I just got hired!!! Now what...

So there’s a moment soon after the shrieks and shrills of you getting a job die down when you it hits you… “Holy cow this means I’m a real teacher, not like a wanna be teacher like I was last year during student teaching but a real, grown up, professional.” And that’s when the nerves kick in. But trust me you’re not alone! Heck I’m still a ball of nerves and I was blessed enough to get hired and start preparations back in March. Now I could honestly talk all day about how nervous we all are at this point but that won’t help anything. So below I’ve put together a list of things I’ve done as of late in order to get my classroom rocking and rolling! (And veteran teachers out there if I’m missing anything please share your words of wisdom. Us newbies need all the help we can get!)

1. Reach out

 

The very first thing I would recommend would be getting in contact with your team leader! This person will be vital in helping you feel prepared and comfortable as you go through this new process. Ask them questions like: What will my classroom be stocked with? Or do new teachers get a budget to help with new classroom supplies? Don’t feel like you’re bugging them, I truly believe they mean it when they say “I’m here to help.”

2. Choose a theme/color scheme

 

 

I don’t know about you but if I’m going to be stuck in a room for more than eight hours of the day I want to love it! Choose a theme that’s you, gender friendly and one you’ll never get tired of. This year I am going with a bee themed classroom!

 

 3. Decide what locations in your room are must haves

 

Do you want a large library that allows the kids space to sit and relax? Do you want a writing center? What about a math market? A small group area? Listening center? Science lab area? There are so many great room ideas but you have to remember to make it unique to you and your classroom environment. One of my special places in my room will be our “Bee in Control Area (sticking with my bee themed classroom)” this will be a place where students can go and cool down and get in control of their behavior. In this area I will have books about feelings and emotions and I will teach my students different techniques on how to be in control of their bodies AND minds.

4. Make some lists

Once you decide what areas in your room are must haves take that list and one at time start deciding what each area needs.

Bee in control area

a.  1 comfy chair

b.  Books about emotions/feelings

c.   Pencil/paper

d.  Signs that display the cool down steps

Classroom Library

a.  Books galore (Don’t worry- blog coming soon on how to go from 0 to 300 books in no time. All while keeping your budget in mind)

b.  Bean bags (1-2)

c.   Standing lamp

d.  Black, white and yellow Pillows

e.  Shelving

f.    Book boxes to organize books

g.  Sign that says “Buzzy Reading”

h.  Additional reading posters (genre poster?)

Continue this list until you have gone through all your “must have” classroom locations.

5. Fill those blank walls!

One thing teachers cannot stand is an empty wall so here’s the next challenge, filling your walls with meaningful decorations. Remember to be expressive but keep in mind your walls are learning tools so buying/making lots of educational posters are key! For my classroom (okay so I went overboard) I bought over 30 posters to hang on the wall. Now who even knows if I will even use them all but at least I have them! For my Kinder class I have signs that display the alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, months, days of the week, rhyming words, sight words, basic sign language, basic Spanish words (I live in Texas, you never know when you need to bust out in some Español) and basic hygiene posters just to name a few. Start a list then start collecting.

6. Management, management, management!

 

The single most important part of being a new teacher I believe is learning to manage your class effectively! Now this step, not going to lie is going to take some time. There are so many elements in creating a safe, positive learning environment that it can NOT be slapped up overnight. (So again don’t freight we have an upcoming blog on that too!)

But here are a few questions to ask yourself in order to get you started: What type of behavior system do I want for my classroom?  What are the consequences? What are my incentives/rewards? Do I want to have classroom jobs? How should I arrange my student’s desks? What is our morning procedure going to be? What is our end of the day procedure going to be? How will my students line up?

I’m not kidding the list goes on and on! Once you have those techniques in place you can start deciding how you want to display them around your classroom. But like I said, more to come on classroom management systems.

7. To buy or to make, that is the question

 

By now you will have about 200 lists anxiously waiting you to start marking things off of it in that red teacher pin you love oh so much. But first you must ask yourself can I make this or should I buy it? If you haven’t already started buying materials you will soon realize it is EXPENSIVE! So if your crafty use those skills and if you’re not, ask a crafty friend to make it for you! Overall I’ve probably spent (close your ears mom and dad) close to $900 on classroom materials and resources. I read an article that said the average new teacher spends about $770 stocking their classrooms… but in my defense that article was written back in 2009 and I think times have changed since our high school days. Regardless let’s all make a vow to be smart buyers and only buy the things that we cannot make on our own… unless you just really really really want it, then I guess that’s okay ;)

8. Time to find some good summer reads

 

The last thing I’m going to mention is how helpful literature can be for us as new teachers. I am on my fourth educational book and have found them to be very helpful. So far I’ve read or am reading: The First Year Teachers Checklist by Julia Thompson, Welcome to Kindergarten by Bonnie Brown Walmsley and Debra Redlo Wing, Getting the most out of Morning Message and other Shared Writing by Carleen DaCruz Payne and Mary Browning Schulman and have just started Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids by Chris Biffle. Look into books that suit your needs, having trouble with time management there’s books on that! Check amazon, ebay or your local book store.

