It’s crazy to believe my teaching journey began almost nine years ago when I was a freshman at UND. Where has the time gone?! ⁣⁣If you would have asked me in 2011 where I thought I would be in 2020, I never would have imagined being in the place I am now. ⁣⁣

Although I know I still have a lot to learn, here are just a few things I have learned along the way. ⁣⁣

Ask for help/accept help!

Your first year of teaching is without a doubt going to be a roller coaster ride, but if you’re willing to ask for help and accept help from others, it will more than likely be just a little bit more manageable! ⁣It’s okay to admit that you don’t know it all or can’t do it all. We have all been in your shoes! Plus, you’ll have plenty of chances to return the favor in the future!⁣

Don’t forget to have a life.

Try not to stay too late each night and get as much as you can done on Friday before you head home. Your students need the happiest and healthiest version of you, which means continuing to do the things you love. Go to happy hour, take that spin class, watch that trashy reality TV show. You’re not a bad teacher if you don’t spend every single weekend working on school stuff. ⁣⁣

Lay out everything you need for the next day before you head home.

There is nothing better than arriving at school with everything ready to go! There are going to be mornings when someone stops you to chat, the copy machine is jammed, or you end up running behind due to traffic or a wardrobe malfunction. Having everything ready to go will help you avoid the panic and last-minute scramble of trying to get everything ready!

Find your people.

Make friends with colleagues who fill your bucket. You’re going to have enough to worry about while being a first-year teacher, so don’t let the people you hang around add more stress to your life. It’s okay to not be BFF’s with every single person in the building. Find the people who help you feel like the best version of you, who you can bounce ideas off of, and who help you find the positive in every situation. You’re going to come across negative people who will wear you down. I definitely still think you should be nice to them and spread your positivity towards them, but that doesn’t mean you need to be friends with them.

It’s okay to fail.

You’re without a doubt going to have a lesson that doesn’t go as planned. You might take a course and be ready to implement the material and it’s a complete fail. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but mistakes are proof you’re trying. If you’re truly putting forth your best effort and things don’t go as planned, that’s okay! Reflect, modify, and try again!

Grow through what you go through.

There are going to be situations that you weren’t prepared for. There are going to be incidents that you could have handled in a different way. Whatever the incident or situation is, take time to reflect, walk yourself through why the incident happened, and think about what you can do differently if this situation happens again. Find ways to make every experience a valuable one. Don’t spend too much time dwelling on the negative, that’s only going to make things worse. Instead, choose to learn from the situation and then keep on moving forward.

CHange is a good thing.

Change can be hard, especially when you finally feel like you’ve gotten into a routine of things. Whether it’s a classroom procedure that’s changing, a grade level change, or even a change in position, change is a good thing! Take these changes as they come, and as I’ve already said in the above paragraphs, find ways to learn and grow and stay positive throughout the transitional time.

There are so many tips I would love to share with you, but for the sake of time, I wanted to keep this short and sweet. My hope is that as you go through the upcoming school year, these tips will be in the back of your mind.

If you ever need anything at all, please do not hesitate to reach out! I am just an email or a DM away!

What other teacher tips do have you?

You can click HERE to check out my other teacher tips!

Do you have any support for first-year teachers?

I do! I have created a course called the Blossoming Teacher Course which is all about supporting new teachers during their first year of teaching. You can check out the course HERE!