Advice for new teachers (from veteran teachers)

All of our graduate students conduct an oral history with a veteran teacher. Below are short excerpts from those interviews.

"...a first year teacher should make friends with grade level colleagues and if they offer their help, always take their advice and smile, despite if you agree with them or not. He advises a beginning teacher to get familiar with the school as well as the district as a whole. He encourages organization and to ask other teachers for advice to get classroom supplies. Most importantly, Anthony feels that whatever happens during the day, ends that day. If you have a bad day with a class, the worst thing to say to them the next day is, “We are not going to have a day like yesterday!” He advises a beginning teacher to go on from that point and don’t look back. Finally, Anthony emphasized the use of a mentor. He feels that a mentor should be one of the most important people in a beginning teacher’s career."

"...go into the classroom with a positive attitude and an open mind. The classroom can be a scary place at first. Most first time teachers are overconfident. The classroom takes a few years to get used to and it gets very frustrating at times. I remember when I first started teaching I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t have much of a plan. I heard in college that if you try to be your students’ friend they will eat you alive. I became too strict as a result. I gave too much homework and I wasn’t lenient enough.”

"I asked Mrs. Smith to describe what I can expect from my first few years of teaching based on her experience. The first word that jumped out of her mouth was insecurity. She remembers questioning herself every day if her lessons were getting through to her students and at times, feeling helpless when there was a lack of progress. “I learned to increase my knowledge of the school’s curriculum and plan lessons that engaged students by incorporating their interests.” Mrs. Smith also described how it was initially difficult to discipline her students. She explained that she learned two things rather quickly; first, positive reinforcement will give students confidence and help their behavior and second, perhaps most important, is to remain consistent. “If you say that there will be no “fun time” if someone misbehaves, then you always have to follow through on that,” she described. “Also, if you promise that a student will be rewarded for doing something, then you must always provide that reward.” Mrs. Smith reinforced that after a short time, I will learn how rewarding it feels when I see that a struggling student starts to “get it”. “It’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever had,” she exclaimed."

"Not only are you a teacher, you are a social worker, counselor, disciplinarian. You have to provide resources to your students. You can do this by changing gears. You are constantly learning as a teacher.”