kids sometimes come with bigger problems than we ever experienced ourselves as a kid.

12.  Don’t assume your students know or were already taught something.  Just like you, they do not necessarily know everything.  When I first started teaching, I thought my students knew how to take notes.  Why would I think this?  Had anyone ever taught them how to take notes?  Probably not.  There are times we have to teach things in our classroom that are not listed in our standards and benchmarks.  That doesn’t make them less important, it just makes them something someone assumed they would learn.

13.  Let go of yesterday.  When you leave the building at the end of the day, let go of all the troubles and horrors of a bad day.  Dwelling on it only makes you feel worse, and most of the time the student you had conflict with has already forgotten it.  Don’t lose sleep over it; they won’t.

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