Tips from a First Year Teacher

I am back! I have my first full year of teaching under my belt! I moved to the sunny state of Florida and became a 7th/8th grade language arts teacher. Let me tell you, that first year was rough. I loved it, but it was seriously hard. I learned a few things along the way from my mentors and simply getting real classroom experience: 1. Kids crave structure. They like it. They like when you have rules and clear expectations. They like it when you follow through with punishments and are consistent in your classroom management. It was a bit up and down at the beginning for me, but after I established a routine in my class, my kids came to love my classroom and by the end of the year, the majority of my students had shown major growth in writing and reading. I truly believe that having a consistent and strategic plan in place helped that. 2. Be creative in punishments when necessary. I had a major problem with disrespect among my middle school students in the beginning. I struggled with ways to get them to really understand why they shouldn't be mean to each other and how to get them to stop. Then it came to me. I implemented this rule: Every mean thing said/joke told the offending student had to write one paragraph about how awesome that student they just insulted was. I got permission from my principal, who loved the idea, and I made my students do it. Then I had the students read them out loud to the person they were mean to. I accepted nothing less than real, actual compliments and by the end of the year, the majority of the students were much nicer in class. It worked. 3. I had a real issue with students getting up in the middle of class to throw things away. So I moved the trash can beside me at the front of the room. Students were told to throw trash away on the way into class or before they left. Any student who got up in the middle of class, immediately received an infraction and was told to remove the trash and wait until later. This behavior stopped after a few weeks and no more interruptions from students walking in front of me to go throw trash away. 4. Another thing that worked with my students was giving them the last three minutes of class to put away their books and talk quietly on Fridays. I gave the incentive to my students to work hard, break no rules, and follow all expectations and on Friday the last three minutes of class was theirs to pack up early, talk to friends, finish homework in another class, or read. My students loved it and worked hard all week to get those three minutes. 5. I work in a Title 1 school. We have over 40% of our population in FIT (Families in Transition). In other words 40% of my students were homeless or living in hotels. I gave each student a lollipop and a birthday sticker on the birthday. My 7th and 8th graders loved it, even at their age. Small gestures like that can have a deep and lasting impact on your students. I had a student who was very bitter and angry at his situation in life and often complained about his life while in class. I took the effort to give him some birthday items and made it a point to tell the rest of the class about his birthday and they all wished him well and from that day one, I saw a different student in my class. 6. I taught a lot with technology (i.e. Youtube clips, film clips, Smartboard, Audio, Music) and a mix of group work/lecturing and my students responded to it all. The few times that I just sat down and talked to them about a subject, my students were mesmerized and asked me to lecture more and do less group work. A mix of all three works well and middle school students can handle more rigorous lessons and love to challenge themselves. 7. Using popular culture references is a great way to get your students on board with any lesson. I learned this quickly by referencing things that were popular this last year in examples and my students suddenly thought I was "cool" for an "old lady" at 32 years old. 8. Make seating charts. Be proactive in your classroom management with this. There are teachers at my school with far more experience who don't use them anymore and they can get away with it. But as a soon to be second year teacher, I can't. I made an arrangement my first day of school last year and boy am I glad I did. L quickly learned personalities, who talks, who doesn't, and who should never, ever, ever be put together. I'll be doing this again this year. I don't care if my students think they are too old to be told where to sit, if they are irresponsible and disrespectful enough to talk over me to someone else, while i am teaching, they are not mature enough to handle choosing where to sit. 9. I didn't like all of my students. I quickly learned that it was okay. I treated all of my students with respect and gave them all the same level of education, but there were just some students that I didn't click with and no matter how hard I tried at the beginning, they still disliked me at the end. You have to get over it and develop a thick skin. You are not there to be the student's friends, but to teach them. It's a hard lesson to learn, but necessary. 10. I learned this just recently actually, but the best way to stock up a classroom library for a new teacher is to hit up Library sales. Many libraries will have an annual book sale, in which they sell off donated and used items for a great price. I am visiting my family for the summer and the local city hosted their library sale this last weekend. I went on Saturday afternoon and they were having a deal that for $6 you could fill a bag. Well I had an enormous Ikea bag in my car. I got 80 books for $6. I offered to pay more and they refused to take it. Don't hesitate to hit up garage sales/yard sales as well.