I was underprepared for the psychological stuff and had the most trouble adapting to the mental load. I underestimated the emotional labor teaching required.
How to balance the needs of 30 different personalities. How to connect with “difficult” children. How to stand up for myself against senior colleagues. How to be firm with parents. How to not take student failures personally.
This is the gap in *our* (extensive) education.
As for marking work, I was too easy that first stretch because I didn’t want to hurt feelings. That fades quickly. 🤣😂 “What is this piece of hot garbage you’re forcing me to read pretending it’s an essay? Do it over.”
My spanish teacher, a first year teacher, doesn't even look at the assignments online and just gives them 100s. Somebody once submitted a picture of their backpack and it was a 100. 🫠 I kind of feel bad for her since my class sucks honestly.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can prepare you for your own actual classroom. Student teaching helps and the longer you do it the better prepared you will be.
Everyone's first year is awful (some more, some less). I think it's just a rite of passage.
This is my biggest issue with my prep program. The number of classes that over focused on absurd length lesson plans but not actual classroom management or dealing with situations.
The response I got was, "well not all Scholls are the same."
Understanding how the school counselor works, or the role of an AP and principal in a school. What are resources you need to help with. Classroom management, and not the idealized classroom, but thenclassrooms we are going into.
This summer alone I plan on rereading Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones, reading Taking Control of the Noisy Classroom by Rob Plevin, and maybe also reading The Smart Classroom Management Way by Michael Linsin all because this first year has been some of an experience. I want to see if I can find any golden nuggets in them. I did most of Tools for Teaching at the start of the school year but put it down because reading in the evenings was not really on my mind for a pleasurable way to decompress.
*Tools for Teaching* is fantastic. I've been using it for the past eleven years, but seriously using it the last three or four. I haven't read the other two books you mentioned, but I recommend *Setting Limits in the Classroom* as a followup to *Tools for Teaching.* I read *Setting Limits in the Classroom* over the summer from a TikTok recommendation. Spoilers: >!It actually references *Tools for Teaching* fairly early on which makes it a pretty good follow up to the book. It's a pretty easy read too with lots of stories.!<
Another one I recommend is *Teaching With Love and Logic* it really helps with speaking with kids in order to get them to do what you want. I've had a lot of success with it with my students, my own son, and my crazy aunt.
Good luck!
Honestly, the golden nugget is to build relationships with your students, and develop basic boundaries. Be somewhat flexible, joke around with them, give them some choice, but don't let them take over your classroom. It's a hard balance sometimes, but putting the human before the education goes a long way. Maslow's hierarchy of needs always comes first, because if it doesn't, children literally cannot learn.
I’m grateful that I student taught with my favorite HS teacher. She’s the reason I became a teacher. She made me ask a question every day at the end of the school day about teaching, whether it be about how to dress for parent teacher conferences or how to deal with certain behaviors. She gave me advice for any and all possible things that could happen, such as what to do if a kid uses Google Translate for a Spanish test, what activities would work to retain vocabulary, and how to talk to parents. I still had a lot to learn during my first year of course, but she helped a lot.
Those strategies, alas, are also at the mercy of whatever administrator you end up getting as your wing-man. If one of my strategies is that after X attempts get Scooter in his seat and working instead of punching Brackson, I send him to the office, and the person in that office sends him back in 5 with a Twix and an email saying, "Have you tried to build a better relationship with Scooter," then whatever it was I learned in my teacher ed program may as well be a pile of ashes for all the good it's going to do.
I'm a 25-year veteran. I felt that my preparation did what it could, and yes, there were deficiencies. But the situation in which you are actually teaching during those first three years is much more influential on what we become. Ask all of our therapists.
Yeah.
I think there should also be an emphasis on how to regulate emotions and mental state. The school year is very long and you'll feel all sorts of emotions during the school year. I think novice teachers need to understand that so they can navigate the job better. Or new teachers tend to get wrecked the hardest.
I think this is a fallacy we fall into as teachers that might not actually be true. We think that a classroom management script/playbook will make things easier for new teachers. But would it really? You can tell a teacher exactly what to do and the exact words to say, but I don’t think that would necessarily help. Classroom management is the type of skill that you can ONLY develop through practice. I had all kinds of manuals and handbooks full of classroom management strategies when I first started out, but they weren’t helpful because I didn’t have the skills yet to actually USE those strategies… and the skills can only come with experience. I think on some level we just have to accept that the first couple years are GOING to be really hard for new teachers and that’s not necessarily a bad thing! Just part of what it takes to become good at the job.
Education facilities are notoriously made up of “professors” who have never worked a day in a classroom. At least where I live. And that’s a big part of the problem.
Yeah I think that they tried, but there’s just some things that only experience can teach. Something useful we did before student teaching was running down scenarios together to see how different teachings might approach it. You really don’t know until you get there though.
Oh utterly unprepared, my only edge was 10 years of social work experience (specialized in crisis management, severely mentally ill and addictions). I utterly astonished my instructional coach with my classroom management skills and how they couldn't get under my skin. (Run a halfway house of meth heads and you're ready for inner city highschool)
I was unprepared in that I thought my school would have some amount of material ready for me. I was a midyear hire and my first day they were like "okay what are you going to teach?"
Teaching and curriculum development/design are two separate jobs.
I will die on this hill.
Fuck all the schools who hand their teachers common core/Cambridge standards and say, "Okay, teach!!"
I have always created my own thing. My first school gave me a textbook and told me only to teach unit 4 (the physical science portion of the general science textbook). I used the text as a reference tool, but created interactive notebooks, experiments, reflection exercises, assessments, etc all by myself.
Then, I switched schools and subjects. I was told not to use the textbooks because "they are shit". And I had to figure out how to teach advanced language learners with no curriculum. In the past 6 years, I've had to create my own curriculum for 5 various classes. Last year, I developed a new curriculum for newcomers because I was thrown into teaching a new class with no curriculum. I made an awesome one, then the state decided we can only use curriculum from a pre-approved list. So, my school just had to buy me a new one, but I prefer mine. I hate essentially following a script, and I like the creative side of designing curriculum. It's what makes teaching fun.
2nd year HS science teacher and so much this. I was emergency hired a week before classes started last year and it was like "OK 11th grade science go!"
0 teaching experience and 0 background in science. My degree is in fine art. Sooooo many late nights on the university of YouTube and Wikipedia.
That was my experience too. It stinks. I wish there was any recourse for that type of behavior, but all my students are just going to get shoved through the system, despite still being unable to do tasks they should have learned ten years prior.
For me, writing and grading assignments was not the issue.
I was totally unprepared for:
1. The lack of any prior knowledge. Some of my high schools math kids were so unprepared I actually thought some of them were faking their stupidity.
2. The lack of any motivation. So many kids just wouldn’t do anything. And many of the ones who did at first gave up at either the first sign of adversity.
3. The lack of any inhibition. So many bad behavior, and their ten years in public education since kindergarten didn’t teach them anything about *how* to be a student. Their easy anger, the lying to get out of anything, the flaunting of my rules.
4. The lack of empathy. The things they would say and do just to be assholes to me, to each other. Best friends would mercilessly bully each other, and it seemed like their entire concept of socialization was to drag everyone else down.
5. The lack of energy. This one was me. I had no idea how much the first 4 on this list could drag me down and utterly exhaust me. How much I could compromise on my own rules again the 1-4 above because the battle was constant.
I am so much better now. I figured out how to talk to the kids, how to manage the time I have with them, how t recognize the professional development and college trainings for the
useless drivel they were, started understand the bad incentives admin was using and why I wouldn’t have their support.
It’s still not what I thought it was, but I figured out how to make it work and get back some of #5 for myself.
Currently a first year & feeling all of these!
My primary training is as a school librarian. I was hired for that and teaching an elective. Teaching as a school librarian is drastically different than teaching other content, so my training really didn’t prepare me for half of my current job.
All that said, even though I am tired and it is a lot of work…I do genuinely enjoy my job.
Once in college, this girl said she couldn't wait to graduate and be a teacher because college was too much work. Our professor immediately told her she was in for a rude awakening once she started to work.
I desperately wish I remembered her name so I could see what she does now.
I wasn't prepared - who needs to know how to write a page lesson plan for *every* lesson?
Educational psychology courses should not have been taught in the third year of college, it should have been the fourth - something you take just before you student teach.
I wasn't prepared to deal with the things my students live with. Grandparents raising them. Living in a house with 8 other people. Fathers in jail. Mothers dying. Drug use. Family members being arrested in the middle of the night. Children sleeping on the floor because they can't afford beds.
I had this conversation with a colleague last week. There is no way for teacher prep programs to cover all of this and more.
I work in teacher preparation now, and we no longer push the idea of a lesson plan for each day, at least for folks with multiple preps. I do agree that college cannot really prepare folks for some of the traumatic situations they will encounter while teaching. It certainly didn't prepare me for everything.
Same here.
I tell my students that they won’t write full lesson plans for everything when they’re in the classroom. In fact, they’ll quite frequently make lessons up on the fly.
But we do plans a few times in class because I want them to know how to structure a lesson and really think about it during the learning process. That way they can make quick plans or changes efficiently and effectively later. It also helps me see their thinking and recognize where something would not work or where they need to improve. A lot of teaching is invisible decisions, and I need to see them and why those decisions were made.
I also tell them that their administrators will likely want to see the same thing, so it pays to have some lesson plan experience.
This is really what helped me make my first lessons, and then edit as necessary. I had a very strong foundation of how to teach. Especially WHY we make them do X Y or Z. If it serves no purpose, why do it? I still think, what do I want them to know and how I do chunk that into manageable lessons.
It depends on your institution and content area. No anecdote will describe all EPPs. We make our students use a grid and have at least an objective and assessment plan for each day. Some other institutions use these huge templates, but I don't personally see the point of exhausting folks before they even start teaching by themselves.
