YOU are the most important resource you can bring to the classroom. I’m going to tell you a few things and you can digest them however you like. This is purely from my own experience and my own ideas on how to prepare yourself mentally and physically for your first year teaching.
You don’t need fancy, colour-coordinating bulletin boards.
You don’t need adorable cactus pen holders.
You don’t need perfectly organized and labeled book bins (or book bins at all!).
You don’t need to read every single PD book offered to you.
You don’t need a doorbell to grab your students attention.
You don’t need to spend a weeks pay at the Target dollar spot.
You don’t need to work until 10pm every night.
You don’t need to bring school work home.
First year teacher, know this: Take your time. Every teacher has been in your position before – starting at a new school, a new grade, or in a new district and setting up a new classroom and running a new classroom can be overwhelming and tedious but also a lot of fun. Just like I like to remind my own students, a classroom is a learning place and everyone in it is in a position to learn and grow from any mistakes made from day one.
First year teacher, know this: Invest in yourself. It is more valuable that you take time to understand, learn and grow from new information that will you definitely be exposed to over your entire career in education. By investing in yourself, you are making your knowledge as an educator the most important part of the classroom – not all the stuff within its four walls. Be bold in allowing yourself the freedom to take workshops, e-courses, read books on various topics relating to child development, or whatever you feel you will benefit from growth-wise. It will pay off in the long run!
First year teacher, know this: YOU, your knowledge, your personality, your idiosyncrasies – YOU make an impact. Many teachers enter the profession because they want to make an impact on the lives of their students and to create change for the future. As teachers, we will need to inspire our students to live and learn through our own example. As a new teacher, take time to reflect and honour the privilege of being able to do what we do. Write in a journal at the end of the day and reflect on what went well and what didn’t. Find ways to improve the things that don’t go so well. Teaching is full of responsibilities and commitments (don’t we all know!) so focus on these and over several years, you will find you work more efficiently and have more energy to put into the “extras” listed above.
First year teacher, know this: what you value. As a first year teacher, you have so many ideas to share and so much energy to infuse into your classroom. Before you begin your year, it is important to identify your key values that you want to bring to your practice. Prioritize! Decide for yourself what values you want to focus on for your first year and list the goals that will help you to achieve success. Keep it positive and avoid negative comments especially on the topic of “survival” and “needing more coffee”. What values do you think are the most important to focus on in your first year of teaching? Share in the comment boxes below.
Examples of values: Integrity. Approachability. Determination. Balance.
First year teacher, know this: your strong and weak skills. When the first day of school comes and goes, and you’re reflecting on your first month in the classroom, I bet you’ll look back and think to yourself that you still have so much to learn. This is completely normal so don’t fret. Remember, we were all there at some point. There are certain skills that are distinctive to the teaching profession and those are skills that you can hone in on over the year. After you decide on your core values, create a list of 2-3 skills that you want to improve on personally. Seek out help with these skills – ask a colleague, a friend, put out a request for advice on social media. Read books that can guide you to improving in that area. Determine where you need the most practice and exercise that weak point. Set a due date for yourself and see if you can find a way to show improvement on that skill. Before you teach others, you need to know how to teach yourself, right?
Examples of skills: Constant learning. Mentorship. Communication. Adaptability.
First year teacher, know this: it can happen to anyone. It was my third week of my first year teaching at a new-to-me classroom, in a new-to-me school, in a new-to-me neighbourhood. The lunch bell rang and the students rolled into their classrooms, opened their lunch bags and ate as usual (as usual as you can get after three weeks in the same routine). By mid-duty, tension was rising in one class as two students were beckoning each other to fight. That beckoning ended up in a very serious fight. It was one that changed the direction of my teaching (more on that in another post).
While we cannot always de-escalate behaviours, we can do our best to inform ourselves on ways to improve reactions, and create plans to keep everyone safe. My first year was a challenging one, especially with that one class with the fighters. It took me a while to come to the fact that the fight could have happened when anyone was on duty – it could have happened to anyone. Luckily, I had the opportunity to grow from a negative situation, see the positive, and grow from it. That year I learned that the values important to me were balance and determination. The first few months of teaching, I stayed at school until the sun set and so I could wrap my head around all of it. By December I was completely burnt out and needed to re-evaluate my priorities. Here is what I did to adjust my behaviour to more positively reflect what I wanted from my career as a teacher: I left within an hour of school ending. My bulletin boards were basic – I was way ahead on the minimalist trend! I spent very little to no money on classroom decor including bins, pins, pens and resources and dollar stores were not on my radar (I waited years prior to spending money on my classroom). I took courses to improve classroom management skills and asked for and took feedback from my amazing mentor. When I needed a two-minute breather outside the classroom, I asked for it. The school year is a marathon and you need to pace yourself, find your cheerleaders and drink plenty of water.
All this to say, you don’t need a picture-perfect classroom or a jam-packed classroom library. These extra, pretty and fun things will come with time, if you really want them. By all means, if you want to focus on that, you do you! The first year is a rollercoaster of amazing moments followed by freaking out moments followed by “Am-I-sure-I-want-to-do-this??” moments but its worth it if you can stick with it.
First year teacher, know this: there is never a dull moment in teaching and it is so, so gratifying.