There\u2019s nothing quite like being a teacher. Your teacher training courses, your Praxis exam studies and your field experiences help prepare you to teach. But none of these things, not even your four months of student teaching, quite capture \u201cthe real thing\u201d in all of its glory.<\/p>\n
Your first year of teaching will be full of surprises. The experiences you have will be intense and formative, in ways that are both joyous and stressful. Most career teachers (myself included) remember their first twelve months as a school teacher as one of the most formative times in their careers\u2026 and in their lives. In this post, we\u2019ll look at five things you can do to make the most of your wonderful, sometimes crazy start in your exciting new career.<\/p>\n
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In my first year as a teacher, I had to break up fist fights right in my class. I once had a six-year-old spit on me while swearing at me like a sailor. And on two occasions, I was pressed into service shooing stray animals out of the school because the janitor couldn\u2019t be found quickly enough and animal control wouldn\u2019t take the call.<\/p>\n
School doesn\u2019t just prepare students for daily life. It is<\/em> daily life. And this means you will face hassles and tasks that don\u2019t necessarily feel \u201cprofessional.\u201d If you take yourself too seriously as<\/em> a professional, you\u2019ll get needlessly unhappy with life\u2019s little surprises, as they occur on the school grounds. And you won\u2019t be the \u201cdaily life coach\u201d you can and should be for your students. So be prepared to face unexpected challenges with a smile\u2026or at least be able to look back on these things and laugh shortly after the fact.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An occasional physical fight or stray rat in the classroom shouldn\u2019t put much of an emotional dent in you\u2014kids will be kids and rats will be rats. But some parts of everyday life are much darker, in a way you simply can\u2019t prepare for in any teaching class.<\/p>\n Some parents are alarmingly abusive or neglectful. You may see evidence of mistreatment in your students. Sometimes you\u2019ll have to work with the authorities to protect the children in your classroom. Other times, you may not have enough evidence or legal leverage to immediately help a child who is being hurt.<\/p>\n And even children with nice parents can be a source of emotional turmoil. It\u2019s hard to watch kids get sick, or injured, or upset even if their pain is due to accidents and chance. Additionally, sometimes the nicest parents can be the most cuttingly critical of teachers. Good parents what the best for their children, and they are often harsh critics of teachers, especially new ones.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Neither your professors nor the more experienced colleagues you work with in your first year will be able to teach you everything. There are so many different aspects of good teaching practice that it\u2019s near-impossible for anyone to explain all of them to you. Fortunately, the \u201cright\u201d thing to do in a teaching situation becomes very obvious the moment you make a big mistake. When a lesson doesn\u2019t go as you planned, when students aren\u2019t helped in the way they should be, take a good look at what went wrong and what you could have done differently.<\/p>\n With this attentive and conscientious approach to the many mistakes you\u2019ll make, you\u2019ll never make the same mistake twice. And you\u2019ll iron out a LOT of the kinks in your teaching style by the end of your first year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Teaching children is hard work, and it\u2019s important work. It truly is a mission, and it\u2019s a mission that has a wonderful impact on society. Education is at the core of who we all become and what we\u2019re able to do as individuals and as citizens.<\/p>\n This mission is even more exciting and fun when you know your teammates and feel a camaraderie with them as you work toward your common noble goal. So get to know your fellow teachers. Take opportunities to socialize with them. Treat the principal as your team leader and not just your boss. Get acquainted with the non-teaching staff too\u2014the teacher\u2019s aides, school secretaries, janitors, and other non-licensed school personnel. All of these people can be fun comrades and potential allies in your quest to bring learning to the masses and survive the first year of your career.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n No matter how good of a teacher you are, you students\u2019 worlds revolve around their parents. There\u2019s no substitute for family, and there\u2019s no substitute for getting to know the moms and dads that your students go home to.<\/p>\n Parents also give you window into the whole community your school serves. Your schoolkids\u2019 parents come from all walks of life and serve their communities themselves, in many different ways. Knowing these parents allows you to understand not only who your students are, but also where they come from, and how you as a teacher fit into their community. This knowledge is indispensable, both in your first year of teaching and beyond.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s nothing quite like being a teacher. Your teacher training courses, your Praxis exam studies and your field experiences help prepare you to teach. But none of these things, not even your four months of student teaching, quite capture \u201cthe real thing\u201d in all of its glory. Your first year of teaching will be full […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2440],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[4914],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-becoming-a-teacher"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n2. Be emotionally strong
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n3. Learn from your mistakes
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n4. Get to know your co-workers<\/h2>\n
5. Get to know the parents<\/h2>\n