Advice to a New Teacher

This was a very long e-mail I wrote in 2002 to a friend of a friend who was looking for some advice about starting out as a new teacher.

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Hi Avik,

Thanks for thinking of me for next year. I'm actually not going to be in Boston. I'm in Brazil right now, and am pretty positive I'll be staying here over this next school year. (But things are still up in the air.) 

That's great that you're going to be a teacher. Honestly, I haven't heard good things about the Teach for America program. Basically, because they put kids into the hardest schools with no support and then they burn out and don't become teachers. My first year I worked at an inner city school in Houston with no training, etc. And honestly it almost killed me. I didn't sleep for three months. Everything about the school was crazy. Somehow I did manage to stick it out, even though the kids and everyone else expected me to drop at any moment. (Because all the other teachers do.) And then I moved to Boston and came to a much better school.

As for advice, I could give tons and tons and tons.

Hmmmmm....

1) Get Wong's First Days of School. I'm not sure if that's the correct title or author. And I've never read it, but everyone says it's good.

2) Make sure you really, really like kids, and that you enjoy them. If you don't like kids and don't like being around them, DROP OUT NOW. I've actually seen people who are in classrooms who don't particularly enjoy kids. Why torture them and yourself?

3) Expect it to be really, really, really hard. Make friends with other teachers and help each other out as much as possible. Having supportive friends and mentors in the building makes all the difference in the world. They're the reason I continue to teach.

4) Managing your time is really, really important. Since you don't know what you're doing, it's going to be hard to be efficient. After four years, I've come up with systems for grading that save time. Ask every teacher about their systems for grading, for conducting class, notebooks, letting kids go to the bathroom, etc. See what people do. (I can tell you mine in another e-mail if you want.) Try not to make school your entire life. But your first year, it probably will be. Try to set up some boundaries with work. Don't bring it home every night, etc.

5) Classroom management will be the hardest thing for you as a first year. (And it's still hard for veterans.) Everyone has their own philosophy, and most of it is trial and error. Don't beat yourself up when things go badly, because they will. So here are my classroom management tips.

---In the classroom, what you say goes period. Don't negotiate. EVER. You'll see how they try to negotiate everything. If you come up with a bad assignment or whatever, learn from your mistake, and make a better assignment for the next time. But don't let them think they can manhandle you.

---Spend as much time as possible with them outside the classroom. Hang out in the halls, before school, after school. Do after school activities. Talk to them. Get to know them. But not in class, because then class would be a joke, and your class has to be serious, where work happens. But do everything possible to establish rapport with them and to know personal things about their life and remember them. KEEP A JOURNAL. And then when you see them in the halls, follow up on conversations.

---When a kid is absent, ask about it when they get back. To show that you noticed they were out. And if you're really, really good (which I never was) you'd call home after 3 days of no-show.

---When a kid is obnoxious and rude, talk to them one-on-one preferably side by side, not confrontational face to face and have a little conversation.
 It kind of goes something like this:

"Do you know why you're here?"

"No."

"Well, you got up in the middle of class and slapped Tommy on the back."

"some sort of garbled noise."

"So what are we going to do about this, because you can't get up and hit people, ever, and most especially during class."

"Well, he started it. ... ." (Most of the time, they shift blame and never take responsibility for anything.)

"Okay, but we're not talking about Tommy, and I didn't see it. I saw you hit him. So, because of that, you're going to have to XX( whatever punishment will work, that really depends on the school, the community, etc.) So that you don't have to do X again, what are you going to do next time Tommy calls you a fag."

Hopefully, you get the gist.

Those little conversations are way, way important. The kids do want to voice their opinions, but at the same time it needs to be made perfectly clear, they did something and there are consequences for their

actions.

---Avoid power struggles at all costs, like "Give me that magazine/cell phone/etc." Just walk by them, and tell them to put it away. (The cell phone thing also depends on the building policy, just stick to whatever it is. I decided last year to just give up on the cell phone thing--I don't want to see it, it better not go off in my class. But I treat it kind of like cursing, if it goes off, I give them a disapproving look, which means turn it off or watch it, and usually they apologize and feel bad and turn it off.) Of course, you will have to say "Okay, Johnny, move to this seat up in the front." And Johnny will say no. So then you repeat yourself, and see if they do it. And then if they totally refuse. You say "We'll deal with this later." And then a serious punishment needs to happen.

