Possible
First-Year Teacher Demands:
·
Additional school meetings, in-service training, staff meetings,
etc.
·
Paperwork!!!!
·
Extra-Curricular Activity Involvement – Sports, Performing Arts,
Clubs, Yearbook, Chaperoning, Field Trips, etc.
·
Filling multiple roles – teacher, parent, friend, hero
disciplinarian, counselor, etc.
·
Uncertain how to deal with the real world in your classroom –
student’s parent being murdered, gang violence, a parent going to jail, etc.
·
Possible bus duty
·
Academic Team – support systems for students
·
Spending your own money for the classroom – one teacher reported
spending $500-$600 a year on teaching materials
·
Student development notes??
·
Getting to know students on an individual level
·
Phases of First-Year Teachers – Anticipation, survival,
disillusionment, rejuvenation, reflection, anticipation
·
So busy that there is no time for self-reflection
·
First Formal Evaluation
·
Parent-Teacher Conferences
·
Back-to-School Night – possible speech to parents, plan for the
year (which still may be unclear)
·
Finding & embracing teaching persona
·
Local politics – become educated before possibly joining a union,
to join or not to join?
·
You won’t be teaching what you learned/expected to teach
·
Extra time to prepare for each lesson – arrive early, stay late
(but have a cut off point)
Common
Items Found in a Teacher’s First Year Survival Kit:
·
Pencils
·
Animal Crackers
·
Candy
·
Color Crayons
·
Band-Aids
·
Tissues
·
Change of clothes – vomit
·
Lined Paper
Things
Teachers Wish They Had Known Prior to the First Year:
·
Prioritize
– you won’t be able to save the world, every student you meet, or even every
student in your classroom. Prioritize what has
to be done and do that first
·
It’s
not your classroom – your name may be on the door and you’re doing the work but it’s
not your classroom. It’s ideally the student’s classroom, but realistically it
is the state and the district’s classroom. You spend your time implementing
their policies and curriculum, it’s their classroom
·
Students will not always remember what you teach them but they
will remember HOW you treat them
·
Make
friends - with the school custodians, secretary and librarian – you’ll
need them
·
Longer
hours are not sustainable – there comes a point where
enough is enough, there is never enough time your first year of teaching
·
Student
behavior is a product – classroom management is not really like they teach it, it’s
more a combination of the student’s learning experiences and your relationship
with them
·
Don’t
get sucked in – your first year doing too much outside your standard classroom
work is detrimental
·
Help
other teachers – you’re going to need them your first year especially, help them
and they will help you
·
Reaching
students emotionally – matters A LOT. Students feeling understood creates that
connection
·
Classroom
Management – most cited reason for leaving teaching profession
·
Literacy
– is everything for academic performance, reading and writing
affects all subjects and aspects of life
·
Out
of the Norm – becomes the norm
·
Use
the S%#* out of the parents
·
Have
a backup plan – you can develop your own philosophy or plan for the year and it
can be shattered in a matter of hours
·
Develop
– discipline policy – firm but flexible, homework policy – and
stick to it
Experience/Observations:
·
I have a few friends who are teachers and the most common thing
they told me about their first year was simply to get through it. You’re going
to feel like you’re doing everything wrong and that you suck at this, you don’t
– that’s simply life as a first year teacher – it’s hell.
·
I loved the tips that I found for first year teachers, it really
got me thinking in regards to how I might handle some of the situations that
possible arise, and for me personally to recognize how sheltered student
teaching is and to see if I can rectify that by making it more intense and
realistic
·
The Phases of First-Year Teacher was the most beneficial part of
my research, that will be a staple in reminding myself of the different
emotions I will experience as a first year teacher.
Applicable
to Us as Teachers:
·
Obviously all this information is applicable to us as teachers
because we could or will experience all these demands and “things to know” in
our careers. These are tips that come from our colleagues and fellow teachers,
they are words that create the gospel and can only help prepare us for the day
when we have our own classrooms. Yikes!
Applicable
to Our Students:
·
Knowing the demands of a first year teacher and having more
insight into the challenges that other first year teachers have faced only
helps us become better teachers. In turn, knowing what to expect and knowing
that we will fail, freak out, be overwhelmed and have other negative feelings
will allow us to prepare not to take it out on our own students. Therefore, students
will have the benefit of having a more emotionally prepared teacher in their
first year making it a better learning experience for them.
Sources:
·
First Year Demands - http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/may12/vol69/num08/Now-That-I-Know-What-I-Know.aspx
·
Demands 1st Year Music Teacher -
http://musiced.nafme.org/careers/career-center/preparing-to-teach-music-in-todays-schools/section-3/
·
First Year Teacher Preparation (Middle School) -
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/collection/new-teacher-survival-guides
·
Demands/Wish I’d Known - http://teaching.monster.com/careers/articles/8208-15-things-i-wish-id-known-before-becoming-a-teacher?page=4
Literacy Problem for
First Year Teachers - http://www.teachthought.com/teaching/10-things-i-wish-i-knew-my-first-year-of-teaching/
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