My First Year Teaching

 For today’s post, I want to talk a little bit about my very first year teaching.

After graduating college, I moved to California and had to work on getting a CA credential. With the way the system was set up, I could not even begin to apply for teaching jobs until after I had a preliminary license. It took me two months after moving in September to pass the tests and get the preliminary credential and the paperwork to prove it. What’s two months after September? November. I was already deep into the school year.

I applied for my first teaching position in early November, and was hired almost immediately after my interview. At first, the position was difficult, which I expected. It was almost winter break, the students missed their previous teacher, and I was not being offered support. I thought that all these problems would be fixed after Winter Break.

I was wrong.

To sum up my entire first year teaching, I was miserable. Books were thrown at me by the students, I had an unsupportive administration, and I had no idea what I was doing. My evaluations were sub-par and I went home crying almost every day. Lord knows how my husband managed to survive all the stress I was bringing!

I was under so much duress, I felt like I was drowning with no one to help

I think the biggest stress source for me was a lack of support. I asked for help from my Department Head, but he was too busy being a basketball coach after school, and had no free periods during the day. I asked my Vice Principal and Principal, and even though they did an observation, they never gave me constructive advice (I found out later that not a single administrator at that school had ever taught a core class before. They were all previous coaches or counselors).

I asked for help from the district level, and they sent me a coach. The coach came in to observe my class once, then asked me how I thought I could improve. I sent him an email discussing my opinion of the lesson and how I thought it could do better, but he never responded. Several e-mails later, I gave up as he continued to not reply.

The person who was the most helpful was actually the teacher in the room next door, who helped me with the basics. She did not do much, and told me explicitly that as an ex-principal teaching as her retirement, she didn’t really want to be a teacher mentor anymore. However, she was willing to give me advice when I came to her with questions.

My number one piece of advice for first year teachers: Find a mentor.

In my second year of teaching, I finally found a mentor. For more info about my second year and the lessons learned, check out this post.

For my first year teaching, I received solid advice and a guide at the very end. One of the science teachers was retiring and invited me to his retirement party. While there, I discussed the issues I had been having with a teacher from the high school. She recommended THE First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher (Book & DVD) by Dr. Wong. It was honestly the best book I think I’ve ever read for a teacher at any level. It really should be required reading by any teacher, but alas, I did not even know it existed until after my first year had finished.

I hope you found this article helpful in your adventures in teaching. To support my blogging and teaching resources, please donate on Patreon or check out my store on TeachersPayTeachers. Thank you for your time and let me know if the information I gave you was helpful by leaving a comment or review below. Have a wonderful day! ~Ashley Van Reynolds