ALT-2 Surviving your first Year as a Teacher
You are the "Newby" on the block. Oh, what fun the whole school will have with you! Call it anything you want, but actually the first year as a teacher is everything you thought it would be and "even more". There are things that the school of education did not teach you. There are things the three inch books you bought for teacher's training would be ashamed to publish for fear they might have frightened you from the career. There are things that have never been written, and if you are able to survive the first year as a teacher, perhaps you will receive an award winning trophy for your novel book which has never been read before-anywhere!
Now I don't mean to frighten you- quite the opposite, I mean to encourage you. Go on in there. Fix up your first classroom. Decorate it with all the pizazz and creativity your forthcoming income will afford you (and that is not much). Put a nice flower or plant in several corners to make it homey. Plaster those lovely slogans and do-good posters all over the place. In reality, you will need them to remind you constantly more so than the children. Arrange your room as you would your home, only remember, you will be needing a special seat for "Robert the Instigator" near your desk. Oh, don't forget "Tammy the Talker." She will need a seat right over in the cheeriest corner of the room where she can talk to herself."As you decorate your room, keep in mind some of the some of the desks in the roommay be old and about to cave in. Call the sweet janitor and ask him to haul them to the storage room. If you don't do this, by the time school starts and he is so busy, the task will fall upon you, if the desk happen to just mysteriously fall apart just when you are teaching the basic unexciting skills to the lovely and handsome group of students with which you will be endowed.
After getting your new "home away from home" situated, you will need teacher editions for each subject. If you just happen to be fortunate enough to have inherited them, how wonderful! They will be flagged, marked up with highlighters, and etched with comments. They will be your bosom companions, and the previous teacher is letting you know these are your presents from her and "Welcome to the club!"
Just as you think you have things under control, the principal may come in and compliment you on something-anything- to calm your nerves. She sees and knows you are nervous. She explains the routine of the school, and shows you around the building (every crack and crevice). I hope you remember, and in case you don't remember where every teacher's room is, just know the gym is the most important place in the school - at least the kids think so!
Finally, you can sit down and write lesson plans. Plans- what plans? You know you have 24 children registered already to enter, and you will plan all of their activities. What you don't know is that you have 24 children and 24 parents too, providing you didn't get the two sets of twins. So plan with a little wiggle room, and you will be wiggling.
Your first year will be so exciting. You will surely survive. They'll be so much to remember- your first fight in your beautiful room- your first time to help the children see that profanity is not a real language- your opportunity to help the children problem solve (they have already figured the glue-on-your - seat situation out), the lost homework which suddenly has disappeared. Oh, just begin writing it all down. Keep a diary. Don't spare- you can write a book! Happy first year to you! Happy first year to you! Happy first year, dear Teacher,Happy first year to you! (May you have many more!)
