I thought that I had the best student teaching experience available to me. Actually, I know I had one of the best experiences out there,
which is why I feel so sympathetic to those first year teachers who did not have the same quality experience that I did. My cooperating teacher during my student teaching semester was one of the most patient, encouraging, and inspiring woman that I have ever met. She gave me so much freedom in the classroom. We split the classes, and I was actually teaching half of the day. I was experiencing what independent teaching was like! So many student teachers don’t get that same experience that I did.
When I was hired to teach my first year, I was extremely confident. After all, I had built a strong relationship with the students that I had done my clinical practice with; how different could this new class be? I had built a reputation for having great rapport with students. It was actually the positive feedback that the site-based council received from my former students that I am sure helped confirm for administration that I needed a
position with their faculty. However, I was quick to learn many life lessons in my first weeks of teaching that even the best student teaching experience couldn’t have prepared me for.
Lesson One: The atmosphere that you create on day one is the atmosphere that you will have all year. You can’t relive that first day. You can always loosen up the reigns, but you can’t toughen up.
I had heard this advice ten thousand times prior to my first day of teaching. I knew that it was something that I needed to do. However, I made a very critical mistake. I smiled. Not only did I smile: I made jokes. That built great rapport with the students; unfortunately, it ruined me as far as classroom management was concerned. You really can’t take that first day back. If I had it to do over again, I would have come across the meanest I could possibly mustered, and not changed my attitude until the last week of school. I was too nice, and students will take advantage of that. They did whatever they thought they could get away with, and then when I did get upset and yelled, they didn’t take me seriously. I knew that classroom management was my weakest area, but I couldn’t improve, because I had already set the precedent for how my classroom would be run.
Students need consistency. That’s why it is so critical that when a teacher determines the rules for his/her classroom, that they stick with them
throughout the entire year. It is also pivotal that the rules are consistent for each student, and that some rules apply to some and not to others. There is nothing that will ruin your professional reputation faster than choosing favorites.
Lesson Two: Be straight-up honest.
This was my one major accomplishment as a first year teacher. My students respected me on a level that they did with so few teachers in the
building because of my complete honesty with them. There was very little that I held back. If I had information that pertained to the school day, when I knew it, they knew it. There was a lot of information about my personal life that they knew. For example, my grandmother had Alzheimer’s Disease, and my kids knew from the first weeks of school about her condition and how I struggled with that diagnosis. When she died, I made sure that I spent time talking to them about it, and they respected my honesty. They felt like I trusted them, and that mattered! How can teachers expect students to bare their souls when we keep so much about ourselves concealed? We ask them to journal, to tell us what’s going on, to write narratives, and yet we tell them nothing about us. If teachers continue to keep their students in the dark, the students will return the favor, and never truly open up in their writing. We are hypocrites. If we want genuine writing, we have to let our students into our lives.
In the end, although my classroom management techniques were not stellar, I had the respect of almost every student that graced my classroom
door, simply because I let them into my life. On most days, I would open up the period by sitting on the table part of an empty desk, facing them, and saying “Time for some straight-up honesty.” At that point in the period, regardless of what was going on, I had the attention of every teenager in the room. That was for one of two reasons: either I was going to reveal some hidden truth from my life or I was going to share something that they needed to know that would affect them academically. Students had respect for me because they knew that I wasn’t going to keep any secrets from them. They knew that they could trust me.
Lesson Three: Don’t show fear.
High school students, especially seniors, are like dogs. They won’t bite unless they smell fear. Once they smell fear, you’re likely to end up
bitten. First year teachers cannot let students intimidate them. I made that mistake, mostly because I wasn’t all that confident, and I had seniors who scored higher than me on their ACT. Mentally, I was intimidated. I also was teaching senior boys who were twice my weight and towered over me. Physically, I was intimidated. That was a huge mistake, because the students saw that fear and took advantage of that.
New teachers must stand their ground and remember that they are the adult in the room. Students will push the limits as far as the teacher
allows. If the teacher is strong, and stands firm, the students will respect that wholeheartedly.
Lesson Four: Don’t let KTIP overwhelm you!
For those of you who aren’t in the Kentucky school system, KTIP stands for Kentucky Teacher Internship Program, and is the internship year that
all first year teachers have to complete. I have had friends kindly call it the devil. I am pleading the 5th. Not letting KTIP overwhelm me was important lesson that I had to learn. I was so concerned with passing KTIP and getting my full certification that I made myself sick. Literally. In going back to lesson two, though, my students were constantly informed of what was going on with my KTIP and were extremely understanding. My desk was constantly a mess, and they knew that as soon as I was finished with KTIP, that I would go back to being the same super-organized person that I had been in the first weeks of school.