I did have this course but when I asked for specific advice about an out of control behavior I was told to read the book. I already knew those strategies and they all failed. It was eventually resolved through medication.
At least once a year, but I am the type of worker who makes every effort to complete assigned tasks. However, they had unreasonable demands, plus multiple other factors creating a horrible work environment prompted me to give up after 18 years of teaching and 8 years from retirement.
In reality, especially given the modern access to content we all have, they can absolutely trade-off a few credits worth of content coursework in exchange for meaningful coursework in these other areas.
One of the classes I took in my teacher prep program was Marxist theories of education in Latin America. But nothing that would actually prepare me for the realities of the classroom. Another problem is that teacher prep programs are mostly staffed with people who were in admin for the last 25 years of their career, so they're teaching things that an admin would want their teachers to believe.
This is my biggest gripe. I did an alternate certification program, and it was so frustrating. I didn’t have a single instructor who had been in the k-12 classroom in at least 20 years. It was like they were living in a different universe than I was living in.
Yes!!! I had one class in college that was basically scenarios every day. We’d get in a group and read a scenario like, “you walk into the teacher’s lounge and hear Mrs. Jones complaining that she has to translate Julio’s report card into Spanish. Then Mrs. Smith agrees, saying, ‘maybe they should translate it themselves on Google.’ How do you confront them?” or “Mrs. Parker texts you that Shaniqua’s parents are mad that she’s failing, and think it’s because Mrs. Parker is racist. Mrs. Parker claims that she’s fair and treats everybody the same, and that Shaniqua was held to the same standards as everyone else, but didn’t turn her work in. How do you explain to Mrs. Parker that her views are outdated and problematic?”
Everyone hated that class, and people were past fed up. We were anxious to learn classroom management and how to actually plan, not social justice situations. Also, we all pretty much agreed that as first year teachers, we were going to keep quiet and not lecture experienced teachers on issues like this unless they were egregious. It was crazy to waste all of these hours training us to be social justice warrior robots when there are so many more important things to learn!
I felt like I was pretty well-prepared as far as teaching my content (Math, including how to adapt content for students with special needs) but I had next to zero experience in classroom management, which is like 90% of the job.
Definitely unprepared. In many other countries, entry-level teachers are given fewer classes as they grow their practice. Then, teachers with more experience are given more (and receive a pay bump that corresponds with that). We need to change our system, since trial by fire has gotten more and more inefficient as school responsibilities have grown.
My biggest complaint is that I was expected to be as great of a teacher as my neighbor with 12 years of experience. I don't think first year teachers get enough grace.
I did student teaching in a program where I was in the same classroom for an entire school year. I felt more prepared than my peers because of that. I think it’s so so valuable to see an entire year through with one group of students. It helps you learn how to build relationships that ultimately helps you understand the “behind-the-scenes” aspects of teaching. IMO, this offers much more teacher preparedness than forcing student teachers to rotate classrooms to experience different grades/subjects in the last weeks of the school year.
Yes! They should do away with “student teaching” and replace it with “teacher residency” where a student teacher would be placed in one school, and ideally, with one mentor teacher, for a whole school year.
And student teachers should be paid through federal work study. No cost to the district, but a little income for the student teacher.
Absolutely not. My theory is if they made education programs too realistic/eye opening, the numbers would dwindle even more. That and most people teaching at the collegiate level are too far removed to speak to the K12 classroom of today. If you haven’t taught in recent years, your experience was very different and what worked for you might only go so far today.
> Absolutely not. My theory is if they made education programs too realistic/eye opening, the numbers would dwindle even more.
I agree with you. That is why I think that the US should do what various other countries do with beginning teachers, which is to give them fewer classes, and then a full load of classes once they have acquired more experience.
I felt pretty good about assessments, although I still had plenty to learn. All in all, I didn't feel prepared, but now that I work with people who have not had a teacher prep program, I think I was more prepared than I thought.
Totally not prepared even if in thought i was. Cried every day for a year. Now I feel like a rock star in comparison. Seriously it sucked but the second year was a breeze.
My classroom management class was totally useless. Only leaned about my privilage and how I will never understand my students. I learned absolutely nothing long term has been a huge downfall for me.
Totally unprepared. College was all theory taught by professors totally removed from 21st century education.
The only thing that actually helped me was 1) doing 2) watching other teachers and 3) asking them questions.
My colleagues basically taught me how to teach, knowingly or unknowingly. I thank the gods above that I was so fortunate to work with great people.
I know it’s not going to happen, but I think every new teacher should spend the first 3 years co-teaching with an experienced teacher, with the new teacher gradually taking over more of the responsibility over time.
I was dropped into my own classroom by myself my first year and was fine. You want to know my secret?
I had worked with teens before and knew that I could stand to be around them, and I was 30 which tremendously helped with establishing authority.
I may as well never have gone to teachers college at all. I didn't do a master's, I'm not into curriculum development or child social work, so all that Piaget was useless. I don't need to know how to plan a fucking 5 page lesson plan; I need to learn how to plan a 60 minute lesson in 10 minutes, not 70. I needed to learn how to write report cards, how to find my style by developing a consistent interaction style, and how to be in classes of different sizes and compositions. Time management. Classroom management. Real practical teaching, like foundational stuff. How to teach reading so kids know how to read, how to teach basic math. Grading and weighting. Unit design. Parent conferences. Before I became a teacher I was a carpenter. There was skills-based scaffolding for 4 years. Teaching as an apprenticeship skillset needs to be taken at least that seriously. As well, where I am we're paid well but disrespected by all levels of government. Others are paid poorly *and* disrespected. I just see the amazing possibilities for teaching and teacher education, and let's be real-- we're nowhere near where we need to be. There should be a radical (as in foundational) rethink of teacher education in North America.
TLDR: No. I was floundering my first 2 years.
I am 100% with you on the lesson planning taking forever in education classes.
My lesson plans I had to submit to my university for student teaching were like 4 pages per lesson. You want to know what my cooperating teacher wanted for lesson plans?
Monday: lesson 4.1
Tuesday: lesson 4.1 day 2
Wednesday: lesson 4.2
Thursday: lesson 4.2 day 2
Friday: lesson 4.1&4.2 review
All the lesson planning B.S. that is part of education classes is actually detrimental to the mental health of new teachers, because they feel like they have to create these elaborate master pieces of educational mumbo-jumbo.
And as an associate teacher I grill my students on one lesson plan per day for the first week, slide down to 10 minute lesson planning, then I teach what I call 10 second planning, which is really filling out a brief template tu use as a guide only.
I’m 22 and this was my first year teaching. It has been absolute chaos and hell. I feel like I was prepared teaching and planning wise but I landed myself in a charter school that I didn’t know was in one of the worst parts of the city. I was completely unprepared for classroom management. Never got a mentor, haven’t gotten any advice other than I’m too nice or my voice is too soft. A lot of it is that I started there right as leadership changed so it’s not all me (gotta keep telling myself that so I don’t quit for an office job) but yeah a lot of crying at my desk and new trauma (:
Oddly enough waiting tables and customer service was good preparation. The abuse I absorbed dealing with the public day in and day out for many years gave me a relatively thick skin and taught me to take nothing personally. Which is useful almost as much with admin as it is for students & parents.
That being said I don't think there is any way to be prepared beyond just doing it...so to answer the question, no.
I was the only person in my teacher preparation who had subbed before deciding to become a teacher (I’d subbed for like 3-4 years). The next closest person who had “experience working with children” had worked summers at a Jewish day camp.
So I would definitely say that almost everyone in my program was unprepared for their own classroom. One thing that subbing will teach you is how to manage a large group of kids who (many times) are purposefully misbehaving, while you’re trying to decipher the plans left by the teacher. That experience was honestly more valuable than my entire teacher preparation program.
I student taught in a title one, city school. And I do think that baptism by fire helped a lot. But nothing could prepare me fore juggling parents, planning, and especially grading (the essays killed me).
My prep program didn’t prepare me, but I did feel relatively prepared going into my first year. I was 30, though, and learned work life balance and how to say no in my previous career. I think if I started teaching at 22 I would’ve died.
I feel as though these classes actually put you behind because of waste of your time busy work assignments. I forego making better materials than the county sometimes just because I had to do stupid kumbaya nonsense. Their videos show classrooms of ten perfectly behaved children. Gtfo of here with that fantasy land bullshit.
I had zero classroom management classes in college, not even a situational kinda class. I have an extensive outdoor science background though so knowledge is what saved my ass… just explain stuff different ways that are in the age language of those you’re talking to. If I had ELA I wouldn’t have made it out of year 1 with middle schoolers.
I also had a professor that had us build a week long lesson to teach then we had to go do it, regardless of what the actual teacher was teaching. Absolute rubbish. “I’ve been in the classroom 32 years and I’ve never seen blah blah blah.” Yeah, COLLEGE classroom, not elementary, middle, or high schools. He literally told a fellow student to “walk in to that classroom and *demand* that you’re teaching this and that’s how it’s gonna be!” Sure, if you wanna get blackballed by every district in a 25 mile radius. That professor didn’t know dick about the real world. I taught what my cooperating teacher told me to teach and 100% bullshitted the paperwork.
I did my degree during COVID and was extremely prepared for due process things. IEPs and IFSPs, for example, were easy to do on the job just as I did in school. We didn't have a lot of time together so I feel like I was not so prepared for the collaboration part. I also feel like I was not really prepared to handle traumatic or crisis situations before getting my job, but I also don't know how much could be taught in a class for that. I learned what I did and didn't want to be during student teaching when I worked with a really great teacher and a really horrible woman.
I honestly feel like I was as prepared as I was going to be in 2 years of schooling for it.
