As a young teacher, I believed I knew everything. I complained loudly about being required to teach Beowulf, and I spoke passionately about social justice. My classes were also messy. One group created a comic book hero named after their favorite chewing tobacco, and I didn’t notice until it was too late. Another group threw a taco across the classroom. And I accidentally broke a student’s cell phone one time.
Gosh, if I could go back in time, there is so much I would change. (Honestly, there’s parts of yesterday’s lesson I would change, too.)
As a young teacher, I was an enthusiastic tornado. It wasn’t that my mentor teacher ignored me or gave poor advice. It was that I did a poor job listening. Everyone gave me advice, and I still insisted that I knew better.
What hubris! If I had been in a Shakespeare play, I would have been dead before the final curtain.
Anyway, as I now meet young teachers, I get excited by their perspective. They often have their fingers on a cultural pulse that I can no longer seem to find. And today’s young teachers seem better prepared to be empathetic, patient, and reflective. I so admire that. I also hope they’re better at listening to advice. What I didn’t understand (and, honestly, what I’m still working on) is listening to advice even if I never take it.
2 Truths to Make Life Easier as a New Teacher
My department has a number of new faces this year. I don’t think that’s a surprise to anyone because education is in such upheaval right now. As I was thinking about what I wanted to tell them, I thought: what advice do I wish I’d heard as a new teacher? What tough truths did I
11 Solutions for New Teacher Struggles
There’s nothing quite like being a new teacher, and there’s no struggles like new teacher struggles. With a lot of new faces joining my department this year, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about simple solutions to common new teacher struggles. Overall, most new teacher struggles fit into three categories: Managing Classroom Resources Classrooms
8 Secrets Of Experienced Teachers
When you walk into the classrooms of experienced teachers, you can tell. There’s something different about the way the room feels. It’s difficult to describe. My students would say “it hits different.” On the surface, two classrooms look much alike: same furniture, same desks, same technology. The students are from the same area, and while
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How to Know if Teaching is the Career for You
“Well, if all else fails, I can always be a teacher.” Each year when the guidance office comes to talk to students about registration for the next year, at least one student makes a comment to this effect. Few comments bother me more. Teaching requires a tremendous amount of work: building relationships, parent contacts, lesson
What other advice would you give to young teachers?
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