The
First-Year Teacher’s Survival Guide
By
Julia G. Thompson
Summary:
Assume
Your Professional Responsibilities:
The first section on this text focuses on the challenges of teaching in
the 21st Century. The focus
of the chapter is on teacher professionalism through maintaining a classroom
that focuses on high performance. This
section also focuses on the importance of teacher self reflection and peer
observations from more experiences teachers, who can aid as mentors during the
first year.
Develop the Practical Skills You’ll
Need to Manage a Classroom: This section
outlines the essential tools all first year teachers need to succeed in the
profession. The text outlines the
importance of a teacher desk free of clutter that includes items such as pens,
pencils, file folders, labels and a hole punch (to name a few). This section of the text also focuses on the
importance of prioritizing items that need to be accomplished in the school day,
stating “with this type of workplace pressure, it is crucial to prioritize your
tasks so you can accomplish everything you need you need to do; move forward in
meeting your goals; reduce your own stress level; and, most important, be the
teacher your students need you to be” (Thompson 42). It is suggested to make to do lists in order
to accomplish daily classroom needs, as well as using daily and weekly
reminders.
Collaborate
with Others in Your School and Community:
Thompson’s text refers to the school environment as a “network of
teams” and as a new teacher you are supported by this community of teams, so it
is important to discuss ideas with others.
Thompson states “one of the most important facets of your professional
reputation- one you should establish as quickly as possible- is your reputation
for integrity” (76).
Begin
a Successful School Term: A
successful school term starts on the very first day. The first day of school can be exciting but
also challenging for both students and the first year teacher. It is important to understand students have
anxiety about starting a new school year so steps must be made to calm these
fears by creating a welcoming environment and introducing classroom routines as
expected behaviour. It is also important
to build a sense of community in the classroom so students feel a part of a
team. This can be done by including
students in tasks such as handing out materials or having them help each other.
Develop
Positive Classroom Relationships: Thompson
outlines how teacher’s in the 21st century “are expected to help
students learn by encouraging them to think for themselves, solve problems,
determine meaning based on what they already know, and be much more
self-directed than those students of the past who were expected to be passive
receptors of knowledge” (140). A large
portion of this section of the text focuses on conducting ourselves in a mature
manner and taking on the position of role model in the classroom. The text explains how students have a natural
habit to ask questions and some questions are to personal to answer while still
maintaining an appropriate level of professionalism. In order to divert these questions, keep
focus on the task at hand as busy students are too involved in their work to
ask questions about the teacher’s personal life.
Control
Class Time: This section outlines
how to make productive use of time spent with students. With new technologies available it is
important that when using resources such as movies or video clips we focus on
what is relevant to our current study. Thompson
outlines some important principles for classroom time management, including
reducing distractions, raising student awareness, establishing routines,
monitoring constantly, being organized and having a backup plan for lessons
(179-180).
Manage
Your Classroom: Having a well
managed classroom takes practice as well concise planning; it does not just
happen on its own. Some tips on creating
a well managed classroom as illustrated by Thompson include a focus on good
behaviour, clear expectations, policies and rules, as well as developing new
polices in regards to grade level and school board expectations (p.
202-204). It is important that once
classroom rules are stated that teachers enforce these rules so students are
not confused by expectations.
Choose
Appropriate Instructional Strategies and Resources: In this section of the text, Thompson
outlines a few instructional options teachers have, these include:
-reflective
discussions: students make connections between what they have learned and their
person experience
-active
learning: students assume responsibility for their own learning through the use
of activities
-interactive
learning: use of social media as a platform for learning
-problem-based
learning: students learn together through collaboration by solving realistic
problems
-hands-on
learning: students learn by manipulating objects or conducting experiments
(p.
261-267)
Design
Effective Instruction: Effective
instruction is done through careful planning.
This can be accomplished by making unit plans and daily plans to cover
curriculum content. Lesson plans should
be adjusted to suit learner needs and teachers should always make a back-up
plan in case students finish early.
Deliver
Engaging Instruction: Classroom
discussions must engage all students.
Often teachers assume the class is listening to them explain an
assignment only to find out later they missed the fine points of instruction. In order to ensure students are paying
attention the teacher must learn how to maintain eye contact, learn the
importance of pausing between questions so students have time to answer and
genuinely be engaged in discussion themselves.
Engaging students in classroom discussion can be done in several ways
(creativity helps), such as including toys to capture attention and using games
to encourage learning (p. 314-318).