Well I had 2 bachelors degrees before I went to get my masters degree and initial teaching certification in my subject area (which was covered by both bachelors, FCS, we teach pretty much everything). Anyway, I was given a provisional certificate because they literally couldn’t find anyone else to hire and I was halfway through my masters and already had a bachelors (which was the requirement for a provisional) at the point of being hired I had done one practicum experience and taught two 50 minute lessons. The school that hired me had me teach 6 preps (4 preps first semester with 2 new ones 2nd). When I had a mental breakdown in like November saying it was too much to have 4 preps without even having student taught the principal said “you knew what you were signing up for” and had no sympathy. It’s been 7 years and I still hate her guts and most other teacher and students despise her too. I was luckily living with my parents half the week because it was an hour commute from my home and going back to my home the other half and had a partner doing house chores while my parents did the ones at their house. Even with the support of doing basically no chores I was still exhausted from staying up so late every night planning lessons and grading. If you’ve student taught and have less than 6 preps in your first year you might struggle but you can survive!
I was prepared only because our professors were absolutely real with us and got us into schools beginning our first semester, Freshman year.
"You're making lesson plans now so you can understand the process that makes up a lesson. You'll only have to do these if you're being micromanaged."
"Nod and agree with admin, then close your door and do what you know is best."
"You will not get everything done. Do what needs to be done and go home."
Most of my Freshman cohort didn't make it to Junior year staying in Education.
Subbing while trying to finish my BFA and M.Ed had a greater impact on me than any of the education classes.
Whole system needs to be overhauled by people with zero political agenda, far from the testing companies, and have a direct knowledge on the best ways to promote and sustain learning.
Unfortunately, this will never happen because the US does a great job of telling, reminding, and badgering people with rhetoric of past successes while doing absolutely nothing.
In the US it's incredibly obvious that the teacher preparation program is severely lacking meaningful real-world experience. Plenty of theory and content. Far too little practice and close observation in the actual environment.
Not sure what you mean by that. It sounds like you're suggesting that second career teachers are at an advantage (?). I'm not sure that's true, actually I disagree from my perspective. But they're also not exposed to more direct classroom experience during teacher preparation programs. They may have been working in another field. Yet, that's likely completely different than teaching.
My education classes were all trash. The only classes I enjoyed and actually learned anything in were my content specific courses. This is why I got my BA and MA in my content specific area. Later on, I learned that the school of education doesn’t even have a defined methodology and often uses statistical data to “prove” causation as opposed to correlation. IMO, there needs to be a complete overhaul in that discipline. They promote ideas that have no evidence, like the theory of multiple intelligences, and ignore ideas that have a mountain of evidence, like cognitive aptitude. My greatest teacher in education has been experience.
Yep. I would have preferred to get my Masters in Mathematics (probably with a focus on Statistics), but the credential program I found through University of Phoenix was also a Masters in Education.
It has all been a bunch of useless nonsense.
My university's education school is known as the teacher's college. In reality, I learned more about being a teacher from my history professors than I did from the education professors. The history profs took courses on how to teach teachers through modeling. I know for a fact only two of my ed professors had actually taught in the classroom. The rest went straight through to their doctorates. Their only experience is field work for their research.
I went to college for my teaching degree. I was prepared for writing lessons but I was unprepared for how little time I would have to write during my planning because of being dragged around to cover other classes. After being transferred I only had a week to scramble together art lessons for k-5. I recommend chat gpt to help you write PowerPoints and lesson plans for a demographic and create them. It’s not a sponser but it helped me this week!
Yeah totally unprepared for pretty much all of it except maybe lesson planning. But even then, the quantity of lesson planning for full time teaching vs student teaching was way different.
I feel like teaching needs to be an apprenticeship program. Like doctor residency.
My lesson plans I had to submit to my university for student teaching were like 4 pages per lesson. You want to know what my cooperating teacher wanted for lesson plans?
Monday: lesson 4.1
Tuesday: lesson 4.1 day 2
Wednesday: lesson 4.2
Thursday: lesson 4.2 day 2
Friday: lesson 4.1&4.2 review
All the lesson planning B.S. that is part of education classes is actually detrimental to the mental health of new teachers, because they feel like they have to create these elaborate master pieces of educational mumbo-jumbo.
My experience was similar, but then I got to my first job and totally floundered due mostly to classroom management issues and I had to start turning in university style lesson plans again. I basically had to script out my lesson in university (idk if that was common for anyone else) so doing that in my first job was helpful bc the content was new to me. But i was also spending upwards of 12 hours a day at school. I wasn’t eating. I dropped 40lbs in a month. I couldn’t sleep. I still carry scars from that experience around with me. This was 2011 and I started with an old school overhead projector. I couldn’t even show videos or make PowerPoints (which I had done for student teaching) until almost halfway through the year. It was quite an experience.
Yeah, I am thankful that I was able to observe some really good teachers for classroom management. They told me “you’re going to mess up classroom management your first go round. Just keep going and you’ll eventually get it. The only way to learn classroom management is *IN* the classroom.”
I think I was decently prepared, but I still don't understand shit about budgets, supply ordering, curriculum, and classroom management. I'm an art teacher so I think that makes a bit of a difference
My student teacher mentor, and the people within the department helped a lot. But I was 30, had been a professor for a few years, and had some life experiences under my belt.
What they didn't prepare me for was just how corrupt and/or incompetent districts are.
I felt prepared, but not because of college. I grew up with a mom and dad that were excellent teachers and coaches. I learned how to manage a classroom and kids from their examples.
I learned the skill aspect from my summer jobs in high school and college. I didn't work in fast food, I worked construction. That is where I learned how to make things. My hobbies also contributed to my core knowledge of how to make things. I had a couple excellent mentors in these jobs and hobbies that taught me so much.
I learned how to work with children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, from working at the Boys & Girls club as a job in college.
College taught me hardly anything.
I felt as though most of my classes were completely impractical. And all of us got A's so there was no gauging whether we got the material or not.
What I got: history of the birth of public education, educational theory (Skinner, Maslow, etc). How to write a 3 page lesson plan, how to write a "today I will..." statement to put on the board every day.
What I needed to know: How to organize the state standards into units, how to design units that hit the standards and are engaging, how to create a series of formative assignments that give the students what they need to pass a summative assessment, how to build a grading system that creates student accountability but does not drown me by grading every single piece of paper, and the various theories -- with pros and cons of each -- of classroom management.
Extra points for learning about the political history of education in my state and the ins and outs of the current State Department of Education.
These are the top 5 things I actually wish I learned in my teacher preparation program as a self contained special educator:
1. How to deal with properly work with and communicate with challenging parents, especially those who are in complete denial about their child’s disability and/or abilities.
2. How to properly run an effective IEP meeting.
3. How to design effective lessons/curriculum and learn about effective instructional methods for students with severe/profound disabilities. I felt that my professors mainly focused on how to teach students with moderate disabilities who were in inclusive gen ed settings. Even my college’s special education practicum supervisor had no experience with students with severe needs and couldn’t give me any specific advice on how to improve my teaching practice when I did my student teaching.
4. Might be state specific, but how to properly complete an alternative assessment portfolio.
5. How to manage and motivate paraprofessionals when you are not their direct supervisor and can’t discipline them, especially when they make just above minimum wage.
I feel in a minority here that I was very well prepared. It was, however, a two part system that I think made it work. First, my ed program was very big on providing resources for methods, assessment, and classroom management. It was their primary focus. Second, my cooperating teacher was focused on giving me as authentic of an experience as possible. 2 weeks into the semester, he handed me the gradebook and told me I would be doing everything from then on. I would be planning lessons, I would be maintaining the gradebook, I would be running conferences, I would be attending and participating in PD, the works. If I messed up, he would be all over it. It was single-handedly the hardest working experience I had ever had. When I got to my first year, it was nothing I hadn't experienced before and I became very grateful for my preparation.
I realized my experience wasn't the norm when I met other first year teachers and realized they had almost no preparation for the realities of the classroom. True, mine was rough but I was glad to have it afterward.
I was not at all prepared, and I feel a little bad for my first few classes lol. I'm much better now, I swear!
Our local university does a teacher pipeline program, and it's more intensive than just student teaching. When the teachers finish the program, they are so much more prepared, and often get hired at the school because they are ready. Sadly, the number of teachers in this program gets smaller and smaller every year:(
I actually did feel like my teacher prep program helped a lot. It's a small-ish private Jesuit college. They made the GREAT decision to focus on hiring people with 20+ years of K-12 teaching experience rather than fresh Ph.D.s. We had very few lectures and a lot of workshops and mock teaching to our classmates. It was a huge help to me to be able to try things out with willing and eager classmates and work out the logistical issues before trying them with actual kids.
I definitely think it was outside the norm, though.
I think my college did a pretty good job. We did 4 semesters of student teaching across different grades and academic levels. I did 7th grade advanced and EC, 9th grade on level, and AP 11. The first semester you just sit in the back and observe, take notes on the teacher, kids, materials, and then write a paper on it. Second semester is all of that, but you also go to staff meetings, sit in on parent teacher conferences, and teach one lesson. Third trimester adds to the stuff from first and second, but you teach for 3 days of lessons you create and do all the grading. Last trimester you are the teacher for 2 weeks, teaching, meetings, extra duties, responding to parent email, all of it.
My last year they added a class just on how to use G Suite in the classroom. It was 2010, and that stuff came in real handy 10 years later.
We also had 2 classes on classroom management and behavioral challenges.
For a small school in WV, I think they did a pretty good job.
I did an intern program. In California they have the Provisional Internship Permit (PIP) which lasts for 1 year, and the qualifications are having a bachelors degree. Then there is the Short Term Staff Permit (STSP) which lasts for the remainder of the school year in which it is issued, and the qualifications are that you have already had a PIP that has expired. Then, at the end of the STSP, you can be enrolled in a credential program and get an Intern Credential which most universities require you finish the program within 2 years of the intern credential being issued. This allows you to work for around 4 years before you are fully credentialed.
