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The Top Ten Tips for New Teachers page was the original place for those unwritten rules about teaching that most of us find out about the hard way. But there's more! Every year I learn something new that I never thought I'd have to deal with. Here are the little things about teaching that you won't find in your college textbooks, or outlined in your teaching contract... in fact, you might not be told about them until the day you're responsible for implementing them! Some of them sound a bit negative, but that's not my intention: I just want new teachers to know ahead of time what 'the rules' are so they're prepared. Here are just a few of the many things that made me drop my jaw and ask, "Are you serious?!?!"...
FACT: Gradebooks and planbooks are collected at the end of the year in most school districts.
If you want to keep your lesson plans, you'll have to make copies of all those pages. If no one from your administration has been checking to see if your grades and lesson plans were up to date... make sure they are by the end of the year! Theoretically, the school system can be audited, and if you haven't included the things you were supposed to, there can be problems. Make sure you have the things they require (your orientation should explain this- if not, ask your team leader). I have seen a wide variety of things admin wants in lesson plans: objectives, ESOL strategies, assessment methods, state standards... it really varies from place to place. Know your union contract (or union rep) well because MANY administrators ask teachers to put things in their lesson plans that they are not required to write per the union contract. It's been my experience that higher-performing schools are more lackadaisical about specific lesson plans than struggling schools which have a lot of people scrutinizing them. In one school, the lesson plans I was required to keep recorded so much info that I did NOT need in order to teach that I actually kept seperate lesson plans to actually use for teaching! Don't worry about lesson plans, though- if your school system has a lot of formalities, you can often type up a basic form, alter it slightly, and use it repeatedly as your 'official lesson plan book'. Other teachers on your team have probably already done this and are willing to share. Not a big deal.
BOTTOM LINE: Know and follow the expectations for keeping your grade/planbooks up to date.
FACT: Your pay scale can be 'frozen'.
Those 'steps' you see on the teacher's payscale your district provides? They're not guaranteed in most school systems. The school board can 'freeze' the steps, leaving you on, say, step 3 for several years so that you may be getting paid like a step 3 (3rd year) teacher even if it's your 6th or 7th year. It all boils down to budget cuts. Most school systems have no obligation to move you automatically along to the next step.
BOTTOM LINE: Make financial decisions based on your current, not projected, salary.
FACT: Pay increases do not neccesarily occur each year.
Teachers aren't assured of getting annual raises like many professions. In most years, the school board and union will agree on a 1%-7% pay increase, but you may not get anything in certain years (and 1-2% isn't much in itself!). I encourage you to become active in your teacher's union and fight for the top dollar your professional expertise warrants. Sometimes unions will sacrifice pay increases for other benefits (such as lowered health insurance premiums), or will settle for increases that are distributed over the course of several years (such as 6% increase over a 3 year period, meaning a 2% increase each year). It's important to be aware of what you're earning and what other teachers in your state are earning, but don't allow it to consume you. We all knew teaching was a poorly-paid profession when we entered it, no there's no point in becoming bitter about it now.
BOTTOM LINE: Learn to love your job during the (many) years it takes to hit your ideal salary.
FACT: Teacher's working conditions vary WIDELY from place to place.
There are teachers making 100K working in beautiful, brand-new schools with more computers in their room than students. Some have fully-paid health benefits for the entire family, others aren't even offered a healthcare plan to pay for out of pocket. There are teachers being paid 26K to teach forty-five students who don't speak English in a classroom with no windows and mold creeping up the walls. Some teachers get 3 hours of planning time a day, others get none whatsoever. Some teachers get several thousand dollars to spend on their classrooms, others aren't even provided crayons and scissors. These are American classrooms- I won't even discuss international conditions in which there may be 100 students in a room with a dirt floor and no textbooks. My point is, don't be shocked when you find out how much better a teacher in another school (maybe one just down the road) has it than you. There's almost always a trade-off: one school might have large classrooms but less cabinet space; one school district might pay more initially, but the step increases are smaller. You have to weigh everything involved. I took at 12K pay CUT and lost my pension when I moved to Florida. By anyone's standard I was insane. But I love living here. Spending my afternoons under the palm trees on the beach is truly worth twelve grand to me... but not to most people. Learn to love where YOU'RE at, and don't be swayed when you hear about how fabulous other schools and systems are. If/ when you find something that you really believe is better, go for it, and don't look back. But remember...