Meet
the Needs of All of Your Students: It
is important to realize that different learners possess different learning
needs. Teachers must create
differentiated instruction to support all the students in their classroom. Differentiated instruction means “creating many
paths so that students of different abilities, interests, or learning needs
experience appropriate ways to learn” (Thompson p. 332). This can be done by creating and developing a
rotation of different activities that include all student strengths and
rotating students through these activities.
It is important to also stress quality of work over quantity of work
accomplished.
Assess
Your Student’s Progress: This part
of the text outlines the importance of both summative assessments (at the end
of the unit) and formative (data collection of lesson effectiveness) in
evaluating student progress.
Level
the Playing Field by Covering Basic Skills:
There are certain inequities that a teacher cannot change for a
student, including socio economic income, family situation and living in areas
that have high crime rates. However,
factors such as listening, speaking and writing skills can be helped through
teacher guidance and supports. By
providing activities that enhance these skills and giving directions to
encourage student’s critical thinking skills, teachers can help level the playing
field for academic success. Thompson
gives specific examples of activities to help enhance each skill and outlines
the importance of different learner needs for success. The most important thing a new teacher can do
to provide a positive educational experience for all students is to not assume
that students already know basic skills they need to be successful. Evaluate and listen to your students to learn
areas in which they need to improve.
Prevent
Discipline Problems: Thompson states
“though educators know that harsh punishments will not transform troublemakers
into well-behaved students, threats of punishment itself are still common
methods of making children of all ages behave” (p. 427). Thompson believes teachers should stay away
from punishments as they only offer short term relief to classroom
misconduct. Instead teachers should
focus students on the importance of self discipline and look for reasons why
students are misbehaving in the first place, such as difficulty of work or
distraction. In order to minimize
behavioural disruptions in the classroom setting teachers should model fair
behaviour and stay consistent with classroom behaviour expectations.
Manage
Discipline Problems: The last
section of Thompson’s text explains how to manage discipline problems. The main problems deemed unacceptable in any
classroom include: threats, intimidation, substance abuse, violation of
students rights, disrespect for authority, failure to complete work, unsafe
behaviour, dishonesty, tardiness, lack of attendance to class, and violence (p.
450). In order to deal with these issues
present in many classrooms, Thompson suggests communication with parents or
guardians, or referring the student to an administrator. One last statement of advice is to not take
student behaviour personally. Thompson
states “one of the hardest attitudes for many new teachers to adopt is a
refusal to take their students’ misbehaviour and lack of motivation personally”
(p. 460). However, in order to thrive in
as a new teacher we must learn not to take student actions personally.
Critique:
I found Julia Thompson’s text The First-Year Teacher’s Survival Guide
extremely informative. Not only does
Thompson include step by step instructions and tips on how to survive as a new
teacher, she also includes useful sheets (with permission to photo copy) for
reflection and evaluation purposes.
Thompson goes even further to include several websites with free access
to different resources to help with lesson planning and classroom
management. I found the vocabulary and
tone of this book also very helpful as it was not too formal and easy to
follow. I would defiantly suggest the
book to my peer’s as a great resource to reflect on when dealing with difficult
first year teaching issues.
Although I did enjoy the text and
feel it is an excellent resource, I did experience one issue while reading it
front to cover for the purposes of this particular assignment and that was its
length. The book itself is quite long
(530 pages) and is the same size as a typical textbook. I found that while reading it, I was almost
overwhelmed with all the information and had a difficult time summarizing the
main points. For the purpose of my
summary I used information I found useful or interesting but each section held
hundreds of tips and tricks of the teaching profession. This being said, I would recommend Thompson’s
text as a reference guide for new teacher’s.
It is easy to follow the outlined sections through the “contents at a
glance” page, so finding information on a particular issue or concern would be
easy to find. By using the text as a
reference guide after experiencing a particular problem in the classroom,
information irrelevant to a particular teaching situation is not presented all
at once. This would make the vast amount
of useful information present in the text less overwhelming if viewed bit by
bit when specific information was needed.
Overall, I give this text an eight
out of ten. It was rich in first year
teaching resources and also provided numerous organizational sheets for
photocopying. The text also included a
DVD as an additional resource. One
additional note on this particular text is that it pertains information to
first year teaching of kindergarten to senior four, so it is valuable for any
new teacher.
Text Resources:
The following are a list of website
resources given in Thompson’s text.
These sites are only a few of the numerous sites listed.
Thompson,
Julia. The First Year Teacher’s Survival
Guide. 3rd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2013. Print.
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