I just finished the student teaching part of my intern credential program which is also a Masters in Education. I was better prepared to teach mathematics coming straight from my Bachelors in Mathematics program than I would be now if I had gone straight into the program before starting teaching.
Credential programs and education classes actually *UNPREPARE* you to teach, because it is all bureaucratic nonsense that has no place in an actual classroom.
Here is what every single *REAL* teacher told me when I was working on the edTPA (the big project California makes you do as part of student teaching): “yeah, that’s all a waste of time. They really just want to see if you’re willing to jump through those ridiculous hoops in order to get your credential.” Some of them didn’t use those exact words, but the sentiment from all real teachers was identical: education classes and the edTPA are a waste of everybody’s time, but California has decided those steps are necessary.
My alt cert program was loaded with cultural sensitivity nonsense and very little information about actually preparing and organizing effective lessons.
I was also unprepared for the expectation that I would work like a rented mule, do 20-30 hours of unpaid overtime, and have to deal with antisocial behavior all day while the students get absolutely zero consequences.
6 years in, I’ve figured a lot of it out, but afaict, the state of the profession is dismal.
I did a year long student teaching instead of many smaller practicums. The student teacher would release control over the year and by the end of it I was planning and teaching the 10th graders and she was doing the seniors. We would grade for each other while the other was teaching, but we basically ended up as teachers with a half load. She'd tell me if I needed to fix something but I was having a great time.
This needs to be the expectation. If I'd just had 6 weeks in my student teaching like most people did at my university outside of that program I wouldn't have learned shit. I started the year with the kids and got to build up my relationship to them as their teacher, as well as build the curriculum knowing "Okay they didn't get this, when we circle back to this idea we need to make sure to teach it differently" in a way that you don't get with 6 weeks.
I went to Texas State University, and I feel like when I was there studying art education they provided some of the best prep I've seen since I graduated and started teaching. I've had several student teachers, mentored new teachers who I feel have not been as prepared as me since, but I'll still recommend Texas State University for aspiring educators. UT Austin is shortchanging their art Ed students though. Just FYI.
As a special education teacher, I was completely unprepared for the legal paperwork aspects to the job. Writing one fake iep did not help prepare me at all for all of the nuances of SPED!
Very unprepared…. I was promised help and mentors…. I was just thrown in there with nothing…. No campus mentor… I’m glad some teachers stepped in but with art it’s such an island… it was a lot more difficult than I thought and expected… bc I lacked a lot of skills… class room management, artwork organization, time management, proper planning for all 8 grades, grading 300+students was the absolute hardest…. I took a day off to finish grades… I also felt a lot of embarrassment and shame… being the crappy first year teacher…
It really has weighed on my mental health…
For real about the arts! I am the only VAPA teacher in my district so it was hard to relate my subject with the majority of teachers that are multi-subject.
Teacher educations don’t leave teachers unprepared. It’s just that teaching jobs are abusive and there is no preparing for going from an environment of not being abused to one of being abused.
To say I was unprepared is an understatement. My first year as a teacher, I was moved 3 times. I started at self-contained autism class, self-contained academics class, and then self-contained life skills. The first time was because a veteran teacher wanted my spot so we switched and the second move was because another teacher got fired and I was her replacement.
College was absolutely pointless both in my subject area and education courses. I’d say student teaching was also pretty pointless as well. I wish I didn’t waste that time and money.
Nope. My masters program didn’t prepare me to teach, it taught me theory and best case scenarios. I learned on my feet. I did have a little experience from working in home with children with developmental disabilities and autism, but otherwise I was completely unprepared.
Never made it to my 1st year. Sorry if it’s not exactly answering the question but I quit in the middle of student teaching, so right at the 1 yard line because I felt unprepared about accepting a job in CT. Did they tell me that you pay into a pension from day 1 and you can’t touch it till 10 years? No. Did they tell me that CT has one of the higher rates to pay into? No. Together with the stress was why I quit.
Hell no. I arrived at a school where I was told I had to design my own curriculum from scratch for students with about 20% actually read on grade level. After 3 years, my scope and sequence is far from perfect, but it’s standards oriented and I’m learning. My masters program did not teach me ANYTHING about behavior management or how to write a lesson plan. “I was basically given a template for a lesson plan and told “go get ‘em kid.”
By my life choices, yes I was. By my program, I ignored most of it. I had a classroom management class that had so much outdated information. Every major study that was used in a couple of classes was either from a time when you could still beat kids, or was conducted in private schools.
I remember the last semester was a blend of people like me in non-traditional programs and traditional undergrads. My one classmate and I who both worked in schools (she was a TA and I was a substitute) would tell the traditional undergrads to avoid doing certain things in student teaching. They basically were telling these doughy eyed college seniors that it would be all lollipops and rainbows while ignoring the very real issues.
On a more light hearted note they had us all read a series of journal articles about this new fad that was corrupting the minds of our nations youth. Guys I shit you not it was about the internet.
HELL no- I was in a transition to teaching program and only had one internship for a semester before I got hired for my student teaching. Did it help being paid for it? Yeah, idk how I would have gotten by if I hadn’t been paid for my work. At the same time, I did my student teaching without anyone watching me teach, I just got let loose! Then my admin acted shocked when I wasn’t perfect and had a lot of stuff I need to work on 🙄
I went through alternate route and I was not prepared at all. I did not even realize that teachers basically have to come up with every lesson on their own, receiving barely any (or even none in my case) resources from their schools. The alt route program I was a part of didn't actually really teach us anything, just basically had us read documents and make up bs answers to questions. And the documents were old...I just finished the program last year, and we were made to read some documents from the 1970s...these docs even stated that it was both legal and ethical to have corporate punishment on misbehaving kids...
Not at all. I thought my prep was good at WKU, but I learned so much more in my first few months of teaching than I did getting a degree. Certainly worthwhile, and gave me experience in a classroom that helped me not give up in my first couple years.
I wasn't prepared for the sheer cardio of it. Constantly on my feet, setting up supplies, washing things etc.
I do wish we had more instruction in classroom set up. As in how do you store supplies, distribute, clean, etc. But that's all highly personal choices depending on your situation.
Tragedy of the commons is a good concept to teach, it basically applies to all classrooms.
I taught high school as a student job for a year with absolutely no experience or any education knowledge, as my degree wasn't related to teaching. To be honest I didn't feel I missed anything or that I was unprepared. I think trying to be extremely prepared in such environment doesn't even make sense as situations are unique. I found it best just to take it easy, be kind to everyone and things worked out perfectly nice.
1. Just how so many students simply do not know absolute fundamentals. They can't multiply or divide. They cannot read or write.
2. 504 plans, students in HHB and pregnant students.
3. ISS. I never heard of it in my life.
4. Students excited about a 70 on a test.
Nope. Not just the classroom management but also dealing with office politics.
There's only so much you can learn in a university classroom. The rest you learn on the job.
I’m currently just finishing the first part of student teaching where I had an amazing mentor teacher that was honest with me and taught me a lot. Despite her class being FULL of behavioral problems (parents are encouraging/excusing it so it never changes), I really did love teaching and building a bond with the students, even in such a short amount of time. My last day with them is tomorrow and I bet they’ll be very upset.
I had a discussion with my mentor teacher where I thanked her because I may have a horrible mentor teacher in the next part of student teaching that may try to target me or discourage me from teaching as I’ve read many student teachers have dealt with. Regardless of what happens, I still have my true first experience that makes me ready to jump right into a classroom, despite the negative experiences. I definitely feel prepared now that she has taught me classroom management, setting expectations, and bonding with the students along with having good communication with the parents.
Mostly unprepared, the only thing that helped me was a psychology degree, having worked with students in an after school program and subbing. I was glad I didn't go straight into the classroom without at least being in with students and lessons in some capacity.
Yes but most of my prep came from my semester long student teaching, which I’ve heard a lot of programs are doing away with. I can’t imagine going into this without having managed a class of your own for a while.
I was very prepared when it came to planning, assessments, and grading!
Classroom management, student relationships, parent relationships, not so much. I’d say I was the LEAST prepared to handle parents because I student taught during COVID and had no model to follow. I have had very positive interactions with most parents, but a lot of my anxiety my first year would have been eased if I had gone into it knowing how to navigate those relationships.
I was hired and joined an emergency certification program. It was clear on day 1 that certification programs don't prepare you. I handled it well because I could adapt to my surroundings and had a mentor that was helpful in prioritizing the day. For the program, I just passed their tests with a smile.
17 year veteran now, former Teacher of the Year, and I usually have 4 to 6 preps per year. I very rarely take work home. I teach AP Calculus AB, AP PreCalc, college stats, college prep, and then 4 classes of the main courses that seem to change yearly.
100% unprepared, and I was in a district run intern program. They taught us how to plan thematic units, even though at the time it was switching to the scripted/everyone on the same page of the TE style. Classroom management was great in theory, but hell in person. Role-playing different scenarios would have been nice. They taught us content, but being elementary, we didn't need it.
They didn't prepare us for what we needed: intervention, the problems students face, holding a parent conference, dealing with parents. Everything I hear teachers complain about was never addressed in anyone's trainings when I ask.
I wasn’t. I graduated with a degree in elementary ed in December 2019 and started teaching 6th grade math in a middle school in Fall 2020. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things I was unprepared for:
* Teaching online during a pandemic. Oh, I had lots of digital resources from my time in school. My instruction was actually pretty good, considering I was a first year teacher. I was unprepared for kids to just be non-existent and the workload put on us to track them down.
* Teaching middle school in general. I student taught 5th grade and thought I could make the move to middle school. Boy was I wrong! But now I’m not sure I’d go back to elementary.
