As a first year teacher, you may be feeling a plethora of negative emotions: scared, nervous, anxious, inferior, or even unprepared. But you shouldn’t! Your education and training have prepared you for this! Remind yourself that you are competent, knowledgeable, and ready.
If you need a little more to set your mind at ease, check out these 5 tips for first year teachers. By implementing these tips, you’re sure to make your first year in the classroom amazing and memorable!
5 Tips for First Year Teachers
1. PREPARE FOR SUCCESS
Stress
is the bane of our existence. Instead of leaving everything until the
last minute and setting ourselves up for stress and failure, why not
take a different approach? By knocking things off your to-do list early,
you will reduce your stress and your results will be much more
successful! Don’t wait until the week before school to start planning.
Start now and get ahead. Check out this post on planning through the summer for more tips and tricks!
2. MAKE NEW FRIENDS
Use
this chance to network with teacher groups, fellow teacher friends, and
other community members who can aid in your teaching experience. Take
advice from experienced teachers, find camaraderie and stress relief with fellow newbies, and form beneficial relationships
with those who can further the experience you provide for your
students! Partnering with those in your community can not only provide
you with a support system but can also increase the opportunities your
students will have. Need someone for career day? Need donations from
businesses to implement a fun project? These partnerships are crucial in
furthering the learning opportunities your students face.
3. KEEP LEARNING
Having
just graduated, you may not be due for Professional Development yet,
but if there’s any skill we want to instill in our students, it’s to never stop learning!
So, why should you? Take online courses to further your skills, find
local professional development opportunities, or dive into a
highly-recommended book. Staying up-to-date and relevant will not only
help you as a teacher, but it will help you pad your resume for any
interviews you may have on your five-year plan.
4. SET CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
Part
of being prepared is setting clear, achievable, and measurable
expectations for yourself and your students. Make a vision board or
write down your goals, and share them with those new friends you made in
step 2 for some accountability. Measure your goals and reward yourself
for even the smallest successes. Then, take this practice into your
classroom on day one by offering your students clear-cut expectations
and rules. By being forthcoming with your expectations from the
beginning of the year, students will better understand how to succeed in
your classroom, and you will avoid sticky situations where unclear
expectations led to problematic behaviors.
5. USE YOUR RESOURCES
This world of education is HUGE. Especially in the digital age, there are millions of resources at your fingertips! Don’t be afraid to browse online resources and sites like TeachersPayTeachers for guides, lesson plans, activity sheets, tests and study guides, and even full unit preparations! By finding resources that are ready to implement in your classroom, you can shave off much of the behind-the-scenes work that may be causing you stress. Find resources from teachers and creators with great track records and find a multitude of resources that are modifiable for just about any classroom. There is even a wealth of freebie resources out there that can set you up for success without costing you a dine!
As you enter your first year as a classroom teacher, proceed with confidence! You are educated, you are prepared, and you are competent! You will change lives in your classroom, and following these 5 tips for first year teachers will set you, and your students, up for success! If ever you doubt your teaching skills, return to these 5 basic tips to jump-start your success.
