Welcome to your first year teaching! For some, this has been a life-long dream. For others, this is a career change later in life. Either way, there’s one thing that remains true- our teacher preparation programs do not effectively prepare us for the demands of the classroom. With each passing year, it feels as if the demands become greater and greater. Therefore, the teacher preparation programs simply cannot keep up with the realities of the modern classroom.
During my first year of teaching, I remember feeling A LOT of different emotions. I remember feeling complete overwhelm, exhaustion and confusion. Between learning the content for all subjects, planning and being responsible for IEP’s, it’s safe to say this teacher was TIRED. But I also remember feeling pure joy when I was with my students. For many of us, this is our first experience with a job “in the real world.” This alone can be overwhelming at the very ripe age of 21. Now that I am nearly nine years into the world of education, I often look back at the beginning of my journey to reflect on my own practice and how far I’ve come. As I reflect, I find myself wishing I had some guidance during my first couple of years teaching. That’s the purpose of LWR; to provide you with the lessons I’ve learned over the years and provide you with guidance along the way.
Here are 5 things I wish I knew my first year teaching (let me tell you limiting this to 5 was a challenge in an of itself!):
1. Your relationships with your students are more important than any content taught.
If you’ve been here a while, you know I believe in the power of authentic relationships with students. I’m talking about truly knowing your students and not just within the four walls of your classroom. While I believe it’s important to know the academic needs of your students, it’s even MORE important (in my opinion and experience) to know your students outside of the classroom. Who do they live with? Are their parents together, separated, deceased? What do they like to do outside of school? Do they have siblings? And so, so much more. You can teach the children sitting in front of you until you are blue in the face, but children aren’t going to learn the content if they don’t know and like you. Not to mention, having good relationships with students minimizes disruptive behaviors and consequences. Is content important? Of course, all educators became teachers to teach children, but this is simply second to building relationships. To read more about building relationships with students, click here.
2. Less is more
This is something I believe to be true in my personal life, as well as my life as an educator. At the end of the day, we could have all of the resources, cute classroom decorations and materials available to us and it wouldn’t make our lives, or our pedagogy any better. Do I believe that our classroom should be warm, comfortable and inviting? Of course I do! Setting up my classroom is still one of my absolute favorite things to do. However, I remember during my first year of teaching thinking I needed to have it all together and perfect before students arrived. This caused me to spend A LOT of my own money and put a ton of pressure on myself for something that wasn’t that important. I believe the number one thing you need in your classroom is books. You can get books donated to you from Donors Choose or find cheap deals on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and more. To read more about setting up your classorom library, click here. In addition to your library, it’s important to have different sections of your classroom; a section for your library, math manipulatives, teacher materials and areas for students to work.The rest will come as time goes on.
3. You don't need to be perfect, you just need to be authentic.
Kids are intuitive. They can feel when you genuinely like them. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. In my opinion, kids need to know who you are as a person, not just as a teacher. They really don’t need you to be picture perfect. Social media can put a lot of pressure on us to have the perfect classroom and be the most adorable and perfect teacher. The truth is this is just not true- at least not all of the time and certainly not during your first year. Sometimes you will teach a lesson and it will be 100% wrong. And guess what? That’s OKAY. Use this moment as a tool to show your students literally everyone makes mistakes; including teachers. I remember teaching a math lesson SOOOOOO wrong. I came back the day after and told my students “Hey guys, remember what I taught you yesterday? I need you to forget it. Let’s get up from our seats and literally shake it off.” As crazy as this sounds, this actually helps you to build even stronger relationships because your students begin to see you as a human being, not just a teacher.
4. Be professional, but fun.
This goes kind of without being said, nevertheless it’s important to take a second to note this. You need to have a professional relationship with students. It’s important to have fun in your classroom and to know who students are, but it’s even more important to remain professional with your students and their families. In addition, you need to make sure you are meeting the professional responsibilities of your school or district. This should be outlined somewhere in your contract, or at the very least in a staff handbook. If you aren’t sure what your professional responsibilities are, you need to ask someone you trust in your building.
5. Prioritize YOU.
It is sooooo easy to get lost in the world of teaching and kind of forget who you were, especially during your first year of teaching, as there is a massive learning curve. You need to find time and prioritize yourself. That means checking in with yourself each day or each week. What did you do that brought you joy? Did you take a bubble bath? Have coffee with a friend? Attend that yoga class? Visit with a family member? Whatever it is that makes you uniquely you, be sure to hold on to it! This will help prevent burn-out and keep your passion for teaching alive.
Teaching is truly the profession that makes all other professions possible. What we do matters. My hope is that you can take these five lessons and apply it to your journey as a teacher, no matter what year you are in, but especially if you are a first year teacher.
What do you wish you knew as a first year teacher? Comment below!
Xo,