BOTTOM LINE: The grass is always greener.
FACT: Your planning time is not guaranteed everyday.
Your union contract probably says it is, but it's not uncommon for teachers to have their planning time taken from them because of practicalities. In one school district I worked in, there were no funds to supply subs for specialist teachers (music, art, etc.), so when the specialists were out, there were no specials. That might mean I had to wait several hours without being able to go to the bathroom, and those last minute photo-copies or urgent phone calls would just have to be put off. In another school system, the funds were provided, but the school had such a bad reputation that no subs would take jobs there, so anytime the specialists were out, I had no planning time. My current school is the only one I've ever taught in where this is not an issue. If it's a problem in your school, you'll have to get creative: show a movie or give an independent assignment during your special time so you can get your work done, and have a colleague watch your class while you sprint off to the restroom.
BOTTOM LINE: Don't save critical tasks for planning time that you might not have.
FACT: Children cannot be 'forced' to say or stand for the Pledge of Allegience in some states.
You'll have to check your state laws for this, but it's a hot topic in many places. Be cautious if there is a child who does not want to cooperate, either for political/philosophical issues or just out of defiance: the pledge is a risky time to try coercing the child to do what you've asked.
BOTTOM LINE: Make no assumptions: many school traditions are now being questioned and challenged in court.
FACT: Most school systems have a mandatory reporting act for suspected child abuse.
Okay, this one actually IS in your contract... but it still comes as a surprise to many teachers. As an educator, you have a professional obligation to report to the proper authorities any suspicion of child abuse or neglect of any sort... and your teaching certification can be revoked if you do not do so. Your district will train you in how to spot abuse and what the procedures are in your community, but this is an issue that teachers must take seriously, because we HAVE to report any suspicions, even when it's difficult to do. And you will likely have to file a report at least once at some point during your career- it may even be regarding a colleague who is abusive to students.
BOTTOM LINE: Be mentally prepared to do the right thing even when it's uncomfortable.
FACT: Your teaching manuals will not tell you what information your kids actually need to learn.
That's a simple way of stating that your curriculum is most likely not aligned with state standards. It means that your teaching manuals will include skills that kids don't need to master at your grade level, and will be lacking concepts that the state mandates for instruction. For example, your math teacher's guide might have an entire chapter on teaching kids how to divide with 2 digit numbers, but in your state, students in the grade level you teach might only be responsible for dividing by 1 digit numbers. Who is responsible for identifying the gaps? The school district should do it (through pacing guides, curriculum outlines, grade level specs, etc.) but most of them don't do this well, especially since state standards and curricular series change over the years. Ultimately, YOU, the classroom teacher, are responsible for checking your teaching manuals against state standards to make sure you teach everything you're supposed to. Generally, the textbooks cover more than what the states require, so if you teach the whole book, the worst you've done is expose kids to concepts they'll learn in the next grade. But if you know which lessons to skip, you'll have more time to reinforce the skills that your students do need to master, and you can go more in-depth.
BOTTOM LINE: Teach the (state) standards, not the textbook.
FACT: You are not a slave to your teaching manuals.
