Surviving Your First Years in the Classroom

Twelve Brutally Honest Tips for Elementary Teachers

Jordan McKinney

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000332223
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Gestion de la salle de classe

Survive your first years as a teacher with the no-nonsense tips and stories in this book. Learn how to choose respect over being liked, content over cute, grace over grades, and planning over Pinterest. Also find out how to avoid the teacher's lounge mentality and surround yourself with positive influences. The author's honest tone and humor throughout will leave you feeling inspired and ready to tackle the challenges that can come your way, so you can stay happy in your role and rememberwhy you chose a career in education.

Bonus: The book features a variety of worksheets you can use immediately, on lesson planning, student behavior and motivation, and more.

1
Planning over Pinterest

How can I set myself up for successful before the year even begins?

I’ll be honest with you all. This part is hard for me to admit and write. You may read this section and either sympathize or may hate me. Honestly, I can’t control what you feel for the younger version of myself. Honestly? I really pity and dislike her. She got out of college with her head in the clouds and visions of the movie Waiting for Superman in her eyes.

I think a lot of teachers have been at this moment. I think of it more as the savior complex. You’re going to swoop into the classroom. It’ll look perfect and you will know just what to do. You’ll read a few books, teach a few lessons, and get up on your desk like in the Dead Poets Society and these kids’ lives will change just like you’ve always dreamed of, right? Now those of us who’ve even taught a couple of years have either made that mistake and are nodding in unison of “yes, and what dummies we were,” or may have set this book down in thought of, “man what a weirdo.” To which I agree with both statements.

I went into teaching with the best of intentions. I knew since I was five years old, I wanted to become a teacher. Hanging in my classroom currently is a little art project from first grade that reads, “My dream is to become a teacher to change a life. I know it’ll be tough, but I want to become a teacher.” Somewhere along the way, I must’ve forgotten the, “it’ll be the tough part,” though I couldn’t have imagined how tough my first class would be and how poorly I would handle it. Now to keep this all locked up and safe I will be changing the names of all schools, students, and coworkers. You need to know the stories to get why I’m telling you it gets better and how.

I started my first job in a low-income school on the rougher side of my hometown. I was to be the new first grade teacher. My first classroom was a bumblebee theme to coincide with my then B last name. I was so excited. As I walked in for my tour of the school (I had interviewed on the phone) the janitor and fellow teacher mentioned, “this is a revolving door school.” Though I know it now, was naive then, it was probably being said to me as in, “aw honey, you won’t last the year.” In my mind, I was thinking that it was so upsetting and that I wanted to make a change.

I spent the short week or two that I had to prepare all in designing my room and collecting books to add to a library. I set up bulletin boards, taped up posters, and added shelf paper to old bookcases. My favorite piece being a board in the hall that boasted a “Look at This Bee-utiful Work!” and had clothes pins with cute bee’s hanging on the butter yellow fabric. In full disclosure within the first nine weeks a student in an angry rage literally football punted those bee’s down the hall with my principal watching. I think that might’ve nearly broken me as I saw those cute bee faces smashing on the floor. However, before school began, I felt naively that all these décor pieces and books were going to help me succeed. I bet you can guess how that panned out. It did not go as expected.

The supply drops off went swimmingly and I was pumped to begin. Even my mentors with the county were feeling great about my room and the preparedness of my materials and that ever more boosted my self-confidence. When it comes to organization my type-A self really has always had that down. It was all looking so promising. That’s the beauty of the days before the school year starts, visions of kumbaya moments with your students dance in your heads. However, that came crashing down the instant that Monday began.

