Best Tips for Rookie Teachers

My first year teaching was sink or swim. Most teachers taught there for the minimum years needed to transfer. Fresh out of college, I was teaching fifth grade, as were the other fifth-grade teachers and the fourth. We had to travel to third grade for help. It was hard. Since that first year, I have been fortunate to teach closer to home and work with some great colleagues who have shared their wisdom on teaching, parents, and administrators.

Is there anything I wish I’d known as a first-year teacher

Currently, I work contract hours except for a day here or there. Over the years, I’ve become less intimidated by the administration and found ways to “Let it go!” and go home. Reflecting on my career, the following tips have helped me stay sane. (well, sorta)

5 Best Tips on Teaching

Teacher Tip 1: Answer emails quickly with a generic reply

This tip was passed on to me by a friend in administration and has been worthwhile. Since most administrators have a rule for answering emails, such as 24 hours, her teacher tip is to answer every parent’s concern with a generic phrase. For example,” Thank you for your concern. I will look into this and get back to you in (X amount) of days”. This gave the parent satisfaction of being heard and her time to think and figure it out. As a result, more times than not that, by the time she got back, the problem was resolved.

Teacher Tip 2: Support Parents

Parents are overwhelmed. Trying to balance their life and deal with teachers can be daunting. Most importantly, I figured this tip out after I became a parent, needing to know my child was OK, especially the firstborn. I remember how upsetting it was for preschool teachers to tell me what my son was doing wrong. All I could do was see my sweet baby in the future sitting in prison for throwing rocks. After that, I always made it a point to preface any problematic behavior with a supporting statement.

I had a student tell another student to F@!& OFF. When asked if he said that, he answered yes. I had to call Mom. After she screamed like in A Christmas Story, I reassured her it was OK; I was OK. He was OK. In short, making sure she understood he was not the first fifth-grade boy to say this, nor would he be the last, and I was confident she would not be visiting him in Rikers on the weekend in the future. To clarify, this mom had a reputation for being difficult. I NEVER had a problem with her; she never called the administration to complain about me.

Teacher Tip 3: Have a Classroom Theme

This tip came from a friend who was an aspiring administrator. She had a classroom theme of her Dachshund, Neville. This was well before the times of TPT. Everything was Neville, word problems, sentences, analogies, etc. As a result, she was concerned after the state writing exam because she was sure most of the class’s narrative was about a Dachshund named Neville. How does this help? It gives students a way to relate to you. For me, it is Disney. Everything in my class relates to Walt Disney World. To sum up, having a theme that is personal to you helps students connect and build a relationship with you. A few years back, a student wrote me notes and counting down the days until my birthday because he was so excited to give me a present. His mom had ordered me a Funko POP of Mickey Mouse.

Teacher Tip 4: Take advice from your colleagues

As mentioned, I started at a school with no colleagues to help me. On occasions, my current school has had first-year teachers who know everything. Curious why they feel they need to prove perfection. We are in a profession that thrives on helping others learn. First-year teachers believing they know everything, are setting themselves up for failure. Find someone willing to take you under their wing. Seek out the teacher whose child just went to college. They are looking to fill a void and will teach you the most.

Teacher Tip 5: Never take away a child’s recess

I disagree with colleagues who feel that specific behavior warrants the loss of recess. Our school has students walk instead of sitting out. I don’t do that either; rather, my go-to punishment for inappropriate behavior is to see all the students playing their favorite game and take that away. A student was talking back and not doing his assignments. His mother was adamant he was never to sit out recess. So at recess, I took kickball away from him. All of his friends were playing kickball. He was required to find another group of kids to play with and learned a lesson; behavior has consequences. Taking away students’ time to interact and reset their brains punishes me more than them. Let them play, just not what their besties are playing.

Conclusion

Teaching is easy. Raising a class of 25 is hard. Remember, it is Ok to continue to grow and learn in this profession. Take time to get to know your students and parents. Check out my essential list for teachers.