If you're unfortunate enough to be in a school that requires you to teach scripted lessons in which you read word for word and don't adapt anything for your students' needs, TRANSFER immediately to a place where you are respected as a professional and not expected to be a robot overseeing a room of little robots. The majority of us actually have much more control over what goes on in our classrooms than we realize. Take literacy instruction: most districts have a few "musts", but you can structure the block any way you see fit for your kids. Post a general schedule which fits district guidelines, but shorten and lengthen the amount of time you actually spend on specific aspects of your literacy instruction in accordance with learners' needs. In general, textbooks are to be used a resource for teaching the state standards (see above)- you don't have to read every story in the basal. And even if you are required to cover each story, you don't have to teach each one the same way- do some on the overhead as shared reading, or as read-alouds, or partner read... get the idea? You don't have to have kids do each page in all of their workbooks. You may not even have to use those workbooks at all! (If you do, try sending some pages home, making some into centers, doing a few on white boards in a small group, and so on). You know your kids best. Stay current on professional research so that you can discover new techniques to try and feel prepared to back them up with studies that prove they work. Teaching and learning are supposed to be enjoyable and purposeful.
BOTTOM LINE: You DO have the option to eliminate or restructure what's not working.
FACT: Your teaching assignment is tentative until after open enrollment period.
This varies slightly by school district, but essentially, here's how this works. Every school system has a set period of 'open enrollment' (or some other term) which means that the district is monitoring how many kids are in each classroom, in each school in the district. This period usually lasts through the 4th-6th week of school. At any time during that period, someone in admin at your school or the district can determine that your school enrollment is too low, and transfer teachers to other schools with higher-than-predicted enrollment. Teachers with the least amount of tenure (whoever was hired last) go first. Conversely, if your school is overcrowded, the district may send more teachers to you so that your class sizes go down. More commonly, involuntary transfers happen within schools. If your school hired you to teach 2nd grade, but the second grade classes are much smaller than anticipated, you can get moved to another grade level. This can and does happen regularly in many places, even AFTER school has begun. Please don't start hyperventilating, but I know of a few teachers in my school who were moved to another grade TWICE after school started! They had to move classrooms and begin with new classes 3 times in August. The intra-school transfers have little if anything to do with tenure: the principal moves whoever s/he thinks would be the best fit at the grade level in need of a teacher. I knew this before I started teaching and actually chose to get certified in grades PreK-3 rather than K-5 so a principal could not interview me for or place me in the upper grades! Technically, s/he still could (states usually have some kind of waiver for a year or so of out-of-field teaching), but if there's someone who is certified to move up, that person would probably be picked before me. It's important to accept this as just a fact of life and not get hung up on what grade you will be teaching- there's a slim chance that you will get moved, so don't get worked up. Just keep it in the back of your mind so you're not caught off guard if the situation ever arises.
BOTTOM LINE: Flexibility is always the name of the game in teaching.
FACT: Your principal can move you around at his/her discretion.
At the end of the school year, you'll get a tentative teaching assignment. If your administration wants you to be in another classroom even though you've taught in the same room for years, guess what, you're moving! If your principal says you're teaching 5th grade even though you were hired to teach 1st, surprise, you'll be teaching first grade this year! Administration is supposed to make decisions that benefit the school as a whole, not cater to teacher's individual preferences, although some principals are more cognizant of teacher's wants than others. Some principals do this rarely, prefering to keep teachers happy and not rock the boat. Others don't like to let teachers get stuck in a rut and move people around regularly. They don't have to give you a reason and many of them don't. Your choices are to accept it gracefully, politely request to stay in the same grade, or transfer to another school- it's a personal decision.
BOTTOM LINE: Be ready to love teaching at any grade level.
FACT: State class size caps are not absolutes.
Your state probably mandates how many kids can be in a classroom. There are usually different requirements for different grade levels, with the smallest classes in the lowest grades. However, most school districts have found loopholes in the formula and what you see in your classroom may not have anything to do with what you thought was a hard-and-fast rule. Schools may factor in teacher aides, Title I assistants, and other school employees so that it seems as if the student-teacher ratio is low, but the actual number of kids in a classroom with one teacher is much higher. The No Child Left Behind Act has allowed states to do this for years but the formula changes during the 2007-2008 school year so that student-teacher ratios cannot include other personnel. However, NCLB is not funding these mandatory class size reductions, so states are left fumbling for a way to do what they need to do. If you're into the politics of education like I am, check out http://www.nclb.org for more info. Otherwise, just remember this: if your state says your classroom cap is 20 kids, expect to have more, then be pleasantly surprised if you don't.