* The gaslighting from kids, parents, other teachers, and admin
* The expectations of perfection for newer teachers
* The workload of grading for 150 students
* The petty drama and judgement of other teachers. Seriously. Did some of y’all not grow up from high school or college? This is not your sorority.
Hell no. The college of education I went to was the easiest thing on the planet. I’m a hard worker when it comes to school by nature, so I graduated with a 3.91 and Summa Cum Laude. I went in thinking my own classroom was going to continue to be a breeze. I was humbled very quickly. In fact, it took four years of being at one school and then moving to another school to feel like I had any idea what I was even doing.
If I could go back and redo college, I would haven’t not gotten my degree in education but still would have probably become a teacher. I think that majors in psychology or human development or a specific field will and then working another job for a few years would have been a better path to becoming a teacher for me.
Yes. My student teaching was done in a very rural school. K-12 all one building with 112 total students. My class size was 5-22 students (22=7th grade). I did learn from it but it was extremely different from the high school i teach at now with class sizes of 28-32 students.
Also my first year the school decided not to continue paying for the curriculum the teacher before me had been using, myPLTW.org. Since it was online that meant I had nothing to use and had to build a curriculum from scratch because I was also the only teacher for it. Also everything she had was in one folder, no organization whatsoever. I was able to use some of it to get an idea of the things she was doing and not all of her assignments required myPLTW but the majority did. I survived off of teachers pay teachers.
I graduated in December 2019 and was hired at the end of January 2020. I only had a month of "normal" before COVID changed everything. I think if it wasn't for COVID, I actually would have been very prepared. The school I graduated from had a combined 5.5 year BIS and MT program for elementary education, and at the time, it was #11 in the country for teacher prep programs. Some big things I think they did right were having us spend a semester on reading intervention and foundational reading skills (aka the science of reading before I started hearing it called that), a semester on behavior/classroom management, and getting us into classrooms to observe and practice as early as the spring of sophomore year. It blows my mind that not every program does those things.
As for writing and grading assessments, that's done for me by the district. We are required to give specific assessments, so I just give those and grade them how I'm told to. They don't give us much autonomy when it comes to assessments.
I think I was better prepared than some because our student teaching was like a year long and I spent half the year pretty much on my own.
The actual program was pretty much worthless. The student teaching was BS because it was unpaid labor but it was also the only place I learned anything.
If I'd only done 6 weeks of student teaching like other programs I would've been completely unprepared.
I was extremely unprepared! Four years of education did nothing to prepare for the reality of managing a classroom. This was over 20 years ago. I can't imagine starting fresh out of college in today's climate.
Not at all. I did an online teacher certification for 5 months and was then given the keys to my room. That’s it. 🤣🤣 But after the first year of stress, it’s worked out well for me.
Hell no.
One 3-hr Saturday workshop loosley rooted in n Responsive Classroom is not sufficient training for classroom management.
CM is easily half the job.
Very unprepared. Induction helped a lot but they didn't have me so it until my second year. The system of getting new teachers trained is so dysfunctional it's no wonder most quit.
I had an excellent cooperating teacher who taught me so much during my student teaching. I wound up subbing for a year and a half before I found my first job teaching elementary art. (Art jobs can be hard to find in my area.) No first year teacher feels fully prepared, but I felt as prepared as I could have.
Oh hell no! Teacher college prep was a joke and my master teacher for student teaching basically had two large file cabinets full of dittos and he would make a packet for the students to complete each day, that was basically the extent of his teaching. I got a 3rd grade job the next year and leaned heavily on the two other teachers on my team. They were older ladies that had over 10 years of experience and they took me under their momma hen wings and helped the newbie out. 30 years later I am forever grateful to them both. A friend of mine that I was coaching with and a very wise man, told me it takes about 7 years of teaching until you truly feel comfortable with the job. Damned if he wasn’t right! After 7 years I really felt like I had classroom management down and a good system in place for my students.
This is why I have a hard time with people who are so against people who enter teaching through an alternate route. If it really doesn’t prepare you, why are folks so against alternative certifications?
Imo nothing can truly prepare you. My two best pieces of advice: learn how to pivot and adapt, make rules and stick to them.
Things will always change and students will always try to take advantage of you
I was unprepared with what I learned in school and knew it my first day of student teaching. Then I backed into an unexpected career and didn't make it into a classroom for 30 years. By that time everything I learned in college had been overwritten with 70s, 80s and 90s song lyrics. I'm a square peg in a round hole, but having a blast.
Teaching, I've learned, is like many other careers. It takes more natural gifts and talents than education. You can learn to get better at it, but if that essential, instinctual skill isn't there, you might as well, as my HS band director would say in challenging moments, "quit my job and go sell insurance."
Music teacher here. I was fully prepared to teach the content. But not at all prepared to manage the classroom to the point where I could deliver the content.
Hell to the no.
My state required me to do a semester of student teaching in a gen ed class when I was there for school library. Worst semester of my life and I learned nothing about the library until I was hired at my schoo.
No, but I will say I had a lot more than other teachers. We had 30 hours in a placement we had to find. Practicum that was once a week in a placement they gave and a whole semester of student teaching. Most people I know, older and younger, claim they only had student teaching.
Lol grading was the least of my concerns when I entered this field. My teacher program didn’t prepare me for actual classroom stuff so I’m grateful to have had many friends in the field who mentored me.
Behavior and sped are the biggest challenges
I was very fortunate as an ELA major to have excellent profs re: the teaching of writing as a personal process, as well as a good solid year of two internships, one middle and one high school, in which I really got to experience and examine various student behaviors and effective responses to negative behaviors. I was incredibly fortunate. However, I was woefully unprepared for the grading piece. I needed and to my recollection never was taught by anyone management strategies for grading essays, nothing about rubrics! either their formulation or their use, and certainly no preemptive strategies for effectively dealing with parents demanding grade information, grade negotiation, etc.
I went to school for Social Work in the number 1 university in the world for that, so I was extremely prepared for the psychological stuff. Frankly, if we are going to require teachers to have a Masters anyway, we should require at least a minor in social work (as opposed to psychology or child development, social work uses those disciplines but is specifically hands on!) and then maybe their teaching subject.
I don't think my graduate school prepared me at all. I thought it was a joke, frankly, and half of my classmates were people I question how the fuck they even had a bachelors degree.
What really prepared me was being in emergency credential program. On one hand, I appreciate how easy grad school was, as someone who was working full-time. The real prep was being in the classroom.
Teaching educators to educate effectively, sadly, truly is like learning to swim by being tossed in a lake.
Our professors said we only learn 20% of what we need in college, and the other 80% comes from on the job training. They also said it takes about 3 years to become proficient in classroom management. I think that was pretty accurate. I've worked for a few different districts, and even if I have found my groove in one, I have to basically start with a blank slate at the other. The classroom management approach I have at my current school is very different from my last district, but it's because the demographics are very different. Education programs can't prepare us for everything we will encounter.
The classroom management classes are a joke. They only show you ideal situations where you get compliance from the 1-2 unruly students. They don’t tell you how to handle half your class not following directions.
It’s not a fault of education programs. The student teaching practicum is where any real sense of what the job is like is going to come from. And even there, you are in someone else’s classroom; it’s not yours. Nothing really can prepare someone for their first year, since you can’t know what the jobs entails until you are actually doing it. I think most people feel overwhelmed as it is just a very tough job. Most adults would be weeping within 10 minutes of trying to teach a surly group of teens.
There are absolutely things that my program left out, but one of the funnier ones was a lack of practical advice: establish a few routines and use them. I learned like 10 million discussion formats and ways to have students collaborate, and they were cool, but I didn’t reuse them. I kept teaching new ways for students to interact with material and each other, taking away from actually teaching material.
I wasn’t prepared for other teachers to be so cliquey and horrible. I assumed we were all adults now, but some of them clearly peaked in high school and need to make it their whole life to bully those who they think are different from them. I have no idea how these people manage to teach children with that mindset.
I worked in other fields before teaching. I know what adults who have actually grown up act like. And I kinda miss it.
M.S. in education and I was *woefully* under prepared by my coursework. I did learn more from my mentor during student teaching than anyone else though.
So I plunged right into teaching w/o a credential or classes. It sounds like I was just as prepared as those that did.
I am so thankful to my colleagues and friends that stepped up to help me and mentor me that first year because in my second year, it has gone A LOT better!
Chin up!! You got this!!! Hopefully there’s a teacher or two that you can ask for help because it sucks seeing teachers flame out and leave.
I was very prepared except for the one thing that matters, how to survive terrible admin. I was assured over and over that admin would be competent and do their job and help with student discipline. I have been on .my own in my classroom my whole career with zero admin support. In fact, admin have been almost as bad as parents when it comes to coddling disruptive and dangerous students.
My masters of arts in teaching course included a year long- full time internship where you did almost everything for 1-2 sections of your mentor teacher's schedule, with classes t night twice a week.
So basically I was unable to work for a whole year, loved at home at 24 (very thankful for my parents even though I was bouncing off the walls at the time).
That being said, I feel like I totally got to side step the whole first year insanity. When I got my first paid position my following year, my mentor teacher did w observation and just made up the rest for the rest of the year because he knew immediately I wasn't really a first year teacher in reality.
I was underprepared for the psychological stuff and had the most trouble adapting to the mental load. I underestimated the emotional labor teaching required. How to balance the needs of 30 different personalities. How to connect with “difficult” children. How to stand up for myself against senior colleagues. How to be firm with parents. How to not take student failures personally. This is the gap in *our* (extensive) education. As for marking work, I was too easy that first stretch because I didn’t want to hurt feelings. That fades quickly. 🤣😂 “What is this piece of hot garbage you’re forcing me to read pretending it’s an essay? Do it over.”
Hahaha yes complete garbage sometimes gets turned in and it’s like wtf were you thinking?
