I'm a new teacher. I just started this January,?

Question

I'm a new teacher. I just started this January, and i just wan't to ask all' the vets' out there, does it get easier?, do you always feel lost? man I feel lost and I feel like no one is there to help me, and I'm here asking for advice because I swear I have the most stubborn kids in the school.

Answer 1

Where are you from? I am in Texas and have been an educator for the last 20 years. Teaching was the last on my list of things to do after I graduated. I did everything I could imagine to avoid it, including getting a degree in German! But alas, with my back agianst the wall, I went into my first classroom.

My first year was fun, challenging, and wickedly stressful. I wondered how much these kids actually learned because I felt that I was learning along with them. I felt I was only a page ahead of them, and this was the 6th grade!

I have since taught all levels incluing college, and truthfully, the students are really all the same. Once you get comfortable with all the things they never tell you in teacher school, you'll find your rhythm. You'll know when a lesson went just right, and you will know what never to do again. I learned that teaching two-year olds how to finger paint with pudding, might not have been my best idea. I also learned that even high school students love to see there work posted on the walls.

Most of all I learned to never be afraid. No one else in that classroom knows more about teaching or even life in general than I do. Trust me, just being present in the room every day, just being enthusiastic about learning, just being the one adult these kids can count on, may make the difference in their lives and change the choices they might have made otherwise.

I know this may sound cliche, and I might feel the same way if it weren't for those kids who now have kids of their own who stop me in the grocery aisle to tell me that they still remember how to spell "anxiety," because of a little rap song we invented. Or the young man who had just come from Mexico to the United states. He was a remarkable kid, but couldn't afford to go to the prom. I bought his tickets and pictures. Since then, he and his wife used my name as their daughter's middle name. What an honor it is to know that I will be remembered through the life of another person. Both my student and his wife went on and graduated from college. They are both teachers!

You may not change the world, and you may never go to Disney World as Teacher of the Year. But I promise, you matter.

If you're feeling lost, ask your principal to find a mentor for you. Or find one yourself, someone you admire and trust. You'll learn the ropes. And if all else fails, remember the summer. A paid holiday like that is hard to find in corporate America!

Hope this helps. I know it can be so trying sometimes. Relax. Even Donald Trump faced bankruptcy!

Best of luck to you!

Answer 2

I've been teaching for 13 years, and what happens during that time is that you become tougher while maintaining availability to your kids. Have you laid a clear discipline plan that works for you and are you following it? For example, I will use my cell phone to call parents in the middle of class if a kid just won't quit acting up. I also change seating arrangements often, and I make kids who are disruptive sit close to the front of the room. You just have to set clear boundaries and then follow through with consequences when the boundaries have been breached. Also don't be afraid to use your discipline principal. I had to have my discipline principal come to my room and talk to my students twice at the beginning of the year--and I'm a veteran teacher. The classroom environment depends upon several different things. If you have to be a straight up holy terror, then be that. Be tough. But when the kids learn how to act appropriately you can ease up. It's harder to toughen up when you've been lax than it is to be tough and loosen up a little. DO you have any veteran teachers in your building you can talk to?

Good luck.

Answer 3

The first year is sure to pass. Take a deep breath before each class. Find a veteran teacher in your hall who will mentor you without disrespecting you.

At the end of this semester, ask yourself if you really want to do this or was this the "fallback plan". If you'd be happier doing something else, change. Life is too short to be working at something you hate. Be sure to question whether it's the teaching that's hard or the age you're assigned. I spent 13 mostly miserable years in public school before starting to teach adults. Now I love teaching!

Answer 4

Does your district have a teacher mentor? We have a teacher who is relieved of classroom duties for one year to support newer teachers in the district.

Consider joining your union, if there is one. You will then have access to regional programs run by your state or regional union organizations to help you. I know the NEA offers regional support to new teachers in my state.

I don't know your grade level, but I found both the NEA monthly magazine and Scholastic's Instructor magazine fairly useful in my first years of teaching.

I wouldn't advocate getting out of teaching yet - the first year is tough on everyone and coming in mid-year is probably one of the toughest ways to do it. By the end of the year you may have met supportive colleagues. But, if you are working in a school where people jealously guard their knowledge and don't support each other, look for a teaching job in a new place.

Answer 5

You have gotta show these kids who is boss....this is what it boils down to. They think that because they have been there longer than you...then they have to right to act however they want.
Let me guess the other teachers are not very forthcoming with any helpful hints, or to even off you any support. well shame on them....they were knew once to and knows how it feels.....anyway.....do not be the little fish in with a ocen full of sharks......be the shark....and there is a way to do this without be cruel and mean.

Answer 6

Check out www.appliedscholastics.org on the web. They have brilliant answers. I tutor children in Singapore and use this tech. The mother of one child stated "I cannot believe how much difference you have made, at my age you have taught me something about study".

Hee hee. Adults are better to teach because they pretend they understand but sit there quietly.

Answer 7

every child is stubborn...
jus realx cuz the kids dont care about u they jus want to enjoy themselves.wat u hav 2 do is give em more work and be strict but not 2 strict.if dei dont listen givem the grade they deserve