"Always remember, the good days will always outweigh the bad days" " As long as you give your all, your students will benefit and have a successful year" Maybe the hardest six months of your life so far but you will get through it". "Nothing you do in college can quite prepare you for the first year of teaching"
"Teachers are the greatest thieves. Don't be afraid to steal material from teachers who have gone through it all before." "Most teachers in NP are more than willing to share advice and resources. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, but feel free to modify the wheel to make it rotate just as you want it to."
"Use your classroom as a laboratory for teaching. The district encourages you to try new and different ways to engage your students and help them learn." "often the most effective and innovative lessons are developed through trial and error"
"Students don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care". "Kids don't learn from teachers they don't like so work on developing relationships from day one". I agree that forming positive relationships with the parents and trying to be as visible/involved in the community as possible is key to any teacher’s success in New Providence. Always keep the lines of communication open between yourself, your students, and the parents, and always let the parents know what’s going on in your classroom. Update your teacher website, class calendar, and online gradebook as often as possible. Always email/phone within 24 hours if a parent reaches out to you. Transparency and communication are crucial to credibility. Ultimately, the parents will always support you if they know you are honest and have their child’s best interests at heart.
"Find out student's interests outside of school, it will help you build good relationships. They will work hard for you if you show that you're interested".
1) Get consistent sleep (go to bed and get up within the same 30-minute time span every day) 2) Exercise regularly, but not an hour before bed 3) Attend to mind and spirit (e.g. a support network, tai chi, yoga, etc.) 4) Eat and drink fresh, healthy foods and drinks 5) Avoid caffeine after mid-afternoon, as it will confuse your body's natural clock 6) Allot extra time to complete tasks so that you don't feel rushed 7) Keep away from negative people or things, and focus on the positive 8) Be flexible and go with the flow!
BE AS INVOLVED AS POSSIBLE IN ALL ASPECTS OF THE SCHOOL
Make your motto, "the answer is yes." When you're new, you can wait to hear the question, but you should always plan to say yes to accepting new responsibilities or professional commitments, even when it takes you out of your comfort zone. Everyone at NP is very involved, and you should enter the district with the same willingness and determination.
The new teachers workshop gives you a great insight into what you need to be successful in the district. Use the info from Byron and Jon wisely.
Another aspect of your work that is critical is what you’ll be doing with your students in your classroom. The Essential Elements Professional Development workshops that you’ll attend will be extremely helpful. One area to focus on will be the performance tasks and assessments that you begin to design for your units. You will have some practice with this during your workshops and probably have experience with this from previous learning. However, I believe this is an area where we all still have much to learn. Use examples provided during the workshops; seek out your colleagues’ advice; use sample tasks and assessments from district curricula; and continue to research and try new performance tasks. This is one of the most important sections of the unit plans that you’ll be implementing.