BOTTOM LINE: If your cap size is 20 kids, expect to have more and be pleasantly surprised if you don't.
FACT: If your school reimburses you for purchases, you may not be able to keep them if you change schools.
(Submitted by Tiffany, who works for a large school system with 100,000 students in our district and roughly 5,000 teachers in Louisville, Kentucky). She writes, "Keep a detail account of what you spend. If you try to change to another school, this will help you to be able to prove that YOU actually purchased that item. I have a receipt binder with all of my purchases in there. Also, keep a copy of the supply list that you turn into the office each year. If an item gets broken (for example, I am HARD on staplers, I can't tell you how many I have gone through over the years!!!), document that by that particular item that it was "damaged beyond repair." This will save you a lot of headache when you do your exit audit from a school, and could possibly save you from having to PAY THE SCHOOL back for items. It is also important to remember, just because you have used the item for years, that does not make it "yours." If it was purchased with school funds, you cannot take it with you to another school location (even within the same district). Many principals will also not allow you to remove anything bought with school funds from that room if you change grade levels. This is to help prevent new teachers from having a "bare room," and to truly keep resources divided up equitably. I also write in on the things I buy "Edelen: Personal" and if they were bought with school funds, I write the name of the school and the room number."
BOTTOM LINE: Keep a detailed account of what you spend and what you have been reimbursed for.
FACT: There are some parents with whom you will not have any contact with all year.
This is more common in less affluent schools, but don't be shocked if June rolls around and there are families you have never seen. You'll schedule conferences and they won't show up, you'll make phone calls and they won't answer or return your call, and getting papers signed and returned is all but impossible. There will also be parents who never check their childrens' backpacks: you will look inside the backpacks and see papers from 4 months ago crumpled up at the bottom. Sometimes it's because they don't care about their kids education, but it's important that we as teachers don't jump to that conclusion, because usually uninvolved parents are too busy trying to work through personal and financial problems to be as tuned into their children as they would truly like to be. For example, I had a child one year who was working 2 years below grade level, was constantly in trouble for behavior issues, and failed the mandatory state test. The parents did not respond to a single note home, phone call, email, weekly evaluation, progress report, report card, or conference request. However, on the last day of school, the child walked in o the room carrying a vase of silk flowers and a card signed by mom thanking me for everything I had done for her child. Even though she didn't respond to my communication, she knew I was working hard with her child, and she appreciated it.
BOTTOM LINE: Be prepared to keep reaching out to parents even when they don't respond, because most of them really DO care about their kids.
FACT: New teachers often walk into an empty classroom in August because the veteran teachers 'loot' everything that isn't nailed down!
This has happened in every school I have ever worked in: a teacher quits in June, and her coworkers swoop in like vultures for extra tables, bookshelves, overheads, desks, manipulatives, and anything else they can grab. For some reason this is considered standard protocol: since the room doesn't belong to anyone at the moment, everything inside is fair game. The unwritten rule seems to be, once the new teacher has begun putting her things inside or setting up the room, things are off limits. In some schools, teachers will "take" things from one another during the school year (including items people have purchased with their own money), but that's frowned upon by almost everyone: it's like walking into someone's home and taking something you like. Ask someone you trust on your team about what items you should have in your room, and what you should do to get what you don't have (i.e., ask the principal, ask the person in charge of ordering supplies, go around to different classrooms and ask teachers if they have an 'extra' of something', etc.).
BOTTOM LINE: If you're new, expect to have things missing from your room, and be prepared to hunt them down! If you're experienced, make sure you have your name on EVERYTHING!
