New Teacher Tips!!

 

Okay... So, I have seen this linky running around in blog land lately and have been reading all of the great tips & boy have I learned a lot. I am a new teacher & as many of you know I just finished my first year! As a newbie myself, I do have advice for NEW, NEW teachers that I learned from my first year... here it is! ;)

 

1. FOLLOW AS MANY BLOGS AS YOU CAN!! Read, read and read some more about classroom management, lesson planning and station rotations before you begin school! Having a classroom management plan BEFORE school starts is so important and STICKING to it is so important!

 

2. Find a lesson plan template that works best for you and try to create a routine each week with your lessons so kids know what to expect. Kids like routine and messing with the schedule will throw them off (trust me)!!

 

I always looked at Erica Bohrer's lesson plans to help guide my own.

Mrs. Wills has a wonderful linky during the school year where teachers link up and show you their plans. I cannot tell you how much this helped me! I struggled with this a lot for some reason.

Here is the link to my visuals! They're not as good but I am hoping this changes next year! I am still learning! :)

 

 

 

 

3.Also, learning to set up stations and how to run them was the hardest thing for me. Thank goodness for my bloggy friends or else my stations would have been an absolute disaster! Find a way that you want to set up your stations, prepare them early and correlate them to the theme!

 

I took my station rotation system from Deanna Jump. I don't do it exactly... but very similar. I added second stations to my rotation because I teach first. I don't yet have a post on my stations but I will once school begins! :) Here is the link to hers.

 

 

4. Try your best to organize! As a new teacher it is so hard to know how to organize your items. All I can say is have file folders ready and as soon as someone hands your something throw it in a file folder and label it & put it away. DO not loose precious items!

 

5. Get to know your students and treasure every moment that you have with them. Your beginning years fly by in a flash and it is a blurr. Treasure your moments and have conversations with your kids. They love you and don't let the time you have with them slip by.

 

6. Don't try to teach like anyone else. Teach like you and don't let others tell you your ideas are bad... that is why we all have separate classrooms. Do what works for you & make sure you students are learning. If you classroom is working and your students are improving then you're fine!

 

There are a few of the things I will be doing differently this year. My first year of teaching was so tough and boy was it a learning experience but I loved it. I chose the PERFECT profession for me & I hope you have a fantastic year!

 

Happy Teaching!