.jpg)
Comments
We’ve all been there. The beginning of the first year of teaching can be daunting, to say the least. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. First year horror stories abound. The number of teachers who quit after the first year or two of teaching matches or exceeds the number of teachers who stick with the profession.
My theory is that teachers leave the biz for lack of knowledge. College only can do so much in preparation. We hear of how much better student teaching was back in the day than it is now, and how poorly prepared prospective educators are these days. There may be validity in that, but lamenting these things doesn’t solve problems. We need solutions. Here is my attempt to offer some solutions. We’ll call it the New Teacher Survival Kit.
Periodically throughout the school year, I intend to offer some articles about how to be a successful first year teacher. These articles can apply to first year teachers as well as those who seem to be teaching their twentieth first year. Hopefully there will be a beneficial nugget here and there for everyone.
To begin with, I want to look back at some of the articles I have written that I wish I would have known about when I was starting out. Even if you don’t read them all at one time, I recommend bookmarking this page and returning as time permits. Even read the ones that don’t seem interesting. Especially read the ones that don’t seem interesting. The things that seem least interesting often appear so because of our own personal weaknesses…
- 10 Things I Wish I Knew As A First Year Teacher
- The Single Most Important Advice Anyone Can Give To A First Year Teacher
- 5 Keys To Educating People
- Classroom Management: The Key To Your Success
- A Customer Service Oriented Classroom Experience
- 6 Motivation Methods
- 4 Ways To Effectively Deal With Important People
- Finishing Strong
- 06-07: A Year In Review
- Finding Excellent Educators To Emulate
- Efficient vs. Effective
- 7 Questions That Will Save Your Career
- Organization Leads To Sanity
- 9 Reasons To Quit Teaching (And 10 Reasons To Stick)
- Arguing Is Normal, isn’t It?
- 5 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers
- 15 Tips To Stay Positive
- All Work And No Play Makes Joel A Dull Boy
Tags
Related Articles
EDIT: I replaced the original image I had on here. This one was taken from Transitions Abroad's website. It's a classroom in Guatamala. I so desperately want to go overseas (at least out of the US) and teach for a summer, or even for a year. That ...
In continuing my review of the year, I am looking today at some of the articles that I wish were more popular. They may have received a handful of comments, or they may not have received any. The most common cause for their relative obscurity is ...
In preparing for my month-long series on 25 Tips For Less Stress, I realized that I left out a few key ingredients. If you follow all 25 tips listed, and leave out the foundational ingredients, you will still be under intense stress. If you follo ...
I recently read an article written by a newly-hired teacher. She was concerned about the fall and how to establish procedures. My response was for her simply to be patient, ask lots of questions, and hang in there. When I was in her position, tha ...
Joel, I love this idea. I scream the virtues of blogging to all of my teacher friends who are new to the profession. I explain that its a network where you can collaborate. You can get help, answers or even a quick laugh. Let me tell you where the problem lies for new teachers, if you are even remotely TRYING to do your job right. Its very difficult to find time to get on here read what others are saying. Ex: In the last few weeks I’ve increased my time at school prepping my classroom, running errands, getting my syllabus together and lesson planning. This means I’ve not had enough time to keep up with the blogs I love so dearly. I have over a 100 articles to read when I finally get the time.
I’ll say it again and again, this is an excellent idea, but new teachers are struggling through it all. I hope they find time to visit your site and grow from your words of wisdom.
Flag this comment as inappropriate
It’s a matter of know exactly what to look for. This is why I have set up the First Year Fridays category (including this post with lots of links to articles) so new teachers can come in, find the important information, and get back to work.
As I’ve written before, being efficient or getting a lot done is not NEARLY as important as being effective. Too often we work too hard, only to find we are working on useless things…
Flag this comment as inappropriate
I read your blog regularly and thought you might be interested in a program I work with called Teach Kentucky – http://www.teachkentucky.com – it recruits ivy league college grads or simply those that ace their praxis exams and give them alternative certification, masters degrees and teaching jobs at full salaries – focus is on special/exceptional ed., science and math. They teach about 1/4 the students here in Louisville.
These teacher wrote a field guide to the first years teaching field guide:
http://www.teachopedia.com/teaching_fieldguide
that has some very resourceful information in it.
