Twelve ways to make your first year of teaching a success!

I have been a first year teacher, and I have mentored first year teachers. I have made lots of observations and lots of mistakes. Here is a list of some of the quickest ways to ensure you will have a good first year, and want to come back to teach the following year!

Here is the DIRTY DOZEN of first-year teacher tips for success!

1. Make a seating chart - This is the most important thing you can do. Don't let the kids make it; YOU make it. Not only does it let them know from Day 1 who is in charge, but it keeps them from sitting in social or racial groups. Never, ever omit this step!! Change the seating chart each six weeks or each month. Always make it yourself.

2. Start teaching on the first day - This is especially hard in schools where there may be a shortened first day schedule. Have them learn something related to the curriculum. Quiz them on it by the end of the week. Give them a reading assignment. Make them go home learning something from your class. Don't fall into the cute get-to-know-you games. You will know them well enough, soon enough. They know you are just eating up time with silly things. It won't fool them. Make them learn.

3. Plan your own lessons- You may have an experienced teacher next door who offers you their lesson plans ready-made. They just want to be helpful, but don't copy what they do. Use their stuff here and there, steal their ideas... but teach your own lesson, your own way. Don't try to copy someone else's style. It will delay your ability to stand on your own. Do your own work and take pride in it.

4. Make the kids read aloud the first week- Give each kid, each week the opportunity to read something aloud. It could be a caption, the instructions to an activity, a paragraph in a book.... but make them read aloud. Pull names randomly from a cup if they won't volunteer... or just start calling names the first week of school. They will learn the routine and what is expected.

5. Assess, assess, assess- Give tests or quizzes often. Kids will do better work and more diligently if they know how they are doing.

6. Write your daily objective on the board- This way the kids know that you have a plan and what is expected as soon as they walk in the room

7. Display student work- They will act like they don't like it in the upper grades, but they really love it deep down inside. This will gain you lots of respect from the kids because it says you liked what they did and you noticed. It will also instill a sense of competition to do quality work, which is a good thing in academics. (don't listen to the psychologists who say it may hurt their feelings if their work sucks. They need to know when they suck just as much as they need to know when they shine)

8. Get a routine- Any routine is good. Kids feel safer when they know what is expected. They like these little limitations and puts order and structure in their little lives. This works for all ages. It could be how they turn in work, how they return work, when they get out books, how they put books away, saying the pledge... or anything. ANYTHING with a routine.

9. Be proactive - If you have a question about school policy or obtaining supplies or chain of command. Then ASK or get out your faculty handbook or school handbook or go online. Find someone who can answer your question. Don't hole up in your room and say, "no one tells me anything!". At that point, it's your own damn fault.

10. Try not to take work home. This speaks for itself.

11. Pack a lunch. You will gain weight your first year because you will be doing stress eating due to lack of time, and working through lunch. Just bring decent food from home. Stay away from the snack machines.

12. Check your email. Most schools communicate through email exclusively these days. Administrators can check the histories on emails and tell when and if you read them. Always check the group messages, and your personal emails every day. If your department has a email message board or group, check that daily too. DAILY. This could come back to haunt you.