Starting your teaching career is so exciting! This year, my mentor teacher retired, and it brought back all the memories of being a new teacher. Nothing replaces experience and trial and error, but here are some rules for new teacher that will help get your career and your first year off to a great start!
List of Rules For New Teachers
One thing I can’t recommend highly enough is to get your classroom and lesson plans set up and ready before school starts. The first days of school are completely overwhelming, even for veteran teachers. Take control of what you can at this time, and reduce the overwhelm to the extent possible. HERE is my last blog post about what to do before school starts to make sure you are back to school ready!
2. Work Ahead
Another of my important rules for new teachers is to start forming good work habits. I’ve made the mistake of trying to live day-by-day with my plans and copies. It leads to immense stress and then to burn out. Instead, always work at least one week ahead. If you type your lesson plans in something like Google Docs, it’s easy to adjust them as necessary. (Bonus- you also have them for next year and will have an amazing starting point!) But the point is- you always want to be designing your lesson plans for week 2 at the beginning of week 1. It gives you time to find, create, post and copy anything you need!
3. Free Time Schedule
One of the biggest complaints of educators is that they do not have good work-life balance. This can be particularly true during the first few years of your teaching career. Another of my important rules for new teachers is to create a free time schedule for yourself. What I mean is… map out your week. What will you do after school? How and when can you find time to take care of yourself? If you want to stay at school until 4, schedule a run or a Zumba class later that day. Having a plan makes it so much more likely that you will follow through, and make sure to take care of your health and other responsibilities!
4. Sleep
One of the things I did not anticipate as a new teacher was how tired I would be. Teaching is a physically, emotionally and mentally draining job. I had never experienced that many drains at one time! I was 22 and I couldn’t wait for 7:30 on Friday night so I could go to bed! I think being prepared to need more sleep and rest and quiet time than you have in the past will help to let you accept the fact that you’re not as fun as you were last year! But it will pass! You will be fun again! Getting enough rest is one of the most important rules for new teachers!
5. Use Your Mentor
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think every new teacher is supposed to be assigned a mentor teacher. This is someone who is a veteran teacher and trained in how to mentor new educators. Go out of your way to forge a relationship with this person! Ask to meet for lunch once a week, or after school for 30 minutes once a week. This person can be invaluable to you not only in your first weeks and months as a teacher, but throughout your career. They can help you solve all kinds of problems that are common for new teachers.
6. New Teacher Program
At least in our state, we have a program for new teachers that requires them to write reflections. It’s a requirement for teacher certification. Don’t ignore this program if you have to do it! Procrastination is your enemy here! Plan to do your assignments weeks ahead of time, and use your mentor as a guide! Let them read your work and critique it, and take their suggestions! Failing assignments or being late with them is a complication and source of stress that you do not need at this phase! As rules for new teachers go, this is an important one!
7. New Teacher Colleagues
Most schools will hold a new teacher orientation. Find your people! It’s great if you can find a few new teachers that are close to you in age. I can’t tell you how much I value the friends that I made during the first few years of my career. We have now gone through so many life stages together! Marriages, children, you name it! But don’t let age scare you off… it is so helpful to make friends of any age that are new to teaching. As busy as you will be, make an effort to forge friendships with people that understand what it’s like to be the new guy!
#8 Rules For New Teachers: Collaborate
Hopefully you will find yourself as the new member of a department. If you are fortunate enough to have colleagues, use the first few weeks of school to get to know them as professionals. Note how they work, how they think, etc. And choose someone who you can collaborate with!
If you have someone who teaches the same course(s) as you, it can be a mutually beneficial move to plan together or at least divide and conquer. Help each other create things you need for your students and share! This can be a huge time saver! Just be sure that you are a reliable partner. Get your work done well and on time so that you are viewed as someone that others enjoy working with!
New Teacher Rule #9
Staying in the same vein as colleagues, another friend you want to make is a veteran teacher who has been at your school for a while. This person may or may not be in your department. They could be your mentor, or maybe not! But there is a lot of value you can bring to them, and them to you! New teacher enthusiasm and energy is refreshing to veteran teachers! And veteran teachers often enjoy helping new teachers.
In school, we don’t learn about teacher’s unions, our contracts, how to handle difficult parents. Veteran teachers can help with that! They also know which administrators are most helpful, who in the building can and cannot be trusted and which support staff you should go to when you need help finding a solution. This friendship will be invaluable to both of you!
#10 Be Clear On Your Role
The last of my rules for new teachers is to make sure that when you start school on day 1, you are very clear on what your purpose is. You are now an adult in charge of children. You are responsible not only for their learning for the year, but for their physical safety, their emotional safety, and for elements of their personal growth. This is a huge responsibility and one you should never, ever take lightly.
Remember that you are NOT responsible for being their friend, for giving them grades (they must earn them). Almost every new teacher, especially teachers who are young and close in age to their students, make the mistake of wanting to be liked. We all want to be liked by our students! It’s important to have a positive classroom community! But that develops out of mutual respect, not out of loose rules and an overly friendly environment.
Take the time before school starts to think about how you can establish rules and routines that allow for a flourishing environment for learning. Think about the things you want to avoid happening in your classroom. Be clear with your students from the beginning about what is and is not acceptable. Follow through each and every time. And…. have a GREAT first year!!!
Resources
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Spanish Back to School Survival Pack for Middle and High School
Why Learn Another Language Scavenger Hunt for Spanish, French, Italian, German
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