The first year teaching is brutal. For almost everyone. But I can’t shake the feeling that it shouldn’t be this hard.
What do you wish someone would have told you or taught you how to do before your first year teaching?
For me,
1) I wish someone would have demonstrated how to effectively use betterlesson.com and tfa.net and made me promise to never create my own materials from scratch.
2) I wish someone had worked with me to develop the mentality of “I am the adult in charge of this classroom, and I need to maintain that authority in order for my students to learn.” I’m not sure how this can be done, exactly, but it’s so tempting to want to please or appease your students in the first few months of teaching before you realize that it hurts your effectiveness as a teacher.
I agree with both of your points, but, somehow, they are those words you constantly hear but never listen to until you have your “ah-ha” moment in the classroom. I also think that along the same lines as point number two, CMs need to remember that staying calm (particularly with younger students) and not getting caught up in the day-to-day drama of teaching will get them a long way. I don’t ignore little details, but I know better than to let them throw off my lessons these days.