Rookie Mistakes to Avoid During Your First Year of Teaching
12 Rookie Mistakes All Teachers Make at One Point or Another
We've all made at least one (probably a few) of these mistakes during our first year of teaching. Take some advice from my veteran teacher friends and avoid these rookie mistakes:
Discover resources below that will simplify your workload, encourage student self-advocacy, and more! Keep reading to get the FREE Student Present Level Form below.
Being afraid to ask for help. Don't be too embarrassed to ask for advice because you think you suck. Reach out to more experienced colleagues. They will most likely be flattered if you're asking for their advice. Collaboration is the key to growth in this profession. Don't be shy. Ask away! Asking for help shows your initiative and willingness to improve.
On the other end of the spectrum, listening to everyone's advice. Instead, be selective! Find a few people whose advice you trust. Observe classrooms early in the year to find colleagues who resonate with your teaching persona.
Feeling like a failure. I'm not gonna lie, there will be times when you feel like you are doing more harm than good. Resist the urge to give up on yourself and your career just because something doesn't work out the way you envision. Instead, reflect on the process and improve it for next time. Don't be too hard on yourself! This is one of the most challenging careers.
“Teaching is the greatest act of optimism.”
Giving up on a system. You shouldn't give up on yourself and you shouldn't give up on a system just because it doesn't work right away. Maintain the system and tweak as necessary. For behavioral management systems, it often gets worse before it gets better. Sorry, that's just the way it works. :/
Reinventing the wheel. Don’t feel the need to make every lesson unique and Pinterest-worthy. More often than not, someone else has created a similar lesson, with helpful resources. This might be a colleague at your school site or within your district. If not, check out www.teacherspayteachers.com for resources that are free or for sale.
Simplify your workload with an IEP Checklist that tells you what to do before, during, and after the IEP meeting.
Or check out my Present Level of Performance Bundle which includes 6 different forms for general education teachers, parents/guardians, and the student.
Under planning. Don’t reinvent the wheel, but remember to always have a plan. You absolutely need to plan for everything. Sometimes you need a plan B and plan C. You need big plans (long-term and unit plans) and small plans (lesson plans and procedures). You should definitely have a plan for all the little things (i.e. procedures for sharpening pencils, bathroom breaks, classroom jobs, seating charts, group expectations, the list is endless).
Rushing through rules and procedures. Make sure you don't rush through establishing your classroom expectations and procedures just to get into the academics. If you do, you'll most likely lose educational time to classroom management issues. Or you'll need to reteach expectations multiple times anyway. Spend a thorough amount of time in the beginning of the year and reteach at checkpoints throughout the school year.
Trying to be friends with your students. Although teachers have a special connection with their students, we shouldn't be friends with them. You shouldn’t be afraid to redirect them. Your students need and deserve solid, consistent, and fair classroom management.
Lastly, one of the most important mistakes to avoid:
Lowering your expectations. Our students come to us with many personal struggles (poverty, malnutrition, family issues, neighborhood violence, learning disabilities, etc.). For all those reasons, it could be easy to create excuses for them. Don't treat them like victims. This perpetuates the problem. Instead, maintain high expectations (both academically and behaviorally) and your students will reach them.
“If you want to be an effective teacher, you must maintain high expectations for yourself and your students.”
Keep your expectations high and encourage self-advocacy for your students. with this easy and FREE Student Present Level Form. It gives the IEP team quick, meaningful insight to review during the IEP process. It’s perfect for Transition IEPs! You might also be interested in the Transition IEP Student Worksheet, which goes more in depth.
Remember, when we keep our expectations high, ALL students in EVERY setting can do remarkable things.
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