Although I am not finished with my first year of teaching yet, I have figured out that there are certain things a new teacher must know that I didn't until I started. My first few months were extremely tough, I lost a lot of weight because I didn't have time/feel like eating. I was also stressed out to the max because I had zero time to get my room ready and I had no experience (or what I thought was experience).
Over time, I started to get accustomed to the way my school district operated and I am proud to say that I LOVE teaching in this district and could not imagine a better place to work.
With that, I have developed an ABC list for a first year teacher.
A- Attendance: There will be days where you feel like curling up in bed and staying there (especially when you first start) but you have to push yourself to go and it will end up getting better.
B- Brains: During the year there will be times when you feel like the other teachers you work with know more than you and it will make you feel a bit "dumb". Remember that you have just finished college, so you have a more updated knowledge base than they do. Also, your fellow colleagues become people whom you can bounce ideas off of because they have already been there.
C- Creativity: Teachers have an innate sense of creativity and everyone is different.
D- Drive: You have wanted to be a teacher forever and your dream has finally became a reality. Do not let anyone squash your dreams.
E- Energy: You are a fresh, young, and energetic individual. The students will draw upon your energy, so if you are positive and upbeat the students will reflect that. If your not, well they will reflect that aspect as well.
F- Fun: This goes along with energy. If you find new ways to make learning fun (this can be a struggle with new teachers) by finding new ways of teaching the content, the students will learn and retain more information.
G- Grow: Throughout the year, you will grow as you continue becoming a professional and ultimately your students will grow as well.
H- Harmony: Do not engage in drama!!!!! I can not stress that enough. During my first year, I avoided the teacher's lounge because of this. Therefore, the drama mama's were not able to have me in their sights. Although I have to say, I am blessed to work with the group of people that I do because the drama seems to be very minimal if at all. I have also found that there will be certain people who you connect with and you should hold on to those people.
I- Ill: I know you may look at this word and think what on earth are you talking about. Trust me, as a first year teacher I have go to school when I didn't feel well at all. Mostly because I felt that I needed to be there and also because I didn't have any sub plans set up. However, my friends/colleagues have stressed to me that all is not lost if you miss a day.
J- Jokes: Throughout the year, my students have told lots of jokes. Some are hilarious and others are "kiddy" humor. Regardless, it is important to let the students know that they can be themselves in your classroom.
K- Kids: Ultimately in the first year of teaching you will refer to all your students as your "kids". I have already thought about the end of the year and having to say goodbye is becoming harder and harder.
L- Learn: I have realized that most of my college classes haven't prepared me enough to be a teacher in a classroom of my own. Some aspects of teaching you will have to learn as you go.
M- Memories: When you take time to look back at where you were looking at the faces of the students and trying to remember which one was which, you will now come across memories that make each kid special.
N-Notes: I have received tons of little notes from my students already. Like these:
O- Organization: I have to admit that being organized is extremely hard during the first year. However, it absolutely drives me crazy if things are not organized. In my room, I have bins for books, binders for each subject I teach, a master teacher binder, and organized file cabinets. I would like to say it was always like that, but the first few months of school were extremely tough. I am still constantly changing the way things are in my room.
P-Planning: This goes along with organization. You should always have two plans for one day. I learned this the hard way. You should try to be prepared for those days when nothing seems to be going right. The computer won't work, the Smartboard pens won't write, the kids are moody, you have misplaced your copies.....etc. There should always be a back-up plan like a craft/bulletin board project to work on.
Q-Quick: Teachers have to be quick in all things. Getting the kids' attention, lining them up, getting them started on an activity, picking them up, eating lunch, responding to parents/emails, etc. I have also learned that teachers need to be good multitaskers as well.
R-Relate: Lessons/material seem to stick better if the students can relate to the information. For instance, if you are taking about zoo animals, having students share if they went to the zoo and what they saw.
S-Sleep: Being in college, you probably didn't go to sleep until 1 or 2 a.m., but all that will now change.
T- Time: There is never enough time in the day to get everything done. It just depends on how well you are at time management. I do a lot of my preparing during my lunch period and use my prep to get a heads start on the upcoming week's lesson.
U- Uniform: As a new teacher, I found out that the students need to know that there is a routine to the classroom. This has also been a difficult task for me to master because the day's change and I have been constantly finding out what routine works best.
V- Voice: Ultimately you will develop a teacher voice. Use it wisely and try to keep it to just at school. I hate to admit that sometimes the teacher voice and "look" has followed me home quite a few times.
W- Winter: Ah! The time of year when you have to pry your kids noses/faces off the window because it has started snowing and they are wishing/talking about getting out early.
X- Xtreme: (I know I cheated on this one) Some days will be liking herding cats, which could be an xtreme sport, and will make you feel like you are competing in the Olympics. However, at the end of the day, you will be grateful for the little things in life.
Y- Young: You are still young. You are constantly going to change and grow throughout the year as well as in the rest of your professional life. The students will enjoy have a younger teacher who knows about the stuff that they are interested in. For instance, the Rainbow Loom that has become super popular.
Z- Zero: The number of times you will not make an impression on a student. Whether you know it or not, you have more of an effect by the things you say or do than you will ever know. Also, you will have one student who will point out something that you did, or will repeat something that you said.
So, those are the ABC's that I have come up with. Feel free to share your own as well as advice to all the new teachers out there!
