Teachers across the country are preparing for a new year of school. For the first time in three decades, I am not one of those teachers because I retired from the profession to focus solely on my writing career; however, during the 30 years in which I taught, I saw many many many first-year teachers enter the profession and then promptly leave it behind after that first year. A few tried a second or even a third year to see if they could gain their stride, and some of them succeeded while others did not and left teaching for a different career.
For a number of years, I've been working on a book-length survival guide for first-year teachers because too often a new teacher is simply dropped into a classroom and expected to know how to make it. Teaching, though, and all the inane bureaucratic nonsense that comes with it, is incredibly hard. It's mentally and physically exhausting to a level that you just can't imagine until you do it. The demands of the job overwhelm even those of us who have 30 years under our belt and who are so jaded we no longer really care about pleasing parents, administration, school boards, communities, and the world at large.
So, even though I don't teach anymore, I'm going to give any newbies reading this a few pieces of advice to help you survive the trenches of your first year of teaching, so that you will, hopefully, return to teach many more years. There is a shortage of good teachers, that's for sure, so you need to make it.
I taught secondary school, so my advice is primarily geared toward junior high and high school teachers, but it's fairly broad in scope, so elementary teachers can use some of it.
All right, here we go.
First off, remember this very essential thing: after all the extra B.S. that will get shoved onto your plate concerning curriculum updates, standards, school and classroom rules, extra-duty assignments, in-services, continuous school improvement, staff meetings, etc., you are there to teach. So, teach. That incredibly simple, yet incredibly important, thing often gets pushed aside by all the other stuff that is thrown at you. Don't let the other stuff become more important to you than the teaching part. At the end of the day, if you actually taught the kids something useful for their current or future lives, then you did your job.
Set the tone you want from the very start, but don't go overboard trying to be this tough teacher, demanding respect by demanding too much. Have demands, of course, but keep them manageable. I've seen teachers try to establish consequences for everything from cutting in line to cheating to chewing gum to talking during a lecture, etc. The more you spell out for them, the more they will try you, and you won't have time to constantly be focusing on the discipline part of the job. Eventually, you will tire of it, and you will start easing up on or downright ignoring your own rules, and then you will have lost the battle, my friend. The very first time you don't keep a student after school for some minor infraction that you have posted on your "classroom rules poster," another student will call you out for it. So, follow the K.I.S.S. policy of "Keep It Simple, Stupid." In my classroom, it was simply the Golden Rule with the addendum of "Do the right thing." I also had a no food in class rule. If a student cheated, I could ask him, "Is that doing the right thing?" Clearly, it was not, so a punishment could be given. If a student tripped another kid, I could ask, "Is that doing the right thing or treating another the way you want to be treated?" Of course it isn't. Then, depending on the situation and the kids involved, you can get the tripper to apologize or you can make him stay after or do whatever is fitting in that moment.
When you are setting the tone, you also need to be very careful about the line you draw. With high school students and first-year teachers, sometimes there are only a few years separating their ages. In my first year, I had a student who had been held back a year and was nineteen when I taught him. I was only twenty-two. I was only three years older than he was. That makes it very hard to establish yourself as the authority figure, but you must do it. You are NOT their friend, and at no point should you ever act like you are. You can become their friend later on after they've graduated and become adults if they even want to be your friend then, but when they are your students, they are not your friends. Do NOT have them as any sort of contact on social media sites, do NOT text them about anything that isn't 100% sport or activity related if you happen to be a coach or adviser (I'd even go so far as to say do NOT text them, but unfortunately many schools now use texting apps to remind students and parents of things, so it's likely you will text kids, but always always always keep it on topic.), do NOT let them call you by your first name, do NOT allow them to flirt with you as will often happen with first-year teachers who are seen as "hot" or attractive by teenagers, no NOT look at them as anything other than your students. You can be friendly toward them, of course, but you are not their friend.
And allow me to put this one in all caps: DO NOT HAVE ANY SEXUAL CONTACT WITH YOUR STUDENTS. That should be a no-brainer, right? Yeah, you'd think so, but every year I read stories of teachers who have been caught in sexual relationships with students and who then end up in prison. PRISON. Never to teach again. Life ruined. For what? And if you happen to think that you are too smart to ever get caught and that you just can't resist that cute blonde, then you are an idiot who has no business being a teacher. You will get caught. You will lose your teaching certificate for life. And if your school board doesn't want to just sweep it all under the rug or if the irate parents find out, you will be prosecuted, and you will go to jail. For a long time.
All right, let's get back to this teaching thing.
Know your subject well. You will come to know it exceedingly well over the years you teach it (I taught Spanish, and the degree to which I understand the language after 30 years of teaching it is so far beyond what I knew my first year, that I'm almost embarrassed by it; however, I still knew it well enough to know what I was talking about that first year or so.) Know your subject well now, but be always working to know it better. You will actually learn more while teaching it than you ever learned by simply studying it. Be aware of your limitations, and when you don't know an answer, be sure to tell the kids you don't know it but that you'll find out what it is. Then do that. When the kids see you caring enough to learn more yourself, they will trust you, and when they see that learning is a lifelong thing, they will be better for it. If you make a mistake with something you taught them, admit it and correct it. You are human, and you will make mistakes. Also, know the value of your subject to life in general. Why should the kids want or need to learn what you have to teach them? You better know the answer to that question before you let any students into your classroom. And the answer better not just be "because it's on the standardized test."
Care. Care about the kids. Care about your subject or subjects. Care about the other staff members. Care about yourself. If you care, it will show, and the kids will reciprocate. Rapport is the thing you most need to build -- with students and staff. Again, let me repeat that the students are NOT your friends. They can respect and like you without being your friend. You can care about them without being their friends. Rapport is kind of a professional level of friendship. The kids know they can trust you to have their best interests at heart, but they also know that there is a line that they can't cross and that you absolutely will not cross, either.
It's okay to say NO. Often, a lot gets dumped on first-year teachers because they are young and energetic and optimistic. Taking on too much is a sure-fired way to burn out fast. However, you also want to take on a few things because it's a good way to build relationships with students and staff outside of the classroom setting. So, find the happy medium if you can.
Find a mentor teacher. The administration may assign you one, and that's great, but that person may or may not be the best fit for you. Find a teacher who has been there a while and with whom you click, and go to that person often to answer any questions you have. That teacher knows the school well already. Take advantage of that knowledge. Not sure how to find the best mentor teacher on your own? Pay attention to the students those first few days. Listen to who they grumble about the most or make fun of or show very little respect toward; then, avoid those teachers as mentors. If one of them has been assigned to you, that's fine -- just because he was assigned to you doesn't mean you have to take his advice. Instead, find that teacher who the students clearly respect and like, and then latch on as often as you can until you feel really comfortable in your new role.
The first day is very important for any first-year teacher, so set that tone, but if you feel completely overwhelmed that first day, it's okay. Most students are overwhelmed the first day back at school, too, and really only listen to about half of what you say, so set the tone as well as you can the first day, and then hit it firmly on the second day onward. Be consistent. Be in charge. It is your classroom. You set the tone. The kids will follow it. They might grumble and complain, but one thing that I know with total certainty after 30 years of teaching is that kids like being in classrooms where there is a caring, consistent, and competent teacher. Do your best to be all three of those things every day with every class, and you will not only survive the first year, but you'll come back for many more. Maybe you'll end up teaching for 30 years like I did, or maybe you'll stay even longer. Good luck.
I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have, so feel free to comment, or you can contact me via email on my website of tammymarshallauthor.wordpress.com on the contact page.
