Hey everyone!
I am currently going to begin student teaching in the spring and then next fall hopefully begin teaching in my own classroom! I am super excited but also really nervous. Does anyone have any advice on what I should expect on my first year teaching or advice on classroom management?
Congratulations, Noe! As you go through your student teaching experience, keep notes of what your cooperating teacher does for classroom management that you feel works for you. Even as you walk down the hallways at school, notice what other teachers do with their classes. Some things will seem to feel like a perfect fit for you and other things will be obvious they are not for you. It's like knowing what you do not want to do is just as important as what you do want to do as a teacher.
No one can predict what your first year will be like. You don't usually know in advance what grade you will be teaching or what school you will be employed by. Just know that everyone had their first day of school as a first year teacher and managed to survive. I kept a notebook of free or cheap activities to do with students and when teachers offered me books, I took them. That was a long time ago and now you are lucky to have the internet and more specifically, NSTA! Use the resources here and you won't have to lug around other teachers' cast off books like I did. Use the Explore All Resources tab and https://ngss.nsta.org/
Good lucj to you!
I love this advice! Everyone's classroom is different and every student is different, so part of teaching is responding to the context you're placed in. I'm getting certified through a grad program while substitute teaching, and just being in a classroom is giving me all sorts of ideas. Just use every resource available to you and find what works for you.
I am a preservice teacher also and will be getting my own classroom next fall. Advice that I just got the other week was focus on what you are good at (specific subject) then once you are even better at it then add another subject to focus on and continue to do that. Eventually you will be great at all subjects but it is going to take time. I know I am nervous but also excited but when I was told this advice I really thought about it and it really clicked that yeah we are going to have a ton thrown at us in the first couple of years but if we focus on one thing at a time to get good at then the rest should fall into place (or at least in a prefect world it would).
As I observe different teachers, I make note of the different techniques they use. I also note in what situation a different technique or method works best. One piece of advice I received from a host teacher was that when explaining directions, it is more effective to demonstrate what not to do and have the students point out that it is incorrect. For example, a game that requires a relay race, the teacher demonstrated running side to side, bumping into desks, throwing herself on a desk, and asking the students if that is what they should do. They responed with no. The teacher told me that is seemed to work well for the class and it can definitely be applied to other situations, not just games. That's just a little piece of advice I hope can be useful.
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