I am a first year teacher, starting out in a small charter school in North Carolina. While schools differ state to state, even county to county, I am hoping that by blogging my experience I can share helpful tips with future teachers. And I just want a place to capture the experience of my first year.
But the school year hasn't started yet! (I know that's what you're thinking.) Well, I start school in about two weeks [year-round], so here I am. Already, I have some tips that you may need to know. All teacher training programs (at least the good ones) will tell you to find out about what resources are on hand for you. I'm here to tell you: that is DIFFICULT. I have already been forceful (though polite) with getting into my own classroom. Within a week of accepting my contract, I had contacted the Department Head and gotten the list of what I was teaching. However, as helpful as my new colleagues are, I still have no idea what resources are available to me. Yes, I know what books we have, but as for the little things like paper, pens, white board markers, etc.? I have no clue. I tried to ask, and was faced with an awkward situation:
I took my father and uncle (whose daughter is also a teacher) with me to get into my classroom early. I hoped to scope out the layout and start arranging things so that the week of orientation I could put up posters and be done. I arrived, during the time the Principal told me to, and was greeted with confused faces. After double checking that I was really a teacher, an office assistant let me into my room. I poked around some and discovered that there was a desperate need for painting. My helpers and I arranged the room as I desired, and I had a list of questions I wanted to ask the ladies up front. I was always told they were there for helping and was ready to try my hand at getting information. However, when I tried to ask about painting over the murals the previous students had so kindly left me, I was faced with some confused faces. I guess I was being too forward? Either way, I left quickly and forgot to ask the other questions on my mind.
I am not saying I had a bad experience. Rather that I realized that as a new teacher...it's hard to find out some information. Be prepared for that. As much as you may try to prepare (and I am the queen of trying to get it done early, or else it'll be done in the midnight hour), you can't prepare everything. There are sure to be late nights ahead of you, Oh Fellow New Teacher, and it is something we are going to have to deal with.\
But you can do one thing - PLAN PLAN PLAN! Use your summer and plan. A lot. Try to plan a week a day. I have been trying to plan nine weeks of each class (I have three preps to do) and I'm still on 9th Grade! AH! So don't be lazy - PLAN! You don't have all the resources a veteran teacher does...so you will need A LOT of time. Don't get discouraged, because your student teaching semester? Well, that saves you some time.
