I can remember the July before my first school year as a teacher. The anticipation was high! I could not WAIT to get into my classroom and help my kids to see the joy in mathematics. While I had all the right intentions, my first year came with all sorts of bumps. I know now that struggling in the first year is normal, but here’s a few things that would’ve helped me. If you are entering into education for this first time or have been teaching for a few years, I want to provide tips as questions for you to consider. Hope this helps!

1. Who are you?

Who you are, your values and beliefs, greatly impact how you will show up as a teacher. How do you define success? What do you believe about people in the world? Take some time to do some self-discovery. Elena Aguilar has a great resource to help educators determine their core values. Check that out here.

2. What do you believe about education, teaching, and learning?

Do you believe all children can learn? Do you believe that students should be silent and working all class period? Do you believe in loud, active classrooms? Just like who you are will impact your teaching, this things will as well. Spend some time this summer exploring these things.

3. How might you increase your content knowledge?

Your knowledge of the content is one of those things that will increase as you teach. It’s good to know the standards of main concepts two grade levels below what you teach and two grade levels above. Talking with your colleagues who teach the other grades will help with this, as well as doing some googles 😂. Here’s a great resource for teachers using common core.

4. How do you want your classroom to look, sound, and feel?

Your classroom management will dictate what your class looks, sounds, and feels like. Being clear and consistent with your expectations of students helps with this. Ask students what they want their classes to look, sound, and feel like. Creating buy-in with them helps them to feel apart of the space. This site has great resources to get you started.

5. How’s your boundary setting?

I know. This one can get sticky. I stayed after school until 6 or 7pm most days. I worked on the weekends. I know that our profession sometimes requires working after hours, but this should not be happening all the time. Give yourself a designated time to leave school. Use your planning period to knock things out. Yes, take breaks when you need them, but constantly working late will lead to burn out very quickly.

6. Who might be your mentors?

Most schools have a system where new teachers get matched with mentors. If not, find someone who you trust that can offer wisdom, answer your questions, and even give helpful feedback on your teaching. There are also tons of teachers and resources online (like this one 😉) that can help provide some wisdom, but the ideal scenario is to be mentored by someone who is in your building and who is familiar with the environment.

7. What does the data say?

You may hear “these kids can/can’t” a lot. Our human nature causes us to make assumptions about people and things based on past experiences (how biases form). Always ask yourself and your colleagues when assumptions are made about students, “what data do you have to support that?” We should not be assuming what students can and cannot do without having objective proof. Proof looks like student work, test scores, etc.

8. Give yourself GRACE.

I know this isn’t a question, but stay with me. You will not be an expert at everything at the beginning. Your views on classroom management might change. Your beliefs on homework might change. All of this is okay. Being human means that we change our minds about stuff. Give yourself permission to change your mind. As long as what you’re doing is benefiting your students and you have the data to show it, that’s what matters.

Leave your thoughts below! For my vets, what else would you add to this list?

Happy back to school season, y’all 🥳