The beginning of your teaching career is a time of unbelievable possibility. It is also a time of endless questions and challenges. No matter how well your teacher education program has prepared you for the job ahead, the day-to-day realities of data, duty schedules, deadlines, grading, substitute plans, building procedures, high expectations, changes in standards, changes in legislation, meetings and parent concerns, among many others, can combine each day into an overwhelming load.
It is undeniably a lot, and navigating the challenges of your incredibly important role in our ever-changing, post-COVID world grows more demanding each year. It has never been harder – or more important – to be a teacher. Our students need us, their families need us, and our communities are counting on us to not only meet those needs but to do so with exponential growth and ever-increasing achievement.
New teachers are met with an incredible amount of pressure in their first year on the job, and our best-intentioned advice is often confusing and contradictory. 'Be consistent, but be flexible because every situation is different.' 'Your classroom should be warm and inviting, but too much décor is overstimulating and detrimental to instruction.' 'Trust yourself to recognise and meet your students’ needs, but be sure to follow this common plan that everyone else is using.'
Despite our best efforts to support our new teachers (and, by extension, our students), it is difficult to truly set them up for success. Since each teacher and each classroom experience is unique, are there any truly universal practices we can help our new teachers put into place as they try to grow into the educators they want to be?
Continuing to grow