The Education of a First Year Teacher

The Education of a First Year Teacher

            This past school year I taught my first full time year in the classroom.  At the beginning of the year, I decorated my room as most teachers do.  I stapled borders around message boards and my door.  Sticky dots clung to the back of laminated posters depicting science related materials holding them soundly to the walls.  And at the top of the most prominent message board in my clean, ready to teach in classroom were my diplomas proudly displayed.  I had worked hard for those pieces of paper.  Now mind you, these were copies.  There was no way I was going to hang the real ones in my room where anyone could rip them down and damage these precious documents.  But even the copies were laminated for protection.  The Bachelor’s degree of Biology with a minor in Chemistry had taken me 14 years of night classes, day classes, half-enrollment, full-time enrollment, baby breaks, part time employment, full time employment and a stressed out to the hilt family in order to prove myself worthy of the honored paper.  My Master’s degree of Arts in Teaching took only 2 years, but I worked hard for it as well.  2 years of full time enrollment while working full time with a husband and children.  Remember, moms don’t get sick days or homework days.  Without a doubt I earned those diplomas.  I wanted my students to see them and know their teacher was qualified to teach them science; to have trust in my education.  This was at the beginning of the school year.

            As the school year progressed, I began to realize how little my education had actually prepared me for my vocation.  Some students noticed my prized diplomas, but more took notice of how I taught and treated them in the classroom.  Had I actually been taught how to teach?  My undergraduate degree taught me content, no teaching classes there.  But, the education graduate courses surely filled me in on how to educate young minds, after all, that’s what they are designed to accomplish.  But alas, I found myself lacking in so many areas.  College classrooms are a difficult place to prepare you to teach in your classrooms.  I know this is what student teaching is about, and I had a wonderful student teaching experience.  I couldn’t have asked for a better teaching mentor.  But you never really get a true sense of what it is like to be the one and only teacher in a classroom, the one who is responsible for everything, without truly being that teacher.  So, there I was, the teacher of the class with no teaching mentor to continuously ask my myriad of questions.  It was just me and the students, ready to sink or swim.

            I’m still not convinced how well I did or didn’t do, but I know I didn’t drown, nor did most of my students.  I’m sure each student would give a different conclusion as to my abilities that first year.  But I learned so much; things no diploma could prepare me for.  I learned that sometimes a child just wants to be heard.  It doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree with what they say, just hear them.  I learned to make lesson plans ahead of time but plan to alter and change them as needed.  Lesson plans are ever changing beasts that must be reigned in and tended to regularly.  9^th graders are seldom ready for the responsibilities of high school.  Many still need reminded of what lessons are due, which assignments they haven’t turned in, how to do MLA, how to do research, how to follow directions, I could be here all day.  The point is they may look a lot like grownups, but they are not there yet.  For that matter, the same could probably be said for all high school students to some degree.  I learned to put tennis balls on the bottom of student chairs to keep them from marring the beautifully waxed floors at the beginning of the school year.  I discovered that usually even the most hardened kid will respond to positive reinforcement, you just have to find what works on them.  For some students, candy works, for others its compliments, we all have buttons.  If you know what buttons set off a student’s temper or negative feelings, don’t push those. 

            Most of all, I learned to be there for my students; to pay attention to them.  The teaching methods that work for one class may not work for another.  I discovered how to be flexible yet determined, to never stop trying new approaches and ideas.  To listen to my students; they will guide me on everything I need to know if I will let them.  This information may not come with a diploma to hang beside the others, but it is just as valuable and precious.

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