Flag this comment as inappropriate
One aspect of teaching that I was totally unprepared for my first year was supervising other adults. I was ready (or at least as ready as I could possibly be) for the student, but I didn’t really know what to do with my paraeducators in the classroom.
Flag this comment as inappropriate
This is really good information. My sister just got done student teaching and I know it was a very stressful time for her. I will send this along her way.
Flag this comment as inappropriate
@Jason – Thanks. I;m glad you found my blog, and I hope it will prove a valuable resource!
Flag this comment as inappropriate
Our school board has a teacher induction program called POINT (professional orientation something new teachers??). New teachers meet periodically throughout their first year for PD and conversation. They are also provided with a mentor at their school. I’m going to pass this list on to the coordinators. I think they will find it useful.
thanks.
Flag this comment as inappropriate
@Tracy Rosen – Thanks! I would love it if you use some of these articles. I will update this list to include links to some of my more recent articles. Thanks for reminding me!
Flag this comment as inappropriate
Hi all,
This is a really great site! Thanks so much for contributing your ideas about starting out as a new teacher.
I also run a website full of great ideas, resources, strategies and coping mechanisms (!!) for newly qualified teachers, so check it out too at http://www.newteacherskit.com
All the best,
Nadia :)
Flag this comment as inappropriate
Joel, This is something that I definitely think I will be able to use in the future. I appreciate you taking the time to come up with this. I look forward to being able to implement everything that I have read. As I grow in my knowledge of teaching, this is something that I look forward to using as a reference. I hope that when I am a teacher someday, I will be able to explore the entire page and see how i can improve as an educator, thanks again.
Flag this comment as inappropriate
Nadia and Jeff: I’m glad you’ve found the site. I aim to help you out as much as possible. Let me know if there are any specific questions you may have that I can guide you through somehow. :)
Flag this comment as inappropriate
Great post. We posted our own teacher survival kit, although we approached the topic in a completely different manner — more focused on changing mindsets and attitudes than providing hard-hitting tips on teacher survival.
Flag this comment as inappropriate
I have looked through all of the links for the website and I definitely think it will be helpful to me in my first year of teaching. Have any of you actually tried any of these specific ideas? How did they turn out?
Flag this comment as inappropriate
Joel, I really enjoy your blog. You have written some amazing articles that I have printed and put in my first year file. I am currently student teaching right now. I appreciate your honesty about how scary and hard it can be sometimes, but also the greatness in the experience. I am having the time of my life, and I hope the enthusiasm I have stays with me. Your blog is helping, so thank you! If you could give one single piece of advice to a beginning teacher, what would it be? Just curious!
Flag this comment as inappropriate
Great resourse from Kansas Music Educators Association for beginning and returning band and choral directors.
http://www.ksmea.org/mentoring/handbook/
Flag this comment as inappropriate
Hello Joel:
Great series of informative articles. Check out http://www.winwenger.com for some totally “out of the box” instructional and learning methods.
Flag this comment as inappropriate
Joel, thanks for taking time to put together this survival kit for new teachers. I’m still in college preparing to be a teacher, and I feel like there is so much I need to know that really can’t be taught in a college classroom. I appreciate when teachers take time to give advice to us future teachers so we can have some idea what to expect when we enter our classrooms for the very first time.
Flag this comment as inappropriate
WOW! I love this blog! I stumpled across this site while looking for a blog to join for a Computers in Education class. I have been really frustrated that nothing has been interesting enough for me to want to read further than the first page I open. This is such a good place for me… a stay-at-home mother working towards her teacher lisensure. I just started my first few practicums. Being in the classroom and seeing the ‘craziness’ of a 2nd grade classrooms day is rather scary! I can tell that being organized is a top priority and a few of your post, right off the bat, tell me this is a site I HAVE to read more of!
Flag this comment as inappropriate
I, Seth, am a college student at Malone University and am learning how to be a future middle school teacher that will be licensed to teach social studies and language arts. i am very appreciative of your hints and suggestions to becoming a teacher. I am unsure on some of the things i will be facing, but your entry has helped me know what i will face in the future as a teacher. Thank you for your work in preparing me to be teacher. please post a comment on my blog, saaron208.blogspot.com
Flag this comment as inappropriate
Thank all of you for the comments. I’m glad that you find So You Want To Teach? helpful. That has been my goal since starting out.
Flag this comment as inappropriate