An educational communicator recently tweeted that he was going to talk to teachers who were about to graduate and asked veteran teachers to reply with what they wished they had known when they were starting out. While it would overwhelm a new teacher to take in all the years of wisdom and hard-earned professional judgment in those replies, it did make me think how good a book that would make, a little like Harry Wong's The First Days of School, except not exclusive to classroom management techniques. Someone should do that, but it isn't going to be me, so I'm going to put my two cents here. Teachers getting ready to start your careers, use it as you will.
Choosing the Job - You are entering the workforce during a teacher shortage. That's probably scary, but it also presents an exciting opportunity. It means you have more options than you might have in other years. It means you can choose the environment in which you want to work. When you go in for an interview, don't be afraid to ask if you can spend a day observing classes and chatting with teachers. See if they'll let you attend a faculty meeting. Listen to the way the staff interacts with students and with each other. Listen to the way they talk about their administration. You want to work in a helpful and joyful school, and that can be hard to know from the interview alone.
Setting Up - If you plan to teach in middle or high school, you aren't going to be much older than your first set of students, so you should do some things to establish authority. I don't mean that you should go in demanding, mean, or strict. I do mean that you should communicate the confidence of a person in charge. Focus on projecting yourself as someone credible and worthy of respect rather than merely likable. Hang your diploma and teaching certificate behind your desk just like you would expect a doctor, lawyer, or other professional to do. Post your rules (call them expectations if it makes you feel better). Communicate your passion for your subject. It makes kids feel secure if you act like you are confident in your abilities.
Lesson Planning - I'm going to tell you a secret. You will never again write a lesson plan as long and detailed as those you wrote for your college methods classes. That exercise was important to helping you think methodically about your lessons, but all you really need to have is a clear objective, the activities you need to accomplish that objective, and the way you will know when you have accomplished it. You don't know how long things will take. I remember planning what I thought was a class period length lesson. Sometimes, it only took twenty minutes, so you should have some meaningful backup activities (retrieval practice would be my advice - See the book Powerful Teachingˆ by Pooja Agarwal if you don't already know it). Sometimes, it would take three days. It will take at least two years before you develop an intuitive feel for how long things take, and that's okay.
Find Some Mentors - You will probably be assigned a mentor by your school. If you bond with them and they give you valuable advice, that's awesome. You should also find some teachers with whom relationships develop organically. You will need advice about replying to a parent's email, dealing with a difficult student, whether it is appropriate to offer extra credit or allow a student to retake a test, to talk through a project idea, to cry with on bad days, and to share your victories with. I've been teaching for 23 years, and I still need to talk about those things with other teachers. Find the ones who will tell you the truth and help you figure out your own philosophy (the one they had you write in college was idealistic and didn't cover the details). Your formal mentor may be helpful, but the teacher next door will be a longer, better source of help. Asking for help does not make you look weak; it makes you look like a professional who wants to grow in your job, but it is important to find the right people to ask. If someone starts being a cynical influence, look for someone else. (This is also true of teachers you find online. There is a lot of good out there, but there is also a lot of toxicity. Avoid the cynics, especially right now.)
Figure Out What Can Be Cut - There's a lot to cover in every curriculum, and you will have a time every semester when you realize you cannot cover it all. Instead of attempting to rush through all of it, choose to cover fewer things well. You can choose the things you find the most inspirational, the things that are most foundational to the next level (ask the next level's teachers), or the things you think your students will most enjoy. You can make that decision differently each year. There are so many things I tired to fit in the first year I taught physics that I don't bother with now because they just weren't needed.
Light Days - There are going to be some days when you are just too exhausted to be on top of your game. Some teachers will advise you to take the day off when that happens. That might work for you, but it doesn't work for me. In my experience, writing sub plans is actually harder than being at school. What you want are a few high-quality class-period-length videos that match your subject (You can find them on YouTube for free). You are not dropping the ball or being lazy. You are taking some stress off of your students, allowing them to hear quality material from another source, and giving yourself a chance to catch up on grading and lesson plans. Have them turn in notes and give them a completion grade for it. You shouldn't do it often, but if you need it once or twice a semester, don't feel bad about it.
There are many more things I could share here, but the first year is a swirl of advice that's hard to absorb. Hang in there. Learn a lot. Adapt as needed. You will feel much better after the first year and will really find your groove in year three. That's when you will want to start taking on clubs, suggesting new classes, or coaching something, but for that first year, just focus on your learning how to be your best self for your students.
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