I completed KTIP in April of this past year, and a couple of days after my final meeting, I had to call in sick. I almost passed out on my kids at school the day before, and I knew I was doing a disservice to them by being there. I was better off sleeping on the couch. I came to the realization that I had been running on pure adrenaline for so long, trying to do the best job on KTIP that I could, that once it was finished, my body crashed. The way I handled KTIP was not the way to go. New teachers should never be so stressed out about anything that is not directly related to their students that it makes them sick. No one benefits from that. However, I would like to express that my students went above and beyond to come through for me as far as KTIP was concerned. Even in their disrespectful orneriness, I know deep down that there was an unspoken level of respect, simply because they never let me down when I needed them most. I had my committee come in to some of my unruliest classes, and they acted like angels. When I needed some of them to participate in my collaborative project, they did so willingly. As stressful as KTIP was, I am thankful that it was a part of my first year experience, because it helped me to see the true character of so many of my students.
Lesson Five: ALWAYS remember that the students come first!
I walked into my first year of teaching with a brand new administration at my high school: a new principal and two new assistant principals. So, not only did I not know what I was doing as a new teacher, they didn’t quite know what they were doing as new administrators. We learned
together. They had our faculty doing a lot of paperwork. They were doing a big push on documentation, so we were constantly having to post something to somewhere: program review, CIITS, our blogs, (KTIP for me), etc, etc. It was easy to get overwhelmed in the mass amount of paperwork that can be done in the classroom. Always put the students first. The paperwork can wait. Teachers are only required to do three things: lesson plans, instruct to the best of their abilities, and provide students with a quality learning experience. Compliance to school policies on paperwork and documentation, although needing to be done, need to be prioritized after those first three items. The students have to come first. If teachers continue to prioritize paperwork over their students simply out of compliance, the students suffer. That is the tragedy
facing public education.
In retrospect, even though I cried many tears over my first year of teaching, I am thankful that I had every experience that I had. The lessons that I learned are ones that I had been told by dozens of people, and I let it go through one ear an out the other. I was determined to believe that I knew
best practice, and that I would dominate in the classroom. It took me reaching rock bottom to realize that I had a lot to learn and that I needed to humble myself. I am so grateful for every moment, whether good or bad, because it has helped shape me into the teacher that I want to be next year, and for years after that.
“A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell where his influence stops.” Henry Adams
which is why I feel so sympathetic to those first year teachers who did not have the same quality experience that I did. My cooperating teacher during my student teaching semester was one of the most patient, encouraging, and inspiring woman that I have ever met. She gave me so much freedom in the classroom. We split the classes, and I was actually teaching half of the day. I was experiencing what independent teaching was like! So many student teachers don’t get that same experience that I did.
When I was hired to teach my first year, I was extremely confident. After all, I had built a strong relationship with the students that I had done my clinical practice with; how different could this new class be? I had built a reputation for having great rapport with students. It was actually the positive feedback that the site-based council received from my former students that I am sure helped confirm for administration that I needed a
position with their faculty. However, I was quick to learn many life lessons in my first weeks of teaching that even the best student teaching experience couldn’t have prepared me for.
Lesson One: The atmosphere that you create on day one is the atmosphere that you will have all year. You can’t relive that first day. You can always loosen up the reigns, but you can’t toughen up.
I had heard this advice ten thousand times prior to my first day of teaching. I knew that it was something that I needed to do. However, I made a very critical mistake. I smiled. Not only did I smile: I made jokes. That built great rapport with the students; unfortunately, it ruined me as far as classroom management was concerned. You really can’t take that first day back. If I had it to do over again, I would have come across the meanest I could possibly mustered, and not changed my attitude until the last week of school. I was too nice, and students will take advantage of that. They did whatever they thought they could get away with, and then when I did get upset and yelled, they didn’t take me seriously. I knew that classroom management was my weakest area, but I couldn’t improve, because I had already set the precedent for how my classroom would be run.
Students need consistency. That’s why it is so critical that when a teacher determines the rules for his/her classroom, that they stick with them
throughout the entire year. It is also pivotal that the rules are consistent for each student, and that some rules apply to some and not to others. There is nothing that will ruin your professional reputation faster than choosing favorites.
Lesson Two: Be straight-up honest.
