Welcome to the world of teaching! You are definitely in the right profession if you are looking to make a difference. You are also in the right profession if you are trying to grow your patience level! I would like to share a list of things they may not have told you in college that will make you successful:
1) Fake it till you make it! You won't know what you are doing the first couple of days, weeks, or maybe months, but DO NOT, under any circumstance, DO NOT tell your students its your first year of teaching! Make yourself sound experienced! Tell them about your "teaching experience" (that means tell them about what you student taught or observed or did from pre-classroom hours) DO NOT tell them its your first year otherwise you are in for a ride the 179 days that are left!
2) Set reminders about paperwork. Paperwork is the least fun job about being a teacher and for some reason colleges do not like to tell you about it. They don't tell you about all the information you need to fill out on IEPs, 504's, etc. So put it on your calendar so you have all the information you need to have done by its due date, including grades being due!!
3) ASK QUESTIONS! You might be reading these wondering, what the heck is an IEP? ask! Don't assume anything! If you don't know, just ask, and if you think you know, ask. Always ask!
4) You are going to have some AMAZING days when you will walk out of the room and think "yep, I just changed some lives in there!" but you will also have days of disappointment. If you are doing this teaching thing right you will have invested countless hours, energy, blood, sweat, and tears into your students and their lessons. When they don't get it, or don't care, or ruin it by talking back and deciding to go bat-crazy that day you will be disappointed. That just means that you care! Go home, pour yourself a glass of wine, and wake up the next day with a fresh start!
5) Don't hold grudges! Some days some students will upset you, and once again thats a good thing because it shows you care. Always go in with the mindset that tomorrow is a new day and give them a fresh start! I remember being very upset with one of my students who wasn't reaching her potential and completely wrote all over my desks, chairs, walls, cussed me out, just went absolutely nuts! The next day she walked in and I greeted her with a smile on my face. She asked me, "Miss, do you hate me?" I said, "No, I love you, why do you ask?" She responded with, "Well yesterday I was really mean to you, I would hate me." I told her, "Yesterday was a rough day for the both of us, but today is new and I know we are going to have a better day. It doesn't matter what happened yesterday, I still love you."
You don't know what some of your students are going through. LOVE THEM! Forgive them, and start with a fresh day every day!
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