Tips for a New Teacher
Being a new teacher can be terrifying. You come out of school with confidence, and all of the sudden you are thrown into a job and responsible for a room of children. Take a moment and breathe, every teacher was a first-year teacher at one time and you’re going to do great!
Don’t compare yourself to others
It can be really easy to look at another teacher and immediately see everything that they are doing better than you. But, as a human, you’re probably not also seeing everything that you are doing better than them.
Don’t compare yourself! The other first-year teacher down the hall may have the perfect classroom. Everything could be color-coded and adorable. Their classroom may look like it is coming out of a magazine, while yours looks like a bland mess. It’s okay!
Remember that everyone has their strengths and their weaknesses. They might have a better-looking classroom, but you might be killing it with awesome lesson plans or engaging science experiments!
You’re going to mess up
No one is perfect, your first year teaching you’re going to make a lot of mistakes. You are going to try a million things and a lot of them may not work the way you wanted them to. This is how you learn! If you don’t make mistakes, you will never be able to learn from them and better yourself.
Get to know your students
The best way to find out what is going to work for your students is to get to know them. Knowing their personalities and interests is the best way to plan effective lessons. Sometimes you can predict ahead of time which students are going to respond well to something and who won’t. Being able to predict like this will help you plan for what may go wrong, and to have a backup plan.
Ask for help
Like I said earlier, everyone has been a first-year teacher. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from more veteran teachers. During my first year, I took the time to observe other teachers. If there is a teacher who is willing to let you come into their classroom, go visit during your prep and see how they manage behaviors that you are struggling with. If you are having a hard time with a particular student, don’t be afraid to reach out to his/her previous teachers and see if they have any tricks. It truly takes a village and it is okay to admit you’re not perfect and that you could use the help.
Take time for yourself
It is easy to get burnt out during your first years of teaching. You are taking so much work home every weekend that the time you should be using to re-charge your batteries is becoming consumed with schoolwork.
Self-care is so important. Especially if you are going to work all summer! Check out: Tips for Self-Care for Teacher
If you need to take a weekend off from going out and just sleep, don’t be embarrassed. You do you!
Don’t be afraid to change your mind
You are going to make mistakes. You are going to design a whole unit on something and then realize it’s going horribly wrong. Don’t be afraid to decide to change what you’re doing!
If you notice that the students are not responding to what you’re doing, change what you’re doing! The only way to learn how best to do something is to try new things. Even veteran teachers have lessons that don’t go as planned. Maybe something worked amazing last year, but this year your class has completely different personalities and they don’t respond the same way.
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