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Congratulations, Brenda! The best advice I have is that it is ok to ask for help. Once you learn a school's routines and procedures, life gets easier. I spend the first two weeks of school teaching and re-teaching my expectations for behavior in the classroom, the library, the bathroom, the cafeteria, the playground, arrival, and dismissal. Once children know what our expectations are, it eases the stress on them. Decide how you will handle bathroom breaks. Where do students turn in completed work, which day do graded papers go home? All of those things can help make your life easier once they are set in place. If something isn't working, don't be afraid to change it. Also, you don't have to know all of the answers. Teachers are lifelong learners and that is a good trait to show students. When students ask me something that is related to the lesson, I may or may not know the answer. I don't tell them the answer. I have them write the question on the board. Whoever brings me the answer the next day, written on a scrap of paper, gets a prize. (Bookmark, pencil, etc.) Even if 10 students have the correct answer, they all get a prize. Then, during the lesson, they share what they found out.

That's very exciting, Brenda! Congratulations!

I think one of the important things to keep in mind is that you’re going to make mistakes, and that’s okay. While you can learn from mistakes it’s important that you don’t obsess over each one. We’re only human so we’re bound to have lessons that don’t go as planned. When that happens, don’t let it get you down!

You should also take advantage of the knowledge of your fellow teachers. I recommend finding a teacher who will mentor you. It’s nice to have someone to turn to if you have questions, need help solving problems or just want someone to bounce ideas off of. Their experience can be invaluable to you. Why try to do it all on your own your first year if you can do it with the help of a mentor?

My final piece of advice is to set realistic goals. When we’re getting started as teachers, we often put together pretty ambitious goals for all that we want to do. It’s very useful to set goals to work toward throughout the year, but they need to be the right goals.