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You started the year excited, nervous, and overwhelmed – and chances are pretty strong that you’ve ridden that emotional roller coaster nearly every day, all year long. You’re just learning about this whole teaching thing. You’ve come to realize that being a teacher is hard!

As prepared as you thought you were, you aren’t. Your classroom management is not yet fine tuned, you are struggling to fit everything in during the day, or you’re just wondering how you are going to survive during the year.

It’s hard.

But here’s a little comfort for you. We’ve all been there. Being a teacher is tough. All of us in the trenches can relate. We have all been in your shoes. It may have been decades ago, but we remember. Whether we were a straight out of college 22-year-old, or a second career “veteran” with lots of experience in another field – learning the ropes of being a teacher hit us like a ton of bricks.

Some advice…

• Take it one week at a time, sometimes even just one day at a time.
• Be consistent with discipline.
• Be friendly, but don’t be a friend.
• Set high expectations, but know that there are times you need to give kids a break too.
• Plan rigorous lessons that are engaging, but know there’s nothing wrong with a paper/pencil lesson either.
• Utilize Teachers Pay Teachers to help you find engaging lessons when you’re short on time.
• Ask for help! Many times veteran teachers leave you alone because they don’t want to overwhelm you more. They aren’t trying to be rude or unfriendly, but they also have a lot on their plate. Most will be glad to help you out if they know how to effectively do so.

You don’t have to love every day in the classroom to be an effective teacher.

Some days are hard! It’s ok to go home, cry, and drink a glass of wine or have too much chocolate.

Soon you’ll look back on these days and smile. Remember all of the lives you’ve impacted each day.

And pretty soon you’ll find yourself fitting into one of these positions below. You’ll smile looking back on your first few years as a new teacher, because – as you’ll then know – it really does get easier.

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Click on any of the links below to visit the blog post about each of these other teachers. Chance are you’ll be in one of these shoes sooner than you realize!

 

An Open Letter to the Teacher in the Prime of her Career

An Open Letter to a Teacher in a Rut

An Open Letter to a Teacher Toward the End  

Open Letter to the Retired Teacher