When it’s all said and done you want your classroom to feel like home. So be happy with your choices, if you buy something then hate it the next day take it back no biggie. This is your space for the next 180 days make it right!

-The new kid on the block Alera

What Seemed Like The Never Ending Job Process

    At the beginning of my senior year, I could not escape the question, “What are you doing after graduation?” I constantly thought about my future and was panicked that I would not be able to find a teaching job come May.

I had heard so many stories from friends and supervisors that it is extremely hard to find a teaching job and that most people subbed their first year. Those words were not good for me. I pretty much then decided that I’d have to work at McDonalds for the rest of my life (if they’d even hire me). But I was determined for that not to happen, so I decided to get to work right away on my applications.

    I remember my first application that I started. There were about 400 pages that I had to complete and I thought I would never finish. Once I finally completed it I danced around my room until I realized that I still had 15 more to go. After that first application, I never wanted to look at another application again… but that wasn’t going to happen… because I decided on 16 school districts around Dallas that I was going to apply to because SOMEONE was going to have to take me. Luckily the day I sent in my first application, the school district immediately contacted me to set up interview times! 

    I kept working and working and working on applications feeling the carpel tunnel coming on and my eyes were in a constant squint from staring at a computer screen so long. I had four of my Baylor professors write me recommendations, and by the end of it I am pretty sure they never wanted to hear my name again.

    As graduation approached, the more and more antsy I became. My friends had started to get jobs and I was determined to have job security before I graduated. At one point, I even applied to Home Depot thinking I’d never get a teaching job. I could wear an orange vest and smile at people and cut lumber. (I am obsessed with Home Depot, I could spend days in there.) Well guess what, when Home Depot didn’t even want me, I didn’t even know what to do with myself. Really Home Depot??

   I kept waiting and waiting for one of my top districts to contact me. ß That right there my friends is the worst decision. The more you wait the more you question yourself, the more time that will pass without someone contacting you, and you’ll never get a job just sitting there. You have to go out and meet those people or contact the districts that you want to work for.

    So I continued to go to job fairs and conferences handing out my resume to anyone who so even glanced at me. (I am pretty sure I bought out every paper company with the amounts of resumes I printed out.) Every time they were nice and accepted my resume saying, “Ahh Baylor, good school, good GPA” and I just stared at them with begging eyes, down on one knee with my hands in a fervent prayer position.

   THEN the week before graduation I received a call that a principal wanted to interview me! After I was given the interview location, I think I Google mapped the school about 3,000 times making sure that it hadn’t changed locations in the past 3 minutes.

   When the interview day finally came, less than 48 hours after my graduation, I was so ready to go in and get a job. The interview went well (all those interview blogs I had read really prepared me along with my experiences.) Thankfully they liked me and offered me a teaching job. HALLELUJAH. And the school and school district are amazing. Everything I went through, and the time I spent trying to get a teaching job was WORTH IT!!!

-Hannah

TIPS FOR THE JOB PROCESS:

1.) Apply anywhere and EVERYWHERE that is somewhere near where you want to live.

2.) Make connections, you never know if your cousin twice removed has a friend that is a superintendent somewhere…

3.) Email the principals of every school district you applied to.

4.) Be patient, and know that most teachers don’t get hired until the summer.

5.) Read tips for interviews and read through mock interviews, they will really help you prepare and know what you would say or ask.
6.) Be YOURSELF and RELAX at the job interview!!! The more real you are and confident you are- the more they will like you!

A Little About Hannah

   Welcome to the New Kids on The Block- First Year Teacher Edition blog! My name is Hannah Cates and I cannot wait to start off my first year of teaching!

Now no matter how excited I am, I am still a little anxious about what is to come. Alera and I got to talking one night, and after talking about all of our excitement and the plans we had in store, we talked about how there really isn’t many resources for first year teachers… I think the only book I have seen that addresses first year teachers- is “The First Year Teacher Survival Guide.” And it was HUGE and a little daunting. The other books and blogs I have been reading, though very resourceful and full of spectacular ideas, make it seem like everyday in the classroom is perfect- with their perfect lesson plans, perfect materials, and their little angels- but if you don’t already know- that’s not always going to be the case no matter how cute your little angels are. So this blog is going to be all about the good, the bad, and the questionable things that go on in our classrooms during the first year of our careers. I hope that this blog will be both a source of encouragement to you and also will help you grow as a teacher!