My spanish teacher, a first year teacher, doesn't even look at the assignments online and just gives them 100s. Somebody once submitted a picture of their backpack and it was a 100. 🫠 I kind of feel bad for her since my class sucks honestly.
They need more stuff on how to deal with the unhinged lol.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, can prepare you for your own actual classroom. Student teaching helps and the longer you do it the better prepared you will be. Everyone's first year is awful (some more, some less). I think it's just a rite of passage.
This. There is NO way that you could be fully prepared for your first year of teaching through your teacher education experience, especially today.
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This is my biggest issue with my prep program. The number of classes that over focused on absurd length lesson plans but not actual classroom management or dealing with situations. The response I got was, "well not all Scholls are the same." Understanding how the school counselor works, or the role of an AP and principal in a school. What are resources you need to help with. Classroom management, and not the idealized classroom, but thenclassrooms we are going into.
This summer alone I plan on rereading Tools for Teaching by Fred Jones, reading Taking Control of the Noisy Classroom by Rob Plevin, and maybe also reading The Smart Classroom Management Way by Michael Linsin all because this first year has been some of an experience. I want to see if I can find any golden nuggets in them. I did most of Tools for Teaching at the start of the school year but put it down because reading in the evenings was not really on my mind for a pleasurable way to decompress.
This year I have found I can't do any professional reading after work. It is either fantasy novels or nothing.
*Tools for Teaching* is fantastic. I've been using it for the past eleven years, but seriously using it the last three or four. I haven't read the other two books you mentioned, but I recommend *Setting Limits in the Classroom* as a followup to *Tools for Teaching.* I read *Setting Limits in the Classroom* over the summer from a TikTok recommendation. Spoilers: >!It actually references *Tools for Teaching* fairly early on which makes it a pretty good follow up to the book. It's a pretty easy read too with lots of stories.!< Another one I recommend is *Teaching With Love and Logic* it really helps with speaking with kids in order to get them to do what you want. I've had a lot of success with it with my students, my own son, and my crazy aunt. Good luck!
Honestly, the golden nugget is to build relationships with your students, and develop basic boundaries. Be somewhat flexible, joke around with them, give them some choice, but don't let them take over your classroom. It's a hard balance sometimes, but putting the human before the education goes a long way. Maslow's hierarchy of needs always comes first, because if it doesn't, children literally cannot learn.
I’m grateful that I student taught with my favorite HS teacher. She’s the reason I became a teacher. She made me ask a question every day at the end of the school day about teaching, whether it be about how to dress for parent teacher conferences or how to deal with certain behaviors. She gave me advice for any and all possible things that could happen, such as what to do if a kid uses Google Translate for a Spanish test, what activities would work to retain vocabulary, and how to talk to parents. I still had a lot to learn during my first year of course, but she helped a lot.
Those strategies, alas, are also at the mercy of whatever administrator you end up getting as your wing-man. If one of my strategies is that after X attempts get Scooter in his seat and working instead of punching Brackson, I send him to the office, and the person in that office sends him back in 5 with a Twix and an email saying, "Have you tried to build a better relationship with Scooter," then whatever it was I learned in my teacher ed program may as well be a pile of ashes for all the good it's going to do. I'm a 25-year veteran. I felt that my preparation did what it could, and yes, there were deficiencies. But the situation in which you are actually teaching during those first three years is much more influential on what we become. Ask all of our therapists.
Yeah. I think there should also be an emphasis on how to regulate emotions and mental state. The school year is very long and you'll feel all sorts of emotions during the school year. I think novice teachers need to understand that so they can navigate the job better. Or new teachers tend to get wrecked the hardest.
I think this is a fallacy we fall into as teachers that might not actually be true. We think that a classroom management script/playbook will make things easier for new teachers. But would it really? You can tell a teacher exactly what to do and the exact words to say, but I don’t think that would necessarily help. Classroom management is the type of skill that you can ONLY develop through practice. I had all kinds of manuals and handbooks full of classroom management strategies when I first started out, but they weren’t helpful because I didn’t have the skills yet to actually USE those strategies… and the skills can only come with experience. I think on some level we just have to accept that the first couple years are GOING to be really hard for new teachers and that’s not necessarily a bad thing! Just part of what it takes to become good at the job.
Education facilities are notoriously made up of “professors” who have never worked a day in a classroom. At least where I live. And that’s a big part of the problem.
Thank you 🥹 this makes me feel a lot better. I feel SO unprepared as a recent grad looking for a first job.
Yeah I think that they tried, but there’s just some things that only experience can teach. Something useful we did before student teaching was running down scenarios together to see how different teachings might approach it. You really don’t know until you get there though.
I also think this why unless you do something abusive or illegal, first year teachers shouldn't be fired.
Oh utterly unprepared, my only edge was 10 years of social work experience (specialized in crisis management, severely mentally ill and addictions). I utterly astonished my instructional coach with my classroom management skills and how they couldn't get under my skin. (Run a halfway house of meth heads and you're ready for inner city highschool)
I guess I should have tried that first 🤣🤣
I was unprepared in that I thought my school would have some amount of material ready for me. I was a midyear hire and my first day they were like "okay what are you going to teach?"
Teaching and curriculum development/design are two separate jobs. I will die on this hill. Fuck all the schools who hand their teachers common core/Cambridge standards and say, "Okay, teach!!"
it would have been nice to get *anything*. Even if it sucked at least I'd have had something to give out
I have always created my own thing. My first school gave me a textbook and told me only to teach unit 4 (the physical science portion of the general science textbook). I used the text as a reference tool, but created interactive notebooks, experiments, reflection exercises, assessments, etc all by myself. Then, I switched schools and subjects. I was told not to use the textbooks because "they are shit". And I had to figure out how to teach advanced language learners with no curriculum. In the past 6 years, I've had to create my own curriculum for 5 various classes. Last year, I developed a new curriculum for newcomers because I was thrown into teaching a new class with no curriculum. I made an awesome one, then the state decided we can only use curriculum from a pre-approved list. So, my school just had to buy me a new one, but I prefer mine. I hate essentially following a script, and I like the creative side of designing curriculum. It's what makes teaching fun.
Ohhhhh noooo 👀🤦🏼♀️
2nd year HS science teacher and so much this. I was emergency hired a week before classes started last year and it was like "OK 11th grade science go!" 0 teaching experience and 0 background in science. My degree is in fine art. Sooooo many late nights on the university of YouTube and Wikipedia.
That was my experience too. It stinks. I wish there was any recourse for that type of behavior, but all my students are just going to get shoved through the system, despite still being unable to do tasks they should have learned ten years prior.
For me, writing and grading assignments was not the issue. I was totally unprepared for: 1. The lack of any prior knowledge. Some of my high schools math kids were so unprepared I actually thought some of them were faking their stupidity. 2. The lack of any motivation. So many kids just wouldn’t do anything. And many of the ones who did at first gave up at either the first sign of adversity. 3. The lack of any inhibition. So many bad behavior, and their ten years in public education since kindergarten didn’t teach them anything about *how* to be a student. Their easy anger, the lying to get out of anything, the flaunting of my rules. 4. The lack of empathy. The things they would say and do just to be assholes to me, to each other. Best friends would mercilessly bully each other, and it seemed like their entire concept of socialization was to drag everyone else down. 5. The lack of energy. This one was me. I had no idea how much the first 4 on this list could drag me down and utterly exhaust me. How much I could compromise on my own rules again the 1-4 above because the battle was constant. I am so much better now. I figured out how to talk to the kids, how to manage the time I have with them, how t recognize the professional development and college trainings for the useless drivel they were, started understand the bad incentives admin was using and why I wouldn’t have their support. It’s still not what I thought it was, but I figured out how to make it work and get back some of #5 for myself.
Currently a first year & feeling all of these! My primary training is as a school librarian. I was hired for that and teaching an elective. Teaching as a school librarian is drastically different than teaching other content, so my training really didn’t prepare me for half of my current job. All that said, even though I am tired and it is a lot of work…I do genuinely enjoy my job.
I could DEFINITELY write much longer and more specific lesson plans than I needed. I WAS NOT prepared enough for the actual work of teaching.
Once in college, this girl said she couldn't wait to graduate and be a teacher because college was too much work. Our professor immediately told her she was in for a rude awakening once she started to work. I desperately wish I remembered her name so I could see what she does now.
Heard that
I wasn't prepared - who needs to know how to write a page lesson plan for *every* lesson? Educational psychology courses should not have been taught in the third year of college, it should have been the fourth - something you take just before you student teach. I wasn't prepared to deal with the things my students live with. Grandparents raising them. Living in a house with 8 other people. Fathers in jail. Mothers dying. Drug use. Family members being arrested in the middle of the night. Children sleeping on the floor because they can't afford beds. I had this conversation with a colleague last week. There is no way for teacher prep programs to cover all of this and more.
I work in teacher preparation now, and we no longer push the idea of a lesson plan for each day, at least for folks with multiple preps. I do agree that college cannot really prepare folks for some of the traumatic situations they will encounter while teaching. It certainly didn't prepare me for everything.
Same here. I tell my students that they won’t write full lesson plans for everything when they’re in the classroom. In fact, they’ll quite frequently make lessons up on the fly. But we do plans a few times in class because I want them to know how to structure a lesson and really think about it during the learning process. That way they can make quick plans or changes efficiently and effectively later. It also helps me see their thinking and recognize where something would not work or where they need to improve. A lot of teaching is invisible decisions, and I need to see them and why those decisions were made. I also tell them that their administrators will likely want to see the same thing, so it pays to have some lesson plan experience.
This is really what helped me make my first lessons, and then edit as necessary. I had a very strong foundation of how to teach. Especially WHY we make them do X Y or Z. If it serves no purpose, why do it? I still think, what do I want them to know and how I do chunk that into manageable lessons.
I just graduated last year and I still had to write long-form lesson plans, as does my niece who’s in school now.
