BubbleUp Classroom
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • Presentations >
      • Empower17
      • Thesis ALIVE!
  • READ
    • What's the Scoop? >
      • Landmark Supreme Court Cases
    • Reading an Artifact
    • Reading an Image
    • Emoji Notes
    • Sketchnotes
    • Sharing Books with Kids
  • WRITE
    • Thesis & Essay Writing >
      • Thesis Writing Workshop
      • Fairy Tale Grab Bags
      • Essay Roadmap
      • Essay Outline Generator
      • Other Thesis Ideas
    • What's the Scoop? >
      • Landmark Supreme Court Cases
    • Poetry Beyond English Class
  • CREATE
    • Think, Build, Tweet
    • Sketchnotes
    • Ordinary Objects
    • Think Outside the Box
    • Poetry Beyond English Class
  • WORK WITH US
    • Testimonials

New Teacher? Start Here! 

8/16/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

​You've chosen the best job in the world. Now what? The first day of school is around the corner -- or maybe it's already come and gone. There is so much to learn and do in the year ahead; just thinking about it can make your head spin. It's exciting and daunting all at the same time.
During my 12 years in the classroom, I've discovered many truths that have guided my practice. Teaching is deeply personal. We each have to find our own teaching truth -- what drives us, what makes us the best teacher or counselor or librarian that we can be -- but I am hoping that maybe one of my truths will resonate with you and maybe that when you are jotting down your to-do list in the days (weeks and yes, even months to come) that you can pencil in a truth or two of mine to guide you on your journey.
Truth 1: FIND YOUR PEOPLE. Behind the scenes of every amazing classroom there are A LOT of people. Find the veteran teacher who has been doing this forever and can share their wisdom, find the teacher who will give you all of their files, find the levelheaded colleague who can read that email that you are thinking of sending and can give you honest feedback, find the person in your building that you can vent to. Teachers are some of the most generous people on the planet. They will give you their support, their knowledge, their lessons -- all you have to do is ask. Also, don’t be limited to the people in your building. I cannot say enough about finding people outside of your school who inspire you and keep you fresh. Find them -- follow educators on Twitter, go to an EdCamp, attend conferences. Find your people and never stop looking for new people who inspire you to be the best teacher you can be.
Picture
Truth 2: THINGS WILL FALL APART AND WHEN THEY DO LEARNING WILL STILL HAPPEN. Here’s what I mean: You can plan and plan and plan even then things will not go always go as planned. As a veteran teacher this still happens to me. The activity I thought would take 10 minutes, takes 30. The directions that were so clear in my mind make no sense to the students. What matters is what you do when things don’t go as planned. When things fall apart and you put them back together that you are showing your students what real learning is all about. What will they do when things don’t go as planned in the classroom and in life? Will they beat themselves up, stand back and watch things fall apart, or will they get back to it, innovate, change and tackle the challenges that arise. Show them what that looks like. Put things back together when they fall apart and ask your students to help you.. You’ll be teaching them to reflect, to think, to take risks. When things fall apart, you get to teach your students about more than your content, you get to teach them about life. ​

Truth 3: DO NOT LET PERFECT BE THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD. Or, in the words of one of my daughter’s favorite Disney princesses -- LET IT GO. (Is the song stuck in your head now?). When I first started teaching I felt like I wasn’t doing my job if I wasn’t doing everything on my own. I created every worksheet, every lesson. I was scared to borrow things - thinking that I was taking a shortcut -- so instead I stayed up late at night creating and rewriting. Don’t do what I did! Find the instructional leaders in your school or outside of your building and borrow their resources and ideas. Spend this year learning how to teach, not worrying about the correct font for the worksheet or the perfect bulletin board. All of that will come in time -- focus on the essentials: building relationships with students and parents, sound classroom management and well-planned lessons tied to clear learning objectives. Do not let your version of the perfect teacher keep you from focusing on what is truly important.

​
Truth 4: TEACHING IS A MARATHON NOT A SPRINT. You absolutely must pace yourself in this profession because we want you (no, we NEED you) to be here in 5 years. If you burn the candle at both ends, you risk burning yourself out. So know that there will always be more to do, that your work will never be done. Choose a time to leave work each day and that’s when you leave. That means that you will have be incredibly efficient when you are at work, but it’s worth it. If you are going to grade or plan at home, set a timer, when times up -- you are done. Pick one day each weekend when you do not think about school, when you focus on yourself, on your friends, on your family. Believe it or not, I did not become an effective teacher by being in the last car to pull out of the parking lot every day. I achieved it by setting personal limits, by knowing that I needed to achieve work life balance in order to be effective inside and outside of the classroom.

