Chocolate for the Teach

If you get hired for a teaching position at the last minute, the tasks ahead of you will seem daunting and impossible to get done before the students arrive. You will have to think of everything from getting your room ready to what procedures you will have. Time may not allow you to get every detail taken care of, however. Learn to be okay with that! I got hired a week before school started last year, so I know the feeling. I honestly felt like I rushing and fighting to keep my head above water from that point until Christmas. After going through that, here’s what I would prioritize, especially if you’re pinched for time:         1.       Get the basics of your room set up. This doesn’t mean you have to “choose a theme.” Sure, themes are cute! But not a top priority. New teacher, this year, your theme may be “learning,” and it will be a great year! Ignore frivolous decorations for now and just set up the materials that will be easil...

Happy 4 th of July! When you’re a new teacher, you’ll find you won’t have the expenses to get all of those quality picture book read-alouds you desire. Instead, you’ll slowly acquire them. The question is, what is worth getting right away for your first year? What are the staple, go-to books? Every teacher is different, but I’ll give you a list of books I would buy right off the bat: I typically like at least one read-aloud for each holiday. But because there are a lot of holidays, buy half of what you need this year and borrow the rest from other teachers! Buy this year:              Borrow this year and buy next year: -Halloween                  -Thanksgiving -Christmas                   -St. Patrick’s Day -Valentines ...

Before my first year of teaching started, I looked up dozens of articles and websites that gave advice about the first year of teaching. I figured that by now, newbie teacher, you have also scoured these websites. The following list is my attempt to offer some advice that would supplement the already sound advice out there:       Libraries: Proceed with caution. Libraries can be a great free resource for some teachers, but for me, it was a headache. Returning library materials was the last thing on my mind most days, so I racked up some pretty hefty fines. After a while, it was probably cheaper to buy the book. And you have to factor in the risk that one of your students damages the item (accidents happen). Then you are held responsible for paying for it. So, in conclusion, libraries are my useful-but-dangerous classroom friends.       You will often not be aware of what you don’t know. You won’t know what kind of questions to ask. So many teache...