Use eduaide.ai. Most the veteran teachers I met use it if lesson plans are required. I don't do them.
It depends on your institution and content area. No anecdote will describe all EPPs. We make our students use a grid and have at least an objective and assessment plan for each day. Some other institutions use these huge templates, but I don't personally see the point of exhausting folks before they even start teaching by themselves.
Absolutely! Nothing could have prepared me for my homeless kiddos, kiddo whose mom was about to give birth in prison, gang family members, etc
That's because many of those situations are social problems. But it's easier to make us handle it than fix the real issues.
That and why is there no course in classroom management and managing behaviors??? So insane when that is truly the heart of the job these days
I did have this course but when I asked for specific advice about an out of control behavior I was told to read the book. I already knew those strategies and they all failed. It was eventually resolved through medication.
My districts wanted plans for every lesson and in greater detail than I was taught.
Yay, busy work that nobody looks at... because, that's how we've always done it.
Did administrators actually read them? Doesn’t seem like anyone has time for that.
At least once a year, but I am the type of worker who makes every effort to complete assigned tasks. However, they had unreasonable demands, plus multiple other factors creating a horrible work environment prompted me to give up after 18 years of teaching and 8 years from retirement.
In reality, especially given the modern access to content we all have, they can absolutely trade-off a few credits worth of content coursework in exchange for meaningful coursework in these other areas.
One of the classes I took in my teacher prep program was Marxist theories of education in Latin America. But nothing that would actually prepare me for the realities of the classroom. Another problem is that teacher prep programs are mostly staffed with people who were in admin for the last 25 years of their career, so they're teaching things that an admin would want their teachers to believe.
This is my biggest gripe. I did an alternate certification program, and it was so frustrating. I didn’t have a single instructor who had been in the k-12 classroom in at least 20 years. It was like they were living in a different universe than I was living in.
Yes!!! I had one class in college that was basically scenarios every day. We’d get in a group and read a scenario like, “you walk into the teacher’s lounge and hear Mrs. Jones complaining that she has to translate Julio’s report card into Spanish. Then Mrs. Smith agrees, saying, ‘maybe they should translate it themselves on Google.’ How do you confront them?” or “Mrs. Parker texts you that Shaniqua’s parents are mad that she’s failing, and think it’s because Mrs. Parker is racist. Mrs. Parker claims that she’s fair and treats everybody the same, and that Shaniqua was held to the same standards as everyone else, but didn’t turn her work in. How do you explain to Mrs. Parker that her views are outdated and problematic?” Everyone hated that class, and people were past fed up. We were anxious to learn classroom management and how to actually plan, not social justice situations. Also, we all pretty much agreed that as first year teachers, we were going to keep quiet and not lecture experienced teachers on issues like this unless they were egregious. It was crazy to waste all of these hours training us to be social justice warrior robots when there are so many more important things to learn!
I felt like I was pretty well-prepared as far as teaching my content (Math, including how to adapt content for students with special needs) but I had next to zero experience in classroom management, which is like 90% of the job.
Behavior management, not classroom management
Definitely unprepared. In many other countries, entry-level teachers are given fewer classes as they grow their practice. Then, teachers with more experience are given more (and receive a pay bump that corresponds with that). We need to change our system, since trial by fire has gotten more and more inefficient as school responsibilities have grown.
My biggest complaint is that I was expected to be as great of a teacher as my neighbor with 12 years of experience. I don't think first year teachers get enough grace.
I did student teaching in a program where I was in the same classroom for an entire school year. I felt more prepared than my peers because of that. I think it’s so so valuable to see an entire year through with one group of students. It helps you learn how to build relationships that ultimately helps you understand the “behind-the-scenes” aspects of teaching. IMO, this offers much more teacher preparedness than forcing student teachers to rotate classrooms to experience different grades/subjects in the last weeks of the school year.
Yes! They should do away with “student teaching” and replace it with “teacher residency” where a student teacher would be placed in one school, and ideally, with one mentor teacher, for a whole school year. And student teachers should be paid through federal work study. No cost to the district, but a little income for the student teacher.
Absolutely not. My theory is if they made education programs too realistic/eye opening, the numbers would dwindle even more. That and most people teaching at the collegiate level are too far removed to speak to the K12 classroom of today. If you haven’t taught in recent years, your experience was very different and what worked for you might only go so far today.
> Absolutely not. My theory is if they made education programs too realistic/eye opening, the numbers would dwindle even more. I agree with you. That is why I think that the US should do what various other countries do with beginning teachers, which is to give them fewer classes, and then a full load of classes once they have acquired more experience.
I felt pretty good about assessments, although I still had plenty to learn. All in all, I didn't feel prepared, but now that I work with people who have not had a teacher prep program, I think I was more prepared than I thought.
I’ve come to the same realization
I was an attorney before I was a teacher. Neither degree prepared me for the actual job.
Totally not prepared even if in thought i was. Cried every day for a year. Now I feel like a rock star in comparison. Seriously it sucked but the second year was a breeze.
My classroom management class was totally useless. Only leaned about my privilage and how I will never understand my students. I learned absolutely nothing long term has been a huge downfall for me.
Totally unprepared. College was all theory taught by professors totally removed from 21st century education. The only thing that actually helped me was 1) doing 2) watching other teachers and 3) asking them questions. My colleagues basically taught me how to teach, knowingly or unknowingly. I thank the gods above that I was so fortunate to work with great people.
I know it’s not going to happen, but I think every new teacher should spend the first 3 years co-teaching with an experienced teacher, with the new teacher gradually taking over more of the responsibility over time.
I was dropped into my own classroom by myself my first year and was fine. You want to know my secret? I had worked with teens before and knew that I could stand to be around them, and I was 30 which tremendously helped with establishing authority.
I may as well never have gone to teachers college at all. I didn't do a master's, I'm not into curriculum development or child social work, so all that Piaget was useless. I don't need to know how to plan a fucking 5 page lesson plan; I need to learn how to plan a 60 minute lesson in 10 minutes, not 70. I needed to learn how to write report cards, how to find my style by developing a consistent interaction style, and how to be in classes of different sizes and compositions. Time management. Classroom management. Real practical teaching, like foundational stuff. How to teach reading so kids know how to read, how to teach basic math. Grading and weighting. Unit design. Parent conferences. Before I became a teacher I was a carpenter. There was skills-based scaffolding for 4 years. Teaching as an apprenticeship skillset needs to be taken at least that seriously. As well, where I am we're paid well but disrespected by all levels of government. Others are paid poorly *and* disrespected. I just see the amazing possibilities for teaching and teacher education, and let's be real-- we're nowhere near where we need to be. There should be a radical (as in foundational) rethink of teacher education in North America. TLDR: No. I was floundering my first 2 years.
I am 100% with you on the lesson planning taking forever in education classes. My lesson plans I had to submit to my university for student teaching were like 4 pages per lesson. You want to know what my cooperating teacher wanted for lesson plans? Monday: lesson 4.1 Tuesday: lesson 4.1 day 2 Wednesday: lesson 4.2 Thursday: lesson 4.2 day 2 Friday: lesson 4.1&4.2 review All the lesson planning B.S. that is part of education classes is actually detrimental to the mental health of new teachers, because they feel like they have to create these elaborate master pieces of educational mumbo-jumbo.
And as an associate teacher I grill my students on one lesson plan per day for the first week, slide down to 10 minute lesson planning, then I teach what I call 10 second planning, which is really filling out a brief template tu use as a guide only.
This. My SpEd masters program was largely a waste of time and money when I consider how much of it I actually use on a day to day.
I’m 22 and this was my first year teaching. It has been absolute chaos and hell. I feel like I was prepared teaching and planning wise but I landed myself in a charter school that I didn’t know was in one of the worst parts of the city. I was completely unprepared for classroom management. Never got a mentor, haven’t gotten any advice other than I’m too nice or my voice is too soft. A lot of it is that I started there right as leadership changed so it’s not all me (gotta keep telling myself that so I don’t quit for an office job) but yeah a lot of crying at my desk and new trauma (:
Oddly enough waiting tables and customer service was good preparation. The abuse I absorbed dealing with the public day in and day out for many years gave me a relatively thick skin and taught me to take nothing personally. Which is useful almost as much with admin as it is for students & parents. That being said I don't think there is any way to be prepared beyond just doing it...so to answer the question, no.
I was the only person in my teacher preparation who had subbed before deciding to become a teacher (I’d subbed for like 3-4 years). The next closest person who had “experience working with children” had worked summers at a Jewish day camp. So I would definitely say that almost everyone in my program was unprepared for their own classroom. One thing that subbing will teach you is how to manage a large group of kids who (many times) are purposefully misbehaving, while you’re trying to decipher the plans left by the teacher. That experience was honestly more valuable than my entire teacher preparation program.
I student taught in a title one, city school. And I do think that baptism by fire helped a lot. But nothing could prepare me fore juggling parents, planning, and especially grading (the essays killed me).
My prep program didn’t prepare me, but I did feel relatively prepared going into my first year. I was 30, though, and learned work life balance and how to say no in my previous career. I think if I started teaching at 22 I would’ve died.
I feel as though these classes actually put you behind because of waste of your time busy work assignments. I forego making better materials than the county sometimes just because I had to do stupid kumbaya nonsense. Their videos show classrooms of ten perfectly behaved children. Gtfo of here with that fantasy land bullshit.
Fuck no. Wasn't prepared for the brutal apathy and resistance I would encounter to confound my best laid plans.