I had a class of 18 first graders. Their adorable faces entered my room, and my horrible classroom management began. I can’t even honestly remember what my rules were. They were all about making classroom contracts at our school through the program Capturing Kids Hearts and so I hadn’t really thought about actual rules. While I bumbled through countless mistakes, we all make, I met a few kids that I’ll never forget. The one that lives in infamy was Jason. My roommate at the time still brings him up when we reminisce on our first years in our jobs. He was cute with the sweetest face you’ve ever seen. That was until a dark look overcame his face. Then the real terror of the day began. It would go from throwing desks, screaming, clawing at the door as he was taken to the counselor, etc. You name it and it probably happened. I remember a meltdown after he got a B on a spelling test and I took my kids to do yoga in the field as he ripped apart the room and was taken down the hall. You know in a scary movie where someone is gripping the banister instead of being dragged somewhere? The screaming and clawing that’s going on? Yeah, that’s how this was. It took four large men to get him out of my room during those tantrums.

Where it got really rough was during a day at carpet time. In the middle of reading my story of the day he got up and kicked another student right in the mouth I could feel the room just freeze. To my horror, I bolted up to press the intercom. At that moment I realized to my dread that it wasn’t working. Of course, right? So, I picked up the classroom phone to dial the office for assistance. At that moment (probably due to fear of getting in trouble) Jason came up behind me and yanked my head back by grabbing fistfuls of hair tugging my head away from the phone. The woman in the office said she could only hear my screams on the other line. As strands of my hair found their way ripped from my head, he also found his way out of my room. The rest of the class still remained on the carpet frozen in fear of what they’d witnessed. When my mentor came the next day she was told, “I thought she would be gone after yesterday,” from the principal. I was promised the intercom would be fixed and this wouldn’t happen again. I can safely say it wasn’t repaired in the time I remained there.

Now Jason wasn’t the only kiddo in my class that had some scary moments. The other friend of mine that I will always remember was Andy. He was also one that had his two Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sides. You were able to tell as he walked down the hall which side was out for the day. One day he walked up to my mentor during observation and said, “I’m scared.” To which of course she asked, “of what dear?” He looked at her and said shyly, “Of what the voices in my head tell me to do.” Yep. Really creepy stuff going on there. He’d crawl on desks like a tiger and growl, and this was with the vice principal watching. Eventually, he was baker acted and taken to the hospital with a police escort to make sure the mother got him there safely. He was back in my room after he was released several days later. At the time I was 22 and absolutely terrified of all these weird experiences in my class, and now I feel sadness for all those kids must have been enduring.

Now those are only two of the few stories from that class. There were honestly many others that I experience as do many educators every day. That is a battle all of us may face at some time or another. However, this is where I look back and regret so much that I did. Yes, I had some crazy students. However, looking back I wish someone had said to me, “Your classroom is the chaos you create.” The reality is I was the reason those kids may have gotten to that level of crazy. Why? Simply because I should’ve followed my first tip.

Tip #1

Planning

Over

Pinterest

I fell for this mistake during my first few years in the classroom. I would dream and look up the cutest classroom styles, behavior plans, first day activities, classroom songs, and really anything I would call fluff. What did I forget to look up? That would be what I was going to do after the first day. We get lost in the Pinterest perfect sides of things that we forget to get out of the book and really focus on the nit and grit of daily life in the classroom.

If that year I had come in with the mentality of how I was going to hold those students accountable, I believe I may not have lost those strands of hair. Instead, I was so focused on my bumble bee themed room and the packets parents received at the supply drop off that I barely had cracked a textbook. My friend, as much as that Pinterest board of cuteness may call to you and you tell yourself, “but it will create a warm and inviting space,” trust me when I say you and your kids will not care one week into the year.

Bright and shiny classrooms are not what makes for a successful school year. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the need to have as cute of a room as my fellow educators. I wish I had just been told, “the kids won’t care.” The weeks you are preparing for class sit down and turn off the computer. Open your teacher editions, write out your procedures, finalize those simple few rules, and relax. Your kids will love more your clean routines in a blank room, than hung up decorations in the middle of chaos.

There are still times where even now that I know this, I will catch myself getting lost in the void of bright colored rooms and perfectly laid out materials. I mean what teacher can resist a perfectly curated classroom? Then I remind myself that my time is best spent on the construction of my management and curriculum than the creation of bulletin boards for birthdays.