This was my one major accomplishment as a first year teacher. My students respected me on a level that they did with so few teachers in the
building because of my complete honesty with them. There was very little that I held back. If I had information that pertained to the school day, when I knew it, they knew it. There was a lot of information about my personal life that they knew. For example, my grandmother had Alzheimer’s Disease, and my kids knew from the first weeks of school about her condition and how I struggled with that diagnosis. When she died, I made sure that I spent time talking to them about it, and they respected my honesty. They felt like I trusted them, and that mattered! How can teachers expect students to bare their souls when we keep so much about ourselves concealed? We ask them to journal, to tell us what’s going on, to write narratives, and yet we tell them nothing about us. If teachers continue to keep their students in the dark, the students will return the favor, and never truly open up in their writing. We are hypocrites. If we want genuine writing, we have to let our students into our lives.
In the end, although my classroom management techniques were not stellar, I had the respect of almost every student that graced my classroom
door, simply because I let them into my life. On most days, I would open up the period by sitting on the table part of an empty desk, facing them, and saying “Time for some straight-up honesty.” At that point in the period, regardless of what was going on, I had the attention of every teenager in the room. That was for one of two reasons: either I was going to reveal some hidden truth from my life or I was going to share something that they needed to know that would affect them academically. Students had respect for me because they knew that I wasn’t going to keep any secrets from them. They knew that they could trust me.
Lesson Three: Don’t show fear.
High school students, especially seniors, are like dogs. They won’t bite unless they smell fear. Once they smell fear, you’re likely to end up
bitten. First year teachers cannot let students intimidate them. I made that mistake, mostly because I wasn’t all that confident, and I had seniors who scored higher than me on their ACT. Mentally, I was intimidated. I also was teaching senior boys who were twice my weight and towered over me. Physically, I was intimidated. That was a huge mistake, because the students saw that fear and took advantage of that.
New teachers must stand their ground and remember that they are the adult in the room. Students will push the limits as far as the teacher
allows. If the teacher is strong, and stands firm, the students will respect that wholeheartedly.
Lesson Four: Don’t let KTIP overwhelm you!
For those of you who aren’t in the Kentucky school system, KTIP stands for Kentucky Teacher Internship Program, and is the internship year that
all first year teachers have to complete. I have had friends kindly call it the devil. I am pleading the 5th. Not letting KTIP overwhelm me was important lesson that I had to learn. I was so concerned with passing KTIP and getting my full certification that I made myself sick. Literally. In going back to lesson two, though, my students were constantly informed of what was going on with my KTIP and were extremely understanding. My desk was constantly a mess, and they knew that as soon as I was finished with KTIP, that I would go back to being the same super-organized person that I had been in the first weeks of school.
I completed KTIP in April of this past year, and a couple of days after my final meeting, I had to call in sick. I almost passed out on my kids at school the day before, and I knew I was doing a disservice to them by being there. I was better off sleeping on the couch. I came to the realization that I had been running on pure adrenaline for so long, trying to do the best job on KTIP that I could, that once it was finished, my body crashed. The way I handled KTIP was not the way to go. New teachers should never be so stressed out about anything that is not directly related to their students that it makes them sick. No one benefits from that. However, I would like to express that my students went above and beyond to come through for me as far as KTIP was concerned. Even in their disrespectful orneriness, I know deep down that there was an unspoken level of respect, simply because they never let me down when I needed them most. I had my committee come in to some of my unruliest classes, and they acted like angels. When I needed some of them to participate in my collaborative project, they did so willingly. As stressful as KTIP was, I am thankful that it was a part of my first year experience, because it helped me to see the true character of so many of my students.
Lesson Five: ALWAYS remember that the students come first!
I walked into my first year of teaching with a brand new administration at my high school: a new principal and two new assistant principals. So, not only did I not know what I was doing as a new teacher, they didn’t quite know what they were doing as new administrators. We learned
together. They had our faculty doing a lot of paperwork. They were doing a big push on documentation, so we were constantly having to post something to somewhere: program review, CIITS, our blogs, (KTIP for me), etc, etc. It was easy to get overwhelmed in the mass amount of paperwork that can be done in the classroom. Always put the students first. The paperwork can wait. Teachers are only required to do three things: lesson plans, instruct to the best of their abilities, and provide students with a quality learning experience. Compliance to school policies on paperwork and documentation, although needing to be done, need to be prioritized after those first three items. The students have to come first. If teachers continue to prioritize paperwork over their students simply out of compliance, the students suffer. That is the tragedy
facing public education.
In retrospect, even though I cried many tears over my first year of teaching, I am thankful that I had every experience that I had. The lessons that I learned are ones that I had been told by dozens of people, and I let it go through one ear an out the other. I was determined to believe that I knew
best practice, and that I would dominate in the classroom. It took me reaching rock bottom to realize that I had a lot to learn and that I needed to humble myself. I am so grateful for every moment, whether good or bad, because it has helped shape me into the teacher that I want to be next year, and for years after that.
“A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell where his influence stops.” Henry Adams