Dear First-Year Teachers: Advice for the Journey Ahead

Dear First Year Teacher,

We see you. You have a heart of gold and dreams to use the power of education to make a meaningful difference in the lives of students. You want to inspire, motivate and empower them to reach their full potential so that they can in turn make a positive impact on the world.  You know they won’t all remember you, but you smile thinking of the few that do and return one day to say thank you.

But first……

The new school year is approaching faster than a group of kids that just heard an ice cream truck!  You are desperate to get into your new classroom so that you can start decorating, but you probably don't have access to the building yet.  In addition, you are developing a healthy level of anxiety trying to plan what you are going to teach the first few weeks of school when you actually don't know the curriculum or expectations. Oh, and we all know that you are broke from spending way too much on those decorations you can’t put up yet, school supplies for your room (and students), and an assortment of pdf’s from TPT that you may or may not use. 

I get it. I’ve been there and I want to offer you some advice to remember not only in the next few weeks as you frantically pull it all together, but also all throughout the year. 

Don't compare yourself to other teachers. 

Chances are your new school is going to be full of themed and well-organized classrooms led by a teacher that has a t-shirt for every occasion and a perfectly drafted welcome back to school letter ready to go home on the first day of school. Guess what? That’s not you and it’s ok!  And that teacher did not get there overnight and especially not their first year.  You do the best version of what you can do this first year and don’t beat yourself up by comparing yourself to others that have had years to get it right.  You’ll get there and even if you don’t have everything together like you dreamed you would….It’s still good and it’s going to be ok!

Instead pick ONE thing that you notice another teacher doing in their classroom that you really like and implement it in your classroom!  Yes, I mean COPY THEM!  That’s ok too!  They have been teaching longer than you and they know more of what works and what doesn’t.  You should definitely even ask for their help in copying them.  Teachers by nature are very generous human beings that want to help others. In all my years of teaching, every time I ask another teacher for help or advice, they always go out of their way to help me. Likewise, when another teacher asks me about something I am doing in my classroom it's the biggest compliment and I get so excited to help them.

Don't prep TOO much. 

Of course, you need to prepare a schedule, outline an instructional plan and prepare review work and activities for students those first few days of school, but don’t go crazy copying and laminating materials for weeks' worth of work for students until you meet them and get an idea of where they are academically.  My first year I spent countless hours preparing a curriculum that I purchased off TPT just desperate to have something ready. I tried and failed to use it the first few days of school and finally it ended up in the trash.  It just wasn’t what I needed. 

Instead focus your attention on developing a solid classroom management plan with clear classroom rules, procedures, routines and expectations. Intentionally schedule times throughout the first week of school to talk about all of the above with your students and practice implementing daily. As far as planning out lessons, classwork and homework for the first few weeks, just try making a quarterly outline at first and plan out a week of instruction.  During your first year you will find that you will constantly morph and change things by the week until you find your groove. 

Keep grades simple and to a minimum. 

Remember when you were a kid and your teacher would let you grade papers, and it was the best thing ever?!  Yeah, that feeling goes away after the first week or two.  My first year teaching 6th grade math, I graded everything.  I was a firm believer that to be fair, students needed LOTS of grades in math and boy did I give LOTS of grades.  I also stayed at school until 5:00 or 6:00 most days and lugged around stacks of papers to grade while sitting at my son’s ball practice, watching TV, riding in the car and even at a friend’s house one night when I was supposed to be hanging out with my girlfriends having a “girl’s night.” I walked around with some invisible badge of “I am a very fair math teacher because I give so many grades,” but I just looked (and was) kind of silly. 

This first year, especially in the beginning, just go by whatever your school district requires for the minimum number of grades you have to post each week.  You can give them all the work for extra practice you want and be sure to monitor and scan what your students are doing so that you know if they are getting a concept down or need help.  But save the ink in those colorful Flair pens, (and your sanity for that matter), keeping the grading and entering to a minimum.

Check out our Math Hero Membership for Teachers. 

We are releasing our new Math Hero Membership for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year! Designed specifically for grades 3rd-6th, this membership is packed with invaluable resources to enhance your math curriculum. We meticulously analyzed the math curriculum for each nine-week period in grades 3rd-6th and identified the 36 most crucial math skills for student success. With Math Hero for Teachers, you'll receive a comprehensive package delivered straight to your inbox each week that includes math worksheets, video lessons, printable resources, and much more. We've taken care of all the preparation, so you can focus on teaching.

These resources offer endless possibilities for implementation in your classroom. They can be used as engaging morning work or bell ringers, homework assignments, enrichment opportunities for advanced students, intervention materials for those needing extra instruction, or even as instructional aids for special education students with math-related disabilities. Your Math Hero Membership is like having a secret weapon in your teaching arsenal. It will equip you with the tools you need to make math exciting, accessible, and enjoyable for your students. Get ready to unleash the math hero within you! 

I’m not going to lie to you and say that this first year teaching isn’t going to challenge you in ways you don’t even realize yet because it is.  I just want you to remember that it is like that for all of us.  I got hired for my first teaching job in May and spent my whole summer preparing and planning only to spend most of my lunches that first year in my car crying and standing at the front of my beautifully decorated Harry Potter themed classroom dodging tennis balls that student’s pulled off the bottom of their chairs to throw at me (probably because of the ridiculous amount of grades I issued).  If I would have just let the other teachers help me and spent more time on classroom management things may have been different.  Regardless, I learned from my mistakes that first year and you will make mistakes and learn from them too.  Just try not to take things too seriously, embrace the journey and be kind to yourself!  You've got this!