Necessity for support in your first year of teaching

In what ways do you foresee a necessity for support in your first year of teaching? From where and how do you expect this support to come? i.e. district, school, fellow teachers…

In my first year of teaching, I expect I want a lot of feedback on improving the success of my teaching. Even after student teaching, I’ve still had so little experience working in a school environment. I’m positive that every day I’m going to have a new list of questions I have about improving the success of my students and the success of my lessons. The teachers in the building have a lot of experience teaching, and have real-life examples for nearly any question or problem I may have. Hearing those true examples and discussing the solutions make me feel more confident, knowing what sort of problems might arise and knowing I have at least one solution. With their combined experience, my co-workers can also anticipate problems I might not have foreseen. Having another teacher check lesson plans or procedures, they can point out things to look out for so that I can prepare myself with some potential solutions.

A lot of schools have a new-teacher mentoring program, where an experienced teacher shadows and observes the first year teacher. I think this is a great program, because sometimes it’s difficult to observe problems yourself when you’re so focused on teaching. Those observing teachers get a student-like perspective to the lesson, and that can provide a great deal of helpful insight. Having multiple teachers observe my classroom will also give me some variation of feedback. Most teachers will probably be busy with their own classes, but if possible a school administrator, specials teacher, or another teacher who has free prep time could also observe my teaching, providing me with different points of view.

The other faculty members in the building are going to be very knowledgeable about the student population. The other teachers and staff have worked with most of these students for several years, and know how students might be instructed differently. If I ever am having difficulties with a student or apprehensions about their progress, I’ll likely being talking to their other teachers and expressing my concerns. It’s possible that other teachers are having similar difficulties, or have encountered them in the past and have some possible suggestions or solutions. The school guidance councilor would also be a great resource for solutions for social problems that could potentially arise.

I also anticipate needing a lot of support from the maintenance and janitorial staff. I always try to keep my room organized and clean, and I don’t want to provide them with more work than they already have to do. The art room does go through a lot of cleaning supplies, so I try to be mindful and not wait until those supplies gone before asking for more.