Things You'll Need:
- Patience
- Creativity
- Lots of paper
- Writing utensils
- More patience
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Step 1
Get to know your fellow teachers. Other teachers in the building will give you better advice and help than any professor you had in college. They are actually in the classroom day in and day out and will give you practical answers, not just philosophical jargon.
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Step 2
Get your materials ready for the first two weeks. Gather all of your lesson plans and materials and have them ready for the first two weeks. Do this before any other class work. Many districts send away their print jobs to a copy shop and at the beginning of the year, the copy shop can be overwhelmed with work. Get your originals copied early and quickly.
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Step 3
Figure out what systems you want to use for the following class situations: Calendar, where student will pick up work, where students will turn in work, a durable/unmistakable hall pass, disciplinary procedure and seating chart.
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Step 4
Get ready for the kids. The kids are going to be nervous just like you for the first few days. Just remember that it is YOUR classroom. The students are guests in your class. If they are not cooperating, ask them to sit outside. You are their teacher, not their friend. By all means have fun with them and be friendly, but also make sure they know that you demand their respect and will discipline them should they chose to make poor decisions.
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Step 5
Establish Parent Communication. On back to school night early in the year, try to get parents to leave their phone numbers and e-mail addresses for easy communication (To make mass e-mail communication easy, enter all e-mails on to a digital Word document so you can copy and past all e-mail addresses. This will save you a lot of time.)
Throughout the year, try and communicate with parents as soon as issues to to arise. Make sure to send home POSITIVE feedback as well as negative. Positive e-mails and phone calls are great for establishing effective relationships that will ultimately make your job easier and your students more successful. -
Step 6
Have a weeks worth of lesson plans ready in advance. If it's Monday, try to know exactly what you are going to do all the way up through NEXT Monday.
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Step 7
Have video based lessons ready to go. Thankfully in this age of technology, many videos have been produced about many subjects being taught. Since first year teachers get sick so often, have a video based lesson plan ready to go at a moments notice, since you are likely to get sick and not be able to come in a few times the first year. A video based lesson is simple for the sub to teach and effective for student learning.
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Step 8
Leave your work AT WORK! Don't bring home papers to correct. You will thank yourself if you make it a rule to leave all of your work at work. teachers deserve and need time to relax in the evenings just like everyone else who works a 9-5. you will probably find teaching to be one of the most exhausting jobs you have ever had in an intellectual and emotional sense.
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Step 9
Always be thinking of ways to improve lessons with hands on activities and encouragement of student creativity. This may come slowly but it is worth it.
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Step 10
If you still find you love your job at the end of the first year, get your lesson plans ready for the first two weeks of the next school year and enjoy your vacation!