FACT: In many situations, the principal has ultimate say in how the school is run and can override district and state mandates.
District employees in my school system are fond of saying, "The buck stops with your principal" as a disclaimer to anything they recommend. The amount of time you devote to each subject, the teacher dress code, whether you have recess and how long it is, whether teachers are allowed to leave early without being docked pay, pacing and planning guides which outline instruction, etc. etc. are generally determined by your school principal. I know of MANY situations in which schools do not follow mandates from higher authorities because the principal has overridden them either overtly (because s/he is allowed to) or covetly (by re-appropriating funds and finding innumerable loopholes in the regulations). Your response to this may determine your treatment by administration. For example, at a friend's school, the principal ordered teachers to let the kids into the classroom twenty minutes early every morning. Some of the teachers approached the union with their concerns, and the union replied that no teacher can be forced to let children in early. So, those teachers stopped doing it. The principal subtly made those teachers targets (collecting their lesson plans weekly instead of annually, doing more classroom walk-throughs, etc.). At another school I know of, students are not given any recess even though the state mandates it. This can also work in your favor: for example, in my district, all classroom doors are supposed to be locked at all times, even when students are inside. Many principals do not enforce this and teachers can even leave their doors propped open (which is a fire violation). There are a ton of rules in a school system, all of which were established at different times by different people and are not enforced consistently across the district.
BOTTOM LINE: Reality within your school may not match higher mandates because school climate is ultimately determined at the school level by administration. Be prepared to pick your battles.
FACT: Custodians and secretaries are the ones who REALLY run the school!
Although some people consider them low on the totem pole, the fact is, if you want something done, you usually need a custodian or secretary to do it! Fixing a broken desk, running an emergency copy, unlocking your classroom door when you forget your key, giving you a new cable cord... you name it, and someone other than the principal is probably in charge of doing it! Support staff are often hard workers who are underpaid and underappreciated, so anything you can do to help them out is worth it: have the kids sweep the floor after a messy glitter project rather than leave it for the janitor to clean, and don't ask the secretary for a phone number because you're too lazy to look it up yourself. Custodians and secretaries know everyone in the school and are up on all the latest news and gossip (whether they want to be or not!) because they interact with everyone on a regular basis, so build a strong rapport and a reputation for being cheerful and cooperative.
BOTTOM LINE: Being kind is it's own reward, and it's especially important when interacting with hard-working support staff.
FACT: Have a coworker you can count on when you need someone to cover your class.
Pick someone who you can trust and whose classroom is close to you and exchange cell phone numbers. When you're stuck in traffic in the morning, call that person and ask them to watch your kids in the hall for you for a few minutes until you arrive. Bathroom emergency? This person can pop their head in your class and watch the kids while you go. (Some districts are adamant about children not being left along like this, so follow your local protocol). A hyperactive child driving you to the point of insanity? This coworker can take him/her off your hands so you can get yourself together without taking it out on the child- just send the child over to your coworker's room with a note (folded and stapled shut so the child can't see it) that says, "I need a break. Can ___ work in your room for awhile?". Don't have your lesson plans together? You can ask this teacher what s/he is doing that afternoon and see if that person has any extra copies for you to use. You are human, and you should expect yourself to be!
BOTTOM LINE: Teachers aren't perfect, and it pays to have a plan for those moments when you can't perform your job at the level you'd like to.
*****Please don't let this information overwhelm or discourage you! It's meant to be a heads' up, not a list of faults within the teaching profession. All of these scenarios may not apply to you, and even if they do, it's not enough to make teaching impossible or even extraordinarily difficult. The idea I want you to walk away with is this: Always expect the unexpected in teaching, so that nothing catches you off guard. :-)
I'll be adding more as I think of them...
Veteran teachers, please email me about the times when YOU'VE said,
"Are you serious?!"
so I can add your experiences to the page!
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