Truth 5: TEACH AND CARE FOR YOUR STUDENTS THE WAY YOU WOULD WANT YOUR OWN KIDS TO BE TAUGHT. To someone the child sitting in your classroom is likely ONE of if not THE most important thing in their life. And they are trusting you to care about and bring out the best in their child. Ask yourself: How do would you want a teacher to teach the people you love? The answer is with kindness, with compassion, with purpose, with vision, with creativity. Whether you are teaching Kindergarten or 12th grade, Advanced Academics or Special Education, you must value every kid like you value the people in your life. And the honest truth is that you will meet some kids who, for whatever reason, don’t have who someone that values them at home -- that makes your job even important. When it’s 8th period on the Friday before Winter Break and the kids are coming unhinged, when a child’s behavior is out of control, when a student is unmotivated and you cannot seem to reach her, when you know that a kid is not being challenged by an activity, dig deep and softly repeat this to yourself: I will teach and care for these students as if they were my very own.


There are so many jobs you could have chosen. Some people design buildings, others create new medicines, some protect our citizens, others sell products, some write books or articles. Teachers, we have our students. When we finish our careers, we don’t have things to point to as accomplishments. Instead, we have people. We, teachers, are changing the world one day at at time and our students are that change. Just think about that for a second. There is no work more meaningful than the work we do.

So, welcome to the team, friends. You’ve GOT this and the kids in your classroom are going to be beyond lucky that they’ve GOT you.

Corey

You might also like:

  • BubbleUp Take5: Liberal Arts, New Teachers, Wonder and more... (September 4, 2016)
  • Back to School Night: We're all in this together (August 30, 2016)
  • New Librarian? Start Here! (August 9, 2016)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Who We Are

    Picture
    Corey Thornblad
    Teacher 
    Picture
    Picture
    Gretchen Hazlin
    ​Librarian
    Picture

    Picture

    Join our list!



    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016

    Categories

    All
    Activism
    Adminstrators
    Assessments
    Back To School
    Balance
    Best Practices
    Books
    Brain Breaks
    BreakoutEDU
    #bubbleupthx
    Cell Phones
    Civic Engagenemt
    Classroom Design
    Classroom Management
    Coding
    Collaboration
    Community
    CREATE
    Critical Thinking
    Curation
    Design Thinking
    Discipline
    Discussion
    Distance Learning
    Edcamp
    Equity
    Field Trips
    Flexible Seating
    Flipped Classroom
    Genrefication
    Gifted
    Gifts
    Google
    Grading
    Gratitude
    Growth Mindset
    History
    Homework
    How-to
    Images
    Inquiry
    Interview
    Joy
    Kindness
    Leadership
    Librarians
    Library
    Literacy
    Makerspace
    Math
    Mental Health
    Middle School
    Mindfulness
    Movement
    New Librarians
    New Teachers
    Orientation
    Parenting
    Pbl
    Physical Space
    Pln
    Podcasts
    Poetry
    Primary Sources
    Problem Solving
    Professional Development
    Project Based Learning
    Questioning
    READ
    Reflection
    Relationships
    Research
    Rubrics
    Simulation
    Sketchnotes
    Social Emotional Health
    Social Emotional Learning
    Social Studies
    Stations
    Student Centered Learning
    Student-centered Learning
    Study Skills
    Summer
    Take10
    Take5
    Teacher Appreciation Week
    Technology
    Teens
    Testing
    Twitter
    WRITE

    RSS Feed


Proudly powered by Weebly
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • Presentations >
      • Empower17
      • Thesis ALIVE!
  • READ
    • What's the Scoop? >
      • Landmark Supreme Court Cases
    • Reading an Artifact
    • Reading an Image
    • Emoji Notes
    • Sketchnotes
    • Sharing Books with Kids
  • WRITE
    • Thesis & Essay Writing >
      • Thesis Writing Workshop
      • Fairy Tale Grab Bags
      • Essay Roadmap
      • Essay Outline Generator
      • Other Thesis Ideas
    • What's the Scoop? >
      • Landmark Supreme Court Cases
    • Poetry Beyond English Class
  • CREATE
    • Think, Build, Tweet
    • Sketchnotes
    • Ordinary Objects
    • Think Outside the Box
    • Poetry Beyond English Class
  • WORK WITH US
    • Testimonials