Tags: Classroom Management, General, Motivation, New Teacher Survival Kit, Organization, Personal, Teaching
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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…
- 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
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Linked on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
Blog Review: So You Want To Teach?
Blog Review: So You Want To Teach?
Comments
MIss A writes:
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.
Author Comment
Joel writes:
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…
josh rosenthal writes:
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.
Christopher Phillips writes:
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.
Jason writes:
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.
Author Comment
Joel writes:
@Jason - Thanks. I;m glad you found my blog, and I hope it will prove a valuable resource!
Tracy Rosen writes:
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.
Author Comment
Joel writes:
@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!