---Become best friends with the dean of discipline/assistant principal. These people will save you. Hopefully, if they're good. If they're no good, that makes your life harder. You should try to deal with as much stuff as possible in your class. Again, establishing rapport with the kids is key.

---I read somewhere that good teachers are highly compassionate and highly dominant. They communicate that they care about the kids and genuinely like the kids, and at the same time, it's clear that the teacher and not the kids are in charge of the classroom.

---You don't want them to be your friend. They should think Mr. Chatterjee is a serious teacher. We do work in that class. Do everything possible to ensure that your classroom is serious and work happens, and that you maintain high standards. It's so easy to give into the kids and to school and to all the messed up stuff around you. This sounds really easy, but you'll see what I'm talking about once you're in it. You communicate you care about the kids, when you do everything possible to make sure they have a good education, which means not giving in to their complaints. 

---They will always complain. Just say "Too bad, so sad." Don't take anything personally. They love saying, "This is boring." Again, too bad, so sad. They'll do whatever they can to get under your skin.

---Most of the time, like 95%, they're lying. Accept this fact and don't let them get out of stuff because of whatever story they make up. Sometimes they're grandma really did die. It's always a tough call. But if they're trying to get out of something, then most of the time they're lying. Don't look like a chump by believing everything. But then don't be an insensitive jerk if something really bad happened, because really bad stuff happens all the time. This is a balance, just like everything.

---Try to be as down as possible with everything. If I didn't speak Spanish, that would have been very, very bad because then I wouldn't have understood what they were saying in class. Pay attention to what they're saying. Don't be clueless. Start studying popular culture NOW. Listen to all the hard core hip hop stations. Know the songs, because they're going to be referring and alluding to them. Watch movies. Figure out all the ghetto lingo. Walk and drive around the neighborhood. Know about the McDonald's they go to after school. The BJ's they shop at. Etc. You want to pepper your lessons with stuff from their lives. "So when you go to Royal's, get X." Know streets, buildings, etc. The more you know about their world, the better. You'd be surprised how much this stuff helps in the classroom.

---Have eyes and ears in the back of your head. Just pay attention to everything. Be constantly vigilant. Just about every bad discipline problem could have been prevented. An adult's active presence is crucial. It's never really like the whole class just all started doing X. Someone started it. When you're vigilant, you can say "Tommy, you're going to start that again." And wow, you just saved yourself a ton of hassles.

---Kids love shows. They want to be entertained. School is boring. If they can upset the teacher, and make the teacher really mad and frustrated, so that they're cussing or even better crying, then that's fun. Do your best to show that they're not getting to you. Remain calm, and maintain an attitude like, I've seen this all before, and it'll pass. Because it will, especially if they don't get a reaction out of you.

6) Don't take anything personally. And try not to beat yourself up about things. |It's really easy to get into the "I suck" mentality. You will probably get really depressed, not just because you think your class will suck, but because of the harsh reality of life. The kids have really, really hard things they're dealing with, and it's really, really overwhelming. A big part of my depression the first year was coming to grips with the reality of most kids' situations. I had the opportunity to go to school in a stable environment with everything supporting me. It's really, really painful when you realize all the things your kids don't have, and how unfair everything in the world truly is.

7) Kids are fun. Don't ever lose your sense of humor. But try not to laugh when they're being obnoxious in class. (I always do, and that's probably really bad. But hey, it's how I cope.) Fall in love with the kids, and pray for them. I don't know if you're a religious person, but in tough situations, you'll realize that you can only do so much, God really needs to take care of the rest.

Feel free to e-mail me about anything. Veteran teachers have always saved me.

Just remember you're not alone. Every teacher has gone through this. . . And that you don't suck.

Good luck with everything,

Jane