So, you may be walking into that brand-new room. The four walls are bare or left with the miscellaneous items the teacher before you left. There’s that excitement that is building but also the pounding in your heart of what to do next. First off before you run to the teacher store to buy that fadeless paper, let’s sit down and go over the finer details that you’ll need to make that year a smashing success!

The How To

Let’s

Start

Planning!

1.1 Find Your Vibe

Now I’m sure you’ve probably thought of a classroom theme. Here’s the thing. I’m not saying a theme is 100% necessary. However, having a staple color, signature item, or design makes the flow of your classroom so much easier. For example, my theme is pineapples with the colors teal, yellow, and pink. So, when I go to the store or I create worksheets for parents, everything follows those few items. Why does that matter? Nothing looks better than when a quick clip art ties something together. Heck, you could just love the color purple and always print your newsletters on purple paper! This just helps you save some money by not buying a ton of useless items that don’t go together. It keeps you on a central track with your selections, and kids love it. Just make sure you pick a color or item you actually like. Your collection will grow, and now I have more pineapple cups, mugs, and knick knacks than I could’ve imagined!

1.2 You Rule

Don’t you move another step into your design process without deciding your three to five classroom rules! Your room can be completely bare except for your rules and do much better than the Pinterest classroom down the hall that doesn’t have a firm set of them. That’s all you need is three to five key ideas that kids will memorize. Don’t go over that or honestly the little ones will never remember them.

My favorite way to come up with my rules is to use an acronym. Remember that vibe I mentioned earlier? Have your rules fit that similar feel. My classroom is two blocks from the crystal blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. So, my rules are the acronym BEACH! It’s cute and simple, and with a poster board and some pineapples I am good to go! My school has even adopted my rules since I joined the faculty in 2017.

Here’s another fun tip! I have my students memorize the rule for a treat on the Friday of the first week of school. We practice all week and create hand motions for each rule together. This way the students take ownership of the rules, even though I created them. So yes, my students have the rules memorized, but that’s not even the best part!

Let’s say in the middle of a lesson Jenny is talking too much. I don’t want to embarrass her in front of her peers, but really Jenny needs to stop talking! I simply look at her and discreetly make the signal they came up with for “Eyes and Ears are Listening.” Then boom! She is quiet and back on task. I don’t have any tears, embarrassment, and she knows Mrs. McKinney means business! On the recess field I can call out “Rule #5,” and they know hands up and off one another. I spend less time correcting and more time teaching.

1.3 Map Out Your Procedures

Here’s something about kids that we sometimes forget. Kids have to be told exactly what to do and have that broken down in the steps. There is no simply walk down the hall. It is broken into walk directly behind the person in front of you, with your hands to your side, mouths closed, and to the side of the hallway. Yet this was something I didn’t realize until I would tell my first graders just to simply sharpen their pencils when they needed to. Big mistake! You haven’t seen crazy until you see kids in a mob fighting for the sharpener. It’s as scary as people fighting for the tv on sale at Walmart on Black Friday after Thanksgiving.

Not only do you need rules in your classroom, you need procedures for everything from bathroom breaks to how to get a tissue. In the bustle of the school year beginning these simple tasks can get lost in the fray of welcome packets. So, to make it simple, I have shared my check list of tasks that you should sit and plan out before pre planning even begins. Some of these maybe things that you think aren’t truly necessary to review, but even the older kids and beyond need to know how to ask for help lest you have kids yelling your name in the middle of an exam or lesson.

Take these procedures in this book and during that first week of school pick two to three a day to practice. Do an activity, then a procedure, and then back to do something fun to break it up. There is never such a thing as too much practice, and as my principal would say, “perfect practice is what makes perfect.”

1.4 Parent Communication

Your students’ parents can be either your greatest ally or your toughest hurdle. What determines which they will be is up to your communication with them. Your students’ parents never go into...