Don't let this face fool you,
I was a lot to handle
in Kindergarten.
Poor Mrs. Moody.

   Now a little about me… I was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. I love Nashville. My family lives there- my mom, my brother Wesley who will be a sophomore at Auburn, and then also my foster brother- Jason- who is three! I have known since I was a little girl, that whatever I wanted to do in life, it had to involve helping others. With that in mind, since I was little I wanted to be a nurse or a teacher. I found out at a very young age that the sight of blood was not something that I wanted to see everyday. So a teacher I would be... little did I know that my students would often have little cuts or nose bleeds- so I would not escape the sight even as a teacher. There is nothing I would rather do than teaching. I love kids and I love their eagerness to learn. I decided to go to Baylor University, 1) because I have always loved Texas, I mean who doesn’t love the 100+ degree heat and the warm weather all year long??!), 2) because it was a Baptist university, and 3) because of all the experience students in the education program get.

      At Baylor, I was a teaching associate in 3^rd and 1^st grade, and then did my student teaching in 2^nd grade. I loved all of the experiences, but nothing will ever compare to 2^nd grade- they are perfect! They are still SO excited about learning, love you no matter what and will give you hugs, and they are slowly but surely becoming independent learners. During my student teaching year I was also able to go to Brisbane, Australia and teach Year 2 over there. Going to Australia was one of the best experiences of my life, and I cannot wait to go back there someday and hopefully teach.

      So now more towards the present- I just graduated in May. After graduation I decided to stay in Texas, for Texas won my heart. I got a teaching job in May at a school in Grand Prairie ISD. I will be teaching KINDERGARTEN!!!! I am so looking forward to this coming year and cannot wait to share my thoughts, ideas, and experiences from my first year of teaching with y’all!

Ms. B... I like the sound of that!

     Hello bloggers my name is Alera Budd aka Ms. B, for those of you who don't know me I can be described as a “go getter”. So when I brought the idea of creating a blog for new teachers to my friend Hannah I don’t think she was one bit surprised. Hannah and I met the summer before our freshman year of college and where pretty much instant friends. You know those people you meet and think “we would make such great friends” well that was Hannah and I. We were education buddies and somehow always ended up in the same classes and cohorts together. Our junior year of college we even got to co-teach in a 1^st grade classroom for a semester! But I’m getting ahead of myself, let me rewind a bit.


My Kindergarten picture... I'm sure my mom
 was happy to get this picture in the mail!



I was born and raised right here in the great country whoops I mean state of Texas! I am the youngest of four girls and have the most supportive parents on planet earth.  Like many of us from the day I could remember I wanted to be a teacher. I’d make my older sisters sit down and be my students as I walked around pencil stuck behind my ear, assigning homework and tests. Although my visions of myself as a teacher have changed, my passion for teaching has not.

        Along with teaching another passion of mine is dance! Throughout my middle school and high school career competitive dance pretty much overtook my life but it taught me so much. So it was no surprise when I decided to go out for my college dance team and what an amazing experience that was. On top of a full college course load I was a member of the Baylor University Dance Team where you could find me cheering at all the BU football and basketball games. That was by far a highlight of my college career. And although I had an amazing college experience I am ready for this new phase in my life and to see what being a first year teacher is all about. This year I will be teaching (drum roll please) KINDERGARTEN in Garland ISD and could not be more excited! And to make things even better Hannah and I will get to continue to share, discuss and mentor one another as we tackle Kinder together. I mean everyone remembers their Kindergarten teacher, right?

So here’s to a great year full of amazing unforeseen events! And let me just say, I really hope Taylor Swift is right about being twenty two “We're happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time. It's miserable and magical. Everything will be alright. If we just keep dancing like we're 22.”

-The new kid on the block Alera

Meet first year teachers Hannah & Alera

  Hannah C                Alera B

   Our goal for this blog is to create a place where new and veteran teachers can come to chat, discuss and share their love for teaching! There are many education blogs out there with amazing ideas, but we want to talk about that lesson that totally backfired. Or that student who made you laugh uncontrollably for the last half hour of school... isn't that what teaching is all about?

   So here's to writing a real blog, for real teachers, reaching real students and updating you with real outcomes. Join us as we venture into our first year as elementary school teachers, rehashing the triumphs and setbacks of the education field.

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The New Kids on the Block

     Hannah & Alera