1. You probably won't get to do much of your own planning. Odds are, your grade level already has a nice little curriculum pacing map to make sure everyone is on the same page. Depending on your school, there might even be a substantial amount of detail to this map, and all you need to do is incorporate it into your daily schedule. This can be relieving, as it means that much of the work is done for you, but it can also feel very limiting and at times discouraging. You might have a fantastic lesson idea, but there just won't be time to squeeze it in. Often, I find myself feeling like a substitute, simply carrying out plans that someone else made.
2. You will have so. Many. Meetings. Grade level meetings, committee meetings, faculty meetings, parent meetings.... They can easily take over all your spare time before and after school and you'll find yourself wondering when exactly you're supposed to plan and prep! And if you figure it out, please let me know....
3. You need to have an organized collection system from the very first day of school for field trip forms, T-shirt payments, and the rest of the endless barrage of papers and money you will be given. If you teach a lower grade like myself, you need to keep track of any due dates for these things and know who has turned in the necessary items and who has not. Kindergarteners simply cannot be held solely responsible for remembering to turn things in, so if you see that you are missing little Johnny's field trip form and tomorrow is the last day, remind him to check his backpack. Parents are less than pleased when they send something to school on time but their child is still excluded from the activity. If you're teaching at a particular school for the first time, ask your grade level what you should be expecting from home during that first week.
4. Faculty email is so overwhelming. But you really do have to read it, all of it, or you'll miss something important. Try to set aside a particular time to work on emails.
5. School isn't like it was when you were a kid. So much more is expected of young children now, which means that a lot will be expected of you to make sure they are where they need to be academically. I'm still trying to decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
6. No one will ever take your word for it; you have to have tangible data to prove EVERYTHING you say about a student's academic placement. And you will be expected to spend time analyzing this data in groups, and formulate specific goals (because simply "help all students reach their potential" isn't acceptable). Administration wants to know exactly how many of your students you realistically expect to reach proficiency, and how you will get them there.
7. You'll feel overwhelmed and under appreciated a lot. You'll feel like you're in the wrong profession, that you'll never be as good as your veteran colleagues. But you're not, and you will. It is overwhelming at times, but when you hear that one of your students is telling a friend in another class how much he loves being in your class, or when another student brings you flowers or a completely self-motivated craft just because they love you...you remember why you wanted to be here in the first place.
2. You will have so. Many. Meetings. Grade level meetings, committee meetings, faculty meetings, parent meetings.... They can easily take over all your spare time before and after school and you'll find yourself wondering when exactly you're supposed to plan and prep! And if you figure it out, please let me know....
3. You need to have an organized collection system from the very first day of school for field trip forms, T-shirt payments, and the rest of the endless barrage of papers and money you will be given. If you teach a lower grade like myself, you need to keep track of any due dates for these things and know who has turned in the necessary items and who has not. Kindergarteners simply cannot be held solely responsible for remembering to turn things in, so if you see that you are missing little Johnny's field trip form and tomorrow is the last day, remind him to check his backpack. Parents are less than pleased when they send something to school on time but their child is still excluded from the activity. If you're teaching at a particular school for the first time, ask your grade level what you should be expecting from home during that first week.
4. Faculty email is so overwhelming. But you really do have to read it, all of it, or you'll miss something important. Try to set aside a particular time to work on emails.
5. School isn't like it was when you were a kid. So much more is expected of young children now, which means that a lot will be expected of you to make sure they are where they need to be academically. I'm still trying to decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
6. No one will ever take your word for it; you have to have tangible data to prove EVERYTHING you say about a student's academic placement. And you will be expected to spend time analyzing this data in groups, and formulate specific goals (because simply "help all students reach their potential" isn't acceptable). Administration wants to know exactly how many of your students you realistically expect to reach proficiency, and how you will get them there.
7. You'll feel overwhelmed and under appreciated a lot. You'll feel like you're in the wrong profession, that you'll never be as good as your veteran colleagues. But you're not, and you will. It is overwhelming at times, but when you hear that one of your students is telling a friend in another class how much he loves being in your class, or when another student brings you flowers or a completely self-motivated craft just because they love you...you remember why you wanted to be here in the first place.
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