Advice

Here is some advice that will hopefully help every teacher get through. Three pieces of advice: 1. Start the year off strict! The "don't smile until Thanksgiving" motto is a little extreme, but definitely make sure you do not allow things to get out of hand early. Make the environment the way you want. You do not have to be their friend for them to like/respect you; in fact, the opposite usually happens. You will lighten up as the year goes by. 2. You do not have to be on every committee! You need to learn how to say "No!" early in your career. 3. You will work hard this year, and every year for that matter, so make sure you play hard! Don't spend your vacations making the perfect unit! Instead, make sure you read books you like, relax, and get revitalized! - Rick ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Always know what you're going to do, and what you need to do it! Be sure that stuff is there before you leave the day before (good luck!!!). Don't go in with a vague idea. In almost all cases those shoot-from-the-hip "lessons" fail. You end up cheating your students. It also usually makes for a very long day. 2. A student should learn something from your test. Be sure that your tests also teach as opposed to simply measuring knowledge gained. I learned this valuable lesson from a curriculum course back in 1970, and it made a huge impact on me. This is difficult to explain, but well worth the effort. 3. Be organized! Have a place for everything, and control how materials are distributed and, more importantly, collected. Never allow the students to "put the test on your desk." You take it from them! Never take an assignment from a student in a corridor, cafeteria, etc. That will come back to haunt you! - Charlie ----------------------------------------------------------------- The lessons I have learned What does my past tell me? What are the lessons I have learned since I taught that first lesson? There are many, but these are the most important or at least the most useful to me at this point in my career. 1. Be clear and consistent with your expectations -- whether it is for behavior, a student's performance, your instruction, or the directions on an assignment. I used to get very upset with students because they would ask me what to do on a task even though the directions were right in front of them. Multiple requests for clarification are a signal to me that I need to rewrite or restate the directions for the class, while isolated incidents are simple requests for help from a student who is having a hard time comprehending. I believe Harry Wong says that most students want to do well and they want to know what to do and how to act, so most requests or behaviors are a result of unclear communication of the teacher's expectations. I have found that the more explicit I am, the fewer problems I encounter. 2. Lasting change takes time. The problems we have as a school and staff, especially when it all seems so simple to solve sometimes upset me. I remember a day in my second year when I ended up in tears with my instructional coordinator because I knew I would get the same satisfactory evaluation as everyone else, regardless of the extra effort I put into my job. I was looking for my principal to make several of the other teachers on the staff do more than pass out ditto sheets, and I was frustrated that he would not do that. I have since discovered that no one can make anyone else do anything they do not decide to do. Since human beings have their own fears, shortcomings, and their own belief systems, real change is filled with adversity, and working through adversity takes time. I can see now, five years later, just how far we have come as a school. We will continue to improve. 3. Problems can be solved and are opportunities to grow. Fortunately I learned this early in my career, and it has carried me through some very trying times. Trying to have my principal solve my discipline problems was not effective, so I learned how to solve them myself. I was not only successful, but I also gained confidence in myself as a problem-solver. Since then I have always identified weak areas in my teaching as well as areas of interest, and I have educated myself in those areas through professional associations, various publications, and discussions with colleagues. I openly share my failures with my students as well as how I am trying to overcome them, and I hope modeling this habit of mind will transfer to them as well. Failures are just opportunities to learn. 4. If something is not working, scrap it. Do not hold on to behaviors, strategies, lessons, or units just because that is what you have planned. I used to be afraid to scrap a lesson for fear my supervisors or my students would think less of me. However, how ridiculous is it to continue doing something you know does not work? Throw it out, be honest with the kids or your supervisors about the reason for the deletion, think about why it did not work, and start over. 5. Be human. I used to cringe at the old adage, "Don't smile until Christmas," as a preservice teacher. It is not in my nature to be a dour old sourpuss, and I went into teaching partly because I did like the kids. I know teachers who still follow this advice, and they think any questions about their personal lives are impertinent. While this approach may work for them, it does not work for me. I do not care if my students know my first name or my age, and I think it is important for them to know how I love to travel, eat at good restaurants, and read. I jump around in class, make up little poems and songs about them to encourage them to get on the bus or into their classrooms, and generally act like a big goofball. They sometimes look at me askance, but they appreciate my human-ness. At this time in their lives, especially when they are questioning who they are and how they should be, I think it is important for them to see an adult who has embraced all the quirks and idiosyncrasies of their personality while working to become a better human being in the process. As I said before, my list of lessons is not at all comprehensive. They are, however, important to who I was, who I am now, and who I will become as a teacher. I cannot wait to see what the future holds. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Take what you hear in the faculty lounge with a grain of salt. It is not necessarily true or scientifically founded. 2. Find someone who you can turn to for help with even menial tasks like how to find the new code for the copy machine and how to use the fax machine and laminator and especially with the hard ones like what to do with the kid who fights you at every turn and where to find the new grading program with all the phone numbers in it on your computer. 3. Be firm and fair and most of all consistent with all from day one and you will be able then to smile long before Thanksgiving. . .maybe even before Halloween and possibly even right after September! 4. Learn the student's names and use them often, if you screw up ask the kid for the name and then use it! 5. Don't be afraid to let them in on your secrets, like what you like and when you are having a bad day. They know anyway and appreciate the honesty but remember number three and don't take the bad day out on them. Be firm, fair and consistent even on a bad day. (I am not new and I still have to remember this one.) And as my mentor told me, no one can teach your first year for you, you have to learn it all for yourself -- this is one time when you have to make your own mistakes and learn from them for it to get better. The learning curve is very steep but it is well worth the work because the next year you might even find yourself smiling right after Labor Day, I was (the second year, I am not certain I smiled the whole first year and that was 1997-98). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome New Teachers! As much as your first year will be really challenging, it will be so special that you will remember many of those kid's faces for the rest of your teaching career. -- Expect to make mistakes and be kind to yourself when you do. Learn from them and think, well, I don't have to make that mistake again! -- Align your self with positive, "on the grow" colleagues. Your will learn from them and they will take delight in learning from you. -- Stay away from the "Gloomy Gusses" -- they will only disillusion you. -- Take the posture of a learner. No one will think you are incompetent if you ask lots of questions; in fact, you will endear yourself to veteran teachers and gain a support system that is invaluable. -- Stop and gab with the kids in the hall. Ask them about their weekend. Tell them about yours. Surprise them with a treat now and then. My math kids were always kind of stunned when I handed the licorice out (for no reason at all) or mints during tests. I never knew kids liked mints so much (I'd buy bags of Scotch Mints at WalMart). -- Think about your classroom procedures before school starts. Don't have too many but stick to the ones you make. Sometimes the simplest procedure can make the biggest difference. For example, in my classroom there is a front door and a back door. The first year I was in that room I let the kids go out whatever door they wanted to. Bad plan! When the classes switched it was bedlam as the two different classes collided at the front door. It was hard to implement a change part-way through the year so the first day of school (the next year), I told all my students: In the front door, out the back. The difference was amazing. No chaos, less noise, no wounds or fights. I had to remind them for a few weeks (I was a real stickler on this rule) but then it was non-issue. Simple lesson, but profound implications! -- If you end up in a school without a support system, make sure you hook up with a listserv like MiddleWeb. I have found this community of professionals surpasses anything I have available in the schools I've taught at. Participate on the list, don't just read it. Tell us about your successes, your failures, ask your questions, and share your opinions. -- Writing will help you work out your thinking, view it as a fun form of reflection. It's fun because someone will respond which will make you think further. As you write, you gradually work out your philosophy of teaching and understand what you need to do next in your classroom. That's what all of us at MiddleWeb are doing. Jump on! -- Buy Rick Wormeli's book Meet Me in the Middle. It will inspire you and give you lots of ideas and food for thought. Watch for Rick's postings on the MiddleWeb listserv -- they are worth their weight in gold! (Watch for Rick's new book for first-year teachers at the Stenhouse website.) -- Use Education World as a resource. It's like a light in the dark. Check it once a week for practical ideas. -- Put a limit on your work day. It's like housework, it's never done. Decide when is enough is enough, stick to it (and ask someone to make you accountable for sticking to it. So you don't move the line partway through the year!). Don't listen to veteran teachers that tell you they spent their first year working day and night. Maybe they did, but that doesn't mean you should. Begin your career by establishing a balance between work and your play. In the end, your kids will benefit because they will have a healthy, happy, teachers. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings and welcome to the best job in the world, even on the really rotten days. 1. BE CLEAR - on what you expect from students, on your curriculum, on your lesson plans, on what kind of services are available at your school, discipline policies, etc, and on how much you want school to become your life (if you let it, IT WILL TAKE OVER). Plan to succeed. It's been my experience that my worst days as a teacher were my fault through poor planning -- not the kids. The good news is you get REALLY good at planning. ;) 2. BE FAIR AND CONSISTENT. This has been said, but it bears repeating: middle schoolers have an overdeveloped sense of fairness. Students like reasonable rules and boundaries. I recommend Benjamin Mahle's little book Power Teaching: Practical Tips for Teaching Adolescents. He uses one rule, and I adopted it. "Be Appropriate." After 5+ years in school, they KNOW how to behave in general, and they seem to appreciate having that recognized. I teach a lot of procedure, as my ways of doing things might be different than their last teacher, but I do very little "rule speak." We discuss as a group any "appropriate" behaviors I might have missed and I congratulate them on their grasp of what is and what is not appropriate. It works well for me, which leads to... 3. BE YOURSELF - no matter how much advice you receive or how many books you read, you are an INDIVIDUAL and so are your kids. This is one of the reasons that teaching is such a great profession! Recognize what makes you crazy in a classroom and design your approach around that (you've student taught so you've got at least an idea of what you don't want). If you're a warm, personable person then throw that "don't smile" nonsense out the window. You can be firm, fair, and consistent and smile. If you're naturally a "no-nonsense" person, avoid some of the more "warm and fuzzy" approaches. Kids KNOW WHEN YOU ARE FAKING. Adapt. Modify. Overcome. But be yourself. 4. MAKE FRIENDS - Find AT LEAST ONE person who can be your mentor - preferably a teacher with much experience, preferably in your subject area, preferably who has a similar style, but find someone. You'll quickly find out who the most respected people in the faculty are - seek them out. Also, band with a buddy - find another first year that you can commiserate, plan, bounce ideas from books off of - you'll both benefit. In addition to the school secretary and custodian and the media specialist (who can HOOK YOU UP!), make sure you develop a rapport with your administrator. Find out what he/she expects in terms of paperwork and discipline and what he/she can offer you in terms of support/advice. ABOVE ALL, make sure you go see these nice folks some times when you don't need anything. 5. READ, READ, READ, AND DISCUSS. The learning never stops! 6. HAVE FUN and HANG ON TO YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR WITH BOTH HANDS. Or, as my professor used to tell me -- They're going to want to get your goat. Let 'em have it. Just don't let them get your donkey. ----------------------------------------------------------------- -- Find one or two mentors: Do not try to follow every suggestion from every teacher...it becomes overwhelming. -- Remember everything takes practice. Don't assume that because you tell students to do something it will happen. For instance: Choose a signal for quiet in your room. One signal. (lights out, hands up, etc.). Practice this with the students. Tell them what you expect when you give the signal. Then say, "Ok talk. When I give the signal I expect you to...." (put your hand up, become quiet, etc.). Practice this over and over during the first few days. At any time in the year that the signal breaks down, go back to some practice. -- Don't blame the students. As a first year teacher you will struggle. Remember that if you had more experience you would have additional strategies. Although you will definitely try to change student behavior, the only person whose behavior you can absolutely change is your own. Be reflective. When things go wrong.....try to figure out what you could have done that might have prevented the problem. -- Contact parents early in the year, before there are problems. Introduce yourself and try to say something positive about the student. This will open a positive line of communication. Don't call parents in anger, but do call them. Ask for their support and suggestions. Don't assume that student's negative behavior is caused by poor parenting skills. -- Don't create a great deal of paper work for yourself. It is better to have very few papers that have to be collected and graded. I found that making a class list for each class I taught, with several columns across, was the best way for me to collect data on students. I used a new sheet each day. I gave a check for starting the "do now", a check for reading silently, a check for sharing, etc. When a student was not working I would go over quietly and say, "I really want to give you credit for this work. I will come back in a minute or two to see if you have started." Try not to make ultimatums like "The next student who throws a paper will be suspended." Try to say something like "There is no paper throwing. There will be consequences for anyone who throws anything in this room." Then follow up with a consequence. Don't let it slip. But don't box yourself into a single consequence (unless your school has an exact policy). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Rebecca Camarena reminded us that teaching, especially in the first year, is very isolating. She's correct. Our first year teachers need to get out and be with other faculty members as much as they reasonably can. In the lounge they pick up tidbits of school culture and vital information (like when somebody mentions a date change for turning in locker forms, for example). They also exchange ideas, vent, and get a sense of belonging. The greater gift is to help new teachers process what they experience in the lounge and other gathering places, not to avoid them. Sure, there are people who can really bring us down, but there are more people who inform and inspire us. First year teachers need them every day. In addition, some of us work in schools in which a teacher who never comes to lunch in the lounge gets a reputation of being stand-offish, unapproachable, 'kind of cold.' This is not the reputation a first year teacher wants to develop. I say get in that lounge and in those other gathering places (like we find near the copier if it's not in the lounge) whenever you want to connect with others, relax, sort priorities, or just listen. Find yourself a close mentor who can provide perspective on what you hear, but see the experience as a positive one, not something to avoid. By the way, not all lounges are dens of cynicism and despair. Most, in fact, can be quite fun, relaxed, and even professional. The second disagreement is the "don't smile" attitude for the beginning of the year. I really have a problem with this. Our humanity is the greatest thing we have going for us as teachers. It's important that we express it on the first day we have our students -- they need to know they are in the right place and that our classroom is safe and emotionally non-threatening. Our authority isn't so fragile as to not withstand a genuinely pleasant moment with our students in the first moments we meet. Sure, we don't want to throw parties or tell jokes every day for the first quarter, but we can and should be laughing, smiling, and enjoying our students' company if the opportunities arise during the course of instruction. The better advice from my perspective is to tell new teachers to be very structured and focused those first few weeks, keeping expectations for civility high and vivid. In the midst of this, be yourself, however. Your sincerity, professional demeanor, and well-planned, developmentally appropriate lesson plans and classroom protocols will create the behavioral culture you want. To not smile, to be anything other that what we are, isn't going to help. In fact, for those students who are insecure, wondering whether or not they belong or if they are worth anything to you or anyone else, it may be more hurtful than you realize. The tone of our room comes from so many other facets of our practice that the being overly stern (not smiling) sentiment just isn't that influential. Go ahead - enjoy your students publicly from day one. ----------------------------------------------------------------- I think many good things have been said and I believe you need to always take time to enjoy students and the time you spend with them. It's a gift, not to be too hokey about it. I also think that I would try to be as honest with them as possible. I couldn't have ever pulled off not smiling or acting like a hard nose. It's just not me. But there were things that I was very hard nosed about -- teasing, calling someone stupid, not trying, thinking you couldn't do something. Outside of those types of things, I always taught from the perspective that it was our classroom and together we were going to take on something that was tough. We'd be spending a year together tackling new ideas and pushing ourselves to grow and learn new stuff. I emphasized the hard but not impossible. By this I mean I didn't pull any punches about how they wouldn't be perfect (neither would I) in trying to become junior scientists or mathematicians. But that was the beauty of being a class -- to help each other, challenge each other and push each other. The only other thing I don't think has been covered to the max would be the importance of parent support. This was a cornerstone for my room. I told my parents that 7th grade was hard and that their students would go through every emotion over the course of the year --- it's too easy, it's too hard and so on. And that their student would hate it when I wouldn't accept work that was beneath their ability and give it back for a "redo". But I thought that was what they really wanted for the child; to learn to do their best every time. I also made sure that from the beginning my parents knew that not everyone was given exactly the same tasks -- and that they'd have to trust my professional judgement to give assignments and comments that uniquely reflected their child. I also genuinely invited them to be a part of our classroom. Every year my parents brought different occupations and talents into the classroom. The year one of my moms was a med tech we learned so much about germs, bacteria, and she was wonderful. The next year one of my dads worked for the Army Corps of Engineering and our soil unit was unbelievable. Another year my student was from Palestine and we learned much from his family as they shared. Another year one of my parents worked on the road and was willing to transport the huge Learning Trunks back and forth from the Historical Society in another city so we didn't have to pay shipping and handling; and so on. I found when you truly want their participation, parents will respond. This outreach, in turn, made them trust me, see me in action with their children, and built a supportive atmosphere. I never used parents for grading -- Ever!!! My "out of town" parents (often divorced) also were involved via electronic bulletin boards, posting digital pictures to our class web site and/or being a "sounding board" for projects. It was those distance parents that appreciated being included the most I think and I can't tell you how wonderful it was for the student who had never had that far-away parent be able to do anything. Lastly I would regularly ask, but not all the time, for my parents to use the assignment rubric to respond to their student's work before it was turned in to me. They appreciated having something to guide their input and they were able to help their child improve what they did in way that wasn't doing for them, but helping. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Here's a different take - what NOT to do as a new teacher. 1. Avoid constant redecoration. Constantly changing desks, tables, and wall accessories only confuses kids. Have kids change seat assignments rather than redoing the whole room. 2. Avoid changing rules. Kids need consistency. Find a way to use the rules you already have to include what needs to be added. Example: "Respect everyone" can mean lots of things. 3. Avoid taking too much work home with you or coming back to school in the evenings. You need a break. Making friends with an experienced teacher can really help! ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Remember what it was like to be a middle school student, or any student for that matter. Think realistically about what it was that your best teachers did that made you want to learn from them. Think also about what did not work for you as a student. 2. Don't try to do everything or even lots of things perfectly your first year. Actually, you won't even get close, even if you take your lifetime trying. I know you'll be trying to do it all, but choose a couple things to focus on at a time. 3. Get to know the school secretaries, the janitors, and the cafeteria folks. They will keep you up to date and supplied with procedures, toilet paper, and food. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most importantly, I learned to establish boundaries, consistency and procedures from the first second of school. Last year I thought that mutual respect would/could lead to an orderly classroom. Well maybe for 90% of the students, but the other 10% will kill a period every time. It needs to be clear to the students from the beginning that they will promote the learning environment or will suffer the consequences. Secondly, overplan. Have more planned than could possibly be finished because sometimes lag time can be chaos time. Make sure students know what their acceptable choices are for when they finish their work and others are still working. Begin telling yourself, "I am the teacher," right now if you haven't already. You need to feel like a prepared, competent professional. Otherwise students and staff may sense your insecurity and take advantage of it. My proudest moments last year involved some of my students telling me that I was their favorite teacher so far in school. A student who caused me tons of trouble all year stated that "None of the teachers at this school respect us, so why should we respect them?" I asked him what I had ever done to disrespect him and he said that I was the exception. One girl's mother told me that her daughter had never been interested in or done well in math. In my class she really blossomed and became a 99% average student. My worst moments last year included being treated terribly by my teacher's aide who also happened to be the adminstrator's wife and was a very conservative, children should be seen and not heard type person. I started up a student newspaper which turned out to be a disaster because at our conservative Christian school nobody is allowed to have an opinion that does not fully support everything the school does, we weren't allowed to talk about secular (non-Christian) music or fashion or most pg-13 movies in the entertainment section. Students soon lost interest as we were repeatedly squashed by the administration. My advice for new teachers would be: relax. Don't try to be the best teacher ever this year; just try to survive and teach. Be nice to everyone even if you think their ideas stink. Do the best you can and try to be satisfied with it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHALLENGES: 1. Keeping up with all the grading that went along with 160+ language arts students. It never seemed to end. 2. Keeping far enough ahead of each unit to have effective daily and weekly lessons planned well. 3. Keeping the other, experienced L.A.'s teachers happy by going along with their rigid interpretation of spelling and vocabulary by "learning" 25 words a week via textbook lessons while knowing it wasn't effective and trying my own methods (god forbid we weren't all on the same book lesson in the same week.) 4. Making time to observe in other teachers' classrooms during my prep period. The times I managed it, it was INVALUABLE, both by watching experts in practice and getting myriad ideas, AND by observing methods I did not want to emulate. 5. Attempting to save every Sunday as my "day off", meaning NO school prep, grading, work. SURPRISES 1. Kids cheat. (Ok, I was naive, but I prefer to believe the best, until proven otherwise.) 2. Not all principals are people savvy or understanding. 3. Teaching is (can be?) a VERY isolating experience. YOU have to reach out for help, not expect it to come to you. (In the best of worlds, you will be assigned an excellent mentor and have regular team meetings, and you won't feel the isolation as strongly.) WHAT I LEARNED 1. I cannot (and never will again) "teach" 160-190 students. That is an unreasonable number of students to give any middle school teacher, if the administration expects the teacher to do anything more than move their students through like a herd of sheep. 2. I love teaching. 3. It is possible to truly not like some of your students. You can still be "fair", but there are some kids you just aren't going to make that "connection" with. You have to hope another teacher can find the goodness in them. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------