Advice to a new teacher

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I started my week off with this article in my inbox this morning - and decided to give it a read. “Advice to New Teachers from a 20 Year Veteran” by Stephen Guerriero. It’s a short and sweet reminder that teaching is an innately human, and innately relationship-based vocation. There was one line in particular that really struck me – "The best teachers are those who make time to fill themselves with joy and curiosity outside the classroom so that they can bring it back to their students."

It made me wonder… What advice would YOU give to a new teacher? Or perhaps a teacher who is new to teaching STEM? Or even to your younger self, when you were a new teacher?
I feel like @David_Kelly , @Aimee_DeFoe , @Mark_Johnston , @LORI_COLANGELO and @Jason_McKenna would DEFINITELY have some words of wisdom to share…

For me, I think one of the biggest pieces of advice would be to always find something in the day to laugh about with your students. A little laugh goes a long way to forging relationships, dissipating tension, and helping me (as the teacher) stay grounded.

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Build Relationships, Activating Prior Learning, and Check for Understanding
I whole heartedly agree that it’s incredibly important to build relationships w/ students right away— and with families, and co-teachers as well! It’s through building relationships that we create a system based on collaboration, personalization, and trust-based responsibility. And, only through this kind of trust-based relationship can we tackle challenges and forge ahead together with our students.

Also, activate prior learning and continually check for understanding.

I can’t tell you how many times in my first year that I flawlessly performed a beautifully choreographed lesson — only to find out that the students didn’t have the prior knowledge to make sense of the information, or I lost them part-way through.

Once I started including a “Hook” - or a introduction to a lesson that activates prior learning/ understanding, I saw a huge shift in student performance. By opening with a “Hook” I was able to help students contextualized the new information, make sense of it, and assimilate it into to existing knowledge networks.

And, throughout the lesson, keep checking for understanding in ways that are interactive. For example, I had little red, yellow, and green construction paper flags at student tables. Throughout a lesson I would check for understanding by having them show green (got it, lets go), yellow (I think I get it, but not sure), and red (do not understand, please show again in a different way). I would have students (that showed their green flag) to explain the information in their own words to show their thinking and to “help the students who may not grasp it.” This way I could check to make sure that students who felt like they got it, actually got it, provided an alternative way to present the content (for the students who showed yellow or red flags), while building a collaborative learning community in the classroom.

  • A simpler version of this is to just have students give thumbs up, down, or half way (sideways) to communicate their level of understanding. The important thing is to follow up and have students share their thinking.

These are just a couple tips I would give my younger self. Plus, I love @Audra_Selkowitz suggestion to find moments of joy and find way to laugh every day. That is great advice to tend to our love of teaching and prevent burnout!
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@Audra_Selkowitz I love this post! One piece of wisdom that I really wish my younger teacher self knew is that often, slowing down actually speeds things up in the long run, or “go slow to go fast”.

As teachers, we are often bombarded with expectations and lists of things to do, and we really want to implement all of the great ideas we have at the same time. It just isn’t possible to do it all, all at once, and do it well. I would get so excited about trying things that I would end up overwhelming myself with things to plan, make and do. It is so much better to choose one thing at a time and focus your energy on that one thing as much as possible.

Going slow to go fast also means taking the time out to make sure all your students understand classroom and assignment expectations, and taking the time to build a positive classroom community where all students feel safe and can thrive. Once this work is well underway, you can move much more quickly through academic and social-emotional learning successfully.

@Olivia_Kissel speaks to that in her reply as well, when she talks about relationship building, which definitely takes time. The time spent, though, ends up giving back exponentially in the end.

I’m sure if I think about it, there are about a thousand more things I wish my younger teacher self had realized!

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Some great advice! Some things I would add:

  • Choose the colleagues within your school who are positive and energetic as the people you hang out with. Hopefully everyone in your building it’s like that, however, if you do have those who constantly complain and look for the negative in everything, stay away from them as much as possible.
  • The maintenance/custodial staff and the secretaries/administrative assistants are who really run a school, treat them nicely and they will help you out to the ends of the earth.
  • Photocopy your college diploma, your teaching certificate, and any other awards you are proud of. Put these in a frame from a dollar store and post them in your classroom. It will help both you and your students remember- teachers are professionals just like doctors and lawyers.
  • Planning is the key to success! However, schedules at a school often run amok. Do not beat yourself up if you did not do everything you planned. The colleague who boasts, I got through everything in the curriculum, probably learned more from their lessons than their students did.
  • Don’t be afraid to try new things. Modeling persistence and learning from failure may be more important lessons to your students than what you have in your lesson plans.
  • Look at things through the eyes of your students. Remember - tell me and I may forget, show me and I may remember, let me do it and I will understand!
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Such awesome words of wisdom! Keep them coming! @David_Kelly I agree that the people we choose to associate with, especially as new teachers, can be so valuable in shaping our attitudes, perspectives, and practice as we grow. It can be very hard to stay positive and motivated in the world of teaching, especially right now, so surrounding yourself with positive people is even more important!

Any other pearls of wisdom to share @Bonnie_Sikorski, @David_Wasser, or @Stephen_Henderson?

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@David_Kelly - great quote! so true!
“Tell me and I may forget, show me and I may remember, let me do it and I will understand!”

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Try to keep that Day 1 perspective: VEX Professional Development Plus

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New to STEM/robotics? Here is what I’ve tried to do and have had some success the last 6 years…

  1. Try to stay positive. If one day is bad, start fresh the next.
  2. New to STEM/robotics? Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and/or in front of your students. It shows you are human too, which helps build relationships and you & students will learn the most!
    F-first
    A-attempt
    I-in
    L-learning!
  3. Robotics/STEM may not be the most important class in the building, but it’s the most fun! Make your kids success known with your admin/parent newsletters/ parent emails etc. Share pictures of them collaborating, problem solving, HANDS ON learning, doing builds and enjoying learning with each other.
  4. Be a facilitator. Plan a great lesson, and be the guide not the auditory book. Let the students lead the learning with the tools you taught them.
  5. Be yourself, have fun-engage/ talk with students, get to know them. It will only help you succeed in class and in turn the students will as well, even if coding isn’t their favorite thing to do.
  6. Make it worth their time. Why are they learning it? Prove/show that it is important and they can make an amazing career in STEM/robotics/programming.
  7. Be willing to constantly learn new things. Don’t get stale-STEM is always changing- embrace it and keep moving forward!
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Such great advice @Bonnie_Sikorski! Your first one reminds me of the Ted Lasso concept of ‘being a goldfish’. There are a lot of days in a school year, as much as we might want them to - they can’t all be winners.

Which makes me think of another good advice-type question – What do you do to perk back up when a lesson goes awry? Or to help students when they have a rough time with a challenge?

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@Bonnie_Sikorski - these are fantastic words of advice, and @Audra_Selkowitz great question! For me, when a lesson or classroom experience went a little off the rails, the best thing to do was to debrief it in a matter-of-fact way with my kids and try again. Even very young children can benefit from troubleshooting what went wrong, and may have ideas about how to improve on a not-so-stellar experience. Having these conversations with children can help them to take ownership of their learning.