Ask any educator and they’ll tell you, the trials and tribulations of a first year teacher are real. At various points throughout your first year, you’ll probably laugh, cry, think about leaving the job, swear you’ll never leave the job, have the joy of success, and experience devastating setbacks. Through it all, it’s important to come back to several key points, and use them as your mantra. Through all the ups and downs, always remind yourself of the following six points.
Be Genuine
If there’s one thing kids can sniff through more easily than anything else, it’s a fake. They know the teacher who doesn’t actually like them or care to understand them. They know the teacher who is trying to be someone they read about in a book or saw in a movie. In short, they know if you want to be there or not. To shortcut this issue, be yourself! Are you awkward socially, embrace it! Do you like to make jokes, then joke away! Is leopard print your favorite design, then go ahead and put on that work appropriate leopard print blouse! All too often I’ve seen first year teachers try and mimic what they think a teacher should be. What ends up happening is they become a caricature of a teacher. Come December, they’re exhausted from keeping up the act, and kids are tired of this made for TV teacher. When you come into the classroom, you don’t have to be anyone but yourself.
Be Routinized
This is probably one of the unsexiest parts of teaching, but among the most important. From day one, you need to think through how students will operate in your classroom, and how you will be consistent. Consider how you want students to move about the classroom space, interact with each other, turn work in, get a new pencil, charge their computer, etc. There are exhaustive lists online for “first day procedures” such as this one, but each set of routines will be slightly different based on the grade level you teach. As with all things, you will want to revisit your routines throughout the year, but you should at least start with an idea of what you want. As the year goes on and you see how routines worked, or didn’t work, make a list of different routines you want to establish from day one of the next school year. In general, your rule of thumb should be that if you don’t establish a routine for something, the kids will do it for you.
Enlist Student Assistance
Despite everything you’ve seen in movies, teachers are not superheroes. There is a limit to what you can do before you keel over from exhaustion. One of the best things you can do from day one is enlist student support in your classroom. One thing that is generally quite effective is to create rotating teams of students to help with classroom tasks. There were different groups to pass out warmups, folders, graded papers, materials, clean up, and line leaders. Some of this has changed in the digital space, but the idea remains the same. Never do anything yourself that students could do for you. Additionally, you can also ask students what they want to do, by using a class survey, like this one.
Celebrate
There will be challenges and difficulties throughout your first year, but one thing you have to always strive to do is celebrate with your students. Some teachers come into their first year with the mindset of “no smiling until December” or, more generally, that they will be able to “discipline” and punish students into submission. The above approaches do not really engender positive feelings about you and your teaching. You will always get more out of your students by telling them all the great things they are doing while still holding them accountable to high standards (i.e., becoming a warm demander). Think about how you will celebrate students. It does not have to be what your colleague next door does, or providing each student with a gift bag, or what you read on the teacher Twitter universe. It should be something that you like, think is fun, and can envision yourself doing.
Be a Boss
This can be one of the hardest for new teachers to truly embrace. As a first year teacher, you don’t know everything and, in many cases, don’t even know what you don’t know. However, it is imperative that you establish yourself as the boss from day one, and as someone who comes off as knowing what you are doing. This does not mean that you do all the work in the classroom, it does not mean that you are mean to kids, and it does not mean that you have all the answers. What it does mean is that you are the conductor who organizes the classroom for students to be successful. You help establish the boundaries and routines through which students interact with each other and in the physical space. You are the one who demands high quality work from students while also showing them that you care about them. In short, you are a boss.
Expect Failure/Setbacks
Looping back to point one and being genuine – part of being genuine is expecting and accepting failures. The most crucial part of this is knowing how to reflect and bounce back from said failures. There will be lessons that fail, activities that are refused, behavior issues that persist. However, the most effective teachers are those who have thick skin, seek solutions, and persevere through these challenges to do even better the next day. Ask for feedback from a variety of teachers and support personnel, ask your students what is working and what is not (they appreciate it more than you think!), and seek to show your students that you are working on their behalf.
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