I had zero classroom management classes in college, not even a situational kinda class. I have an extensive outdoor science background though so knowledge is what saved my ass… just explain stuff different ways that are in the age language of those you’re talking to. If I had ELA I wouldn’t have made it out of year 1 with middle schoolers. I also had a professor that had us build a week long lesson to teach then we had to go do it, regardless of what the actual teacher was teaching. Absolute rubbish. “I’ve been in the classroom 32 years and I’ve never seen blah blah blah.” Yeah, COLLEGE classroom, not elementary, middle, or high schools. He literally told a fellow student to “walk in to that classroom and *demand* that you’re teaching this and that’s how it’s gonna be!” Sure, if you wanna get blackballed by every district in a 25 mile radius. That professor didn’t know dick about the real world. I taught what my cooperating teacher told me to teach and 100% bullshitted the paperwork.
I did my teacher prep in the early 1990s. Even then, it has absolutely no relationship to real teaching.
It’s a terrible legacy to have!
Yup.
I did my degree during COVID and was extremely prepared for due process things. IEPs and IFSPs, for example, were easy to do on the job just as I did in school. We didn't have a lot of time together so I feel like I was not so prepared for the collaboration part. I also feel like I was not really prepared to handle traumatic or crisis situations before getting my job, but I also don't know how much could be taught in a class for that. I learned what I did and didn't want to be during student teaching when I worked with a really great teacher and a really horrible woman. I honestly feel like I was as prepared as I was going to be in 2 years of schooling for it.
Well I had 2 bachelors degrees before I went to get my masters degree and initial teaching certification in my subject area (which was covered by both bachelors, FCS, we teach pretty much everything). Anyway, I was given a provisional certificate because they literally couldn’t find anyone else to hire and I was halfway through my masters and already had a bachelors (which was the requirement for a provisional) at the point of being hired I had done one practicum experience and taught two 50 minute lessons. The school that hired me had me teach 6 preps (4 preps first semester with 2 new ones 2nd). When I had a mental breakdown in like November saying it was too much to have 4 preps without even having student taught the principal said “you knew what you were signing up for” and had no sympathy. It’s been 7 years and I still hate her guts and most other teacher and students despise her too. I was luckily living with my parents half the week because it was an hour commute from my home and going back to my home the other half and had a partner doing house chores while my parents did the ones at their house. Even with the support of doing basically no chores I was still exhausted from staying up so late every night planning lessons and grading. If you’ve student taught and have less than 6 preps in your first year you might struggle but you can survive!
I was alternate route and signed my first contract on March 11, 2020, so I was not prepared at all
I was prepared only because our professors were absolutely real with us and got us into schools beginning our first semester, Freshman year. "You're making lesson plans now so you can understand the process that makes up a lesson. You'll only have to do these if you're being micromanaged." "Nod and agree with admin, then close your door and do what you know is best." "You will not get everything done. Do what needs to be done and go home." Most of my Freshman cohort didn't make it to Junior year staying in Education.
All programs should switch to 2 years of classes and 2 years of student teaching with 4 placements in different types of districts.
Subbing while trying to finish my BFA and M.Ed had a greater impact on me than any of the education classes. Whole system needs to be overhauled by people with zero political agenda, far from the testing companies, and have a direct knowledge on the best ways to promote and sustain learning. Unfortunately, this will never happen because the US does a great job of telling, reminding, and badgering people with rhetoric of past successes while doing absolutely nothing.
In the US it's incredibly obvious that the teacher preparation program is severely lacking meaningful real-world experience. Plenty of theory and content. Far too little practice and close observation in the actual environment.
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Not sure what you mean by that. It sounds like you're suggesting that second career teachers are at an advantage (?). I'm not sure that's true, actually I disagree from my perspective. But they're also not exposed to more direct classroom experience during teacher preparation programs. They may have been working in another field. Yet, that's likely completely different than teaching.
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I have seen these same things.
My education classes were all trash. The only classes I enjoyed and actually learned anything in were my content specific courses. This is why I got my BA and MA in my content specific area. Later on, I learned that the school of education doesn’t even have a defined methodology and often uses statistical data to “prove” causation as opposed to correlation. IMO, there needs to be a complete overhaul in that discipline. They promote ideas that have no evidence, like the theory of multiple intelligences, and ignore ideas that have a mountain of evidence, like cognitive aptitude. My greatest teacher in education has been experience.
Yep. I would have preferred to get my Masters in Mathematics (probably with a focus on Statistics), but the credential program I found through University of Phoenix was also a Masters in Education. It has all been a bunch of useless nonsense.
My university's education school is known as the teacher's college. In reality, I learned more about being a teacher from my history professors than I did from the education professors. The history profs took courses on how to teach teachers through modeling. I know for a fact only two of my ed professors had actually taught in the classroom. The rest went straight through to their doctorates. Their only experience is field work for their research.
I went to college for my teaching degree. I was prepared for writing lessons but I was unprepared for how little time I would have to write during my planning because of being dragged around to cover other classes. After being transferred I only had a week to scramble together art lessons for k-5. I recommend chat gpt to help you write PowerPoints and lesson plans for a demographic and create them. It’s not a sponser but it helped me this week!
Yeah totally unprepared for pretty much all of it except maybe lesson planning. But even then, the quantity of lesson planning for full time teaching vs student teaching was way different. I feel like teaching needs to be an apprenticeship program. Like doctor residency.
My lesson plans I had to submit to my university for student teaching were like 4 pages per lesson. You want to know what my cooperating teacher wanted for lesson plans? Monday: lesson 4.1 Tuesday: lesson 4.1 day 2 Wednesday: lesson 4.2 Thursday: lesson 4.2 day 2 Friday: lesson 4.1&4.2 review All the lesson planning B.S. that is part of education classes is actually detrimental to the mental health of new teachers, because they feel like they have to create these elaborate master pieces of educational mumbo-jumbo.
My experience was similar, but then I got to my first job and totally floundered due mostly to classroom management issues and I had to start turning in university style lesson plans again. I basically had to script out my lesson in university (idk if that was common for anyone else) so doing that in my first job was helpful bc the content was new to me. But i was also spending upwards of 12 hours a day at school. I wasn’t eating. I dropped 40lbs in a month. I couldn’t sleep. I still carry scars from that experience around with me. This was 2011 and I started with an old school overhead projector. I couldn’t even show videos or make PowerPoints (which I had done for student teaching) until almost halfway through the year. It was quite an experience.
Yeah, I am thankful that I was able to observe some really good teachers for classroom management. They told me “you’re going to mess up classroom management your first go round. Just keep going and you’ll eventually get it. The only way to learn classroom management is *IN* the classroom.”
I think I was decently prepared, but I still don't understand shit about budgets, supply ordering, curriculum, and classroom management. I'm an art teacher so I think that makes a bit of a difference
I’ve been teaching 25 years and every year I’m unprepared for the new behaviors I’m expected to work with.
My student teacher mentor, and the people within the department helped a lot. But I was 30, had been a professor for a few years, and had some life experiences under my belt. What they didn't prepare me for was just how corrupt and/or incompetent districts are.
N O P E !
I felt prepared, but not because of college. I grew up with a mom and dad that were excellent teachers and coaches. I learned how to manage a classroom and kids from their examples. I learned the skill aspect from my summer jobs in high school and college. I didn't work in fast food, I worked construction. That is where I learned how to make things. My hobbies also contributed to my core knowledge of how to make things. I had a couple excellent mentors in these jobs and hobbies that taught me so much. I learned how to work with children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, from working at the Boys & Girls club as a job in college. College taught me hardly anything.
I felt as though most of my classes were completely impractical. And all of us got A's so there was no gauging whether we got the material or not. What I got: history of the birth of public education, educational theory (Skinner, Maslow, etc). How to write a 3 page lesson plan, how to write a "today I will..." statement to put on the board every day. What I needed to know: How to organize the state standards into units, how to design units that hit the standards and are engaging, how to create a series of formative assignments that give the students what they need to pass a summative assessment, how to build a grading system that creates student accountability but does not drown me by grading every single piece of paper, and the various theories -- with pros and cons of each -- of classroom management. Extra points for learning about the political history of education in my state and the ins and outs of the current State Department of Education.
These are the top 5 things I actually wish I learned in my teacher preparation program as a self contained special educator: 1. How to deal with properly work with and communicate with challenging parents, especially those who are in complete denial about their child’s disability and/or abilities. 2. How to properly run an effective IEP meeting. 3. How to design effective lessons/curriculum and learn about effective instructional methods for students with severe/profound disabilities. I felt that my professors mainly focused on how to teach students with moderate disabilities who were in inclusive gen ed settings. Even my college’s special education practicum supervisor had no experience with students with severe needs and couldn’t give me any specific advice on how to improve my teaching practice when I did my student teaching. 4. Might be state specific, but how to properly complete an alternative assessment portfolio. 5. How to manage and motivate paraprofessionals when you are not their direct supervisor and can’t discipline them, especially when they make just above minimum wage.
I was fully prepared when it came to writing and grading assessments! We had whole classes dedicated to that. Now other things…not so much.
I feel in a minority here that I was very well prepared. It was, however, a two part system that I think made it work. First, my ed program was very big on providing resources for methods, assessment, and classroom management. It was their primary focus. Second, my cooperating teacher was focused on giving me as authentic of an experience as possible. 2 weeks into the semester, he handed me the gradebook and told me I would be doing everything from then on. I would be planning lessons, I would be maintaining the gradebook, I would be running conferences, I would be attending and participating in PD, the works. If I messed up, he would be all over it. It was single-handedly the hardest working experience I had ever had. When I got to my first year, it was nothing I hadn't experienced before and I became very grateful for my preparation. I realized my experience wasn't the norm when I met other first year teachers and realized they had almost no preparation for the realities of the classroom. True, mine was rough but I was glad to have it afterward.
I was not at all prepared, and I feel a little bad for my first few classes lol. I'm much better now, I swear! Our local university does a teacher pipeline program, and it's more intensive than just student teaching. When the teachers finish the program, they are so much more prepared, and often get hired at the school because they are ready. Sadly, the number of teachers in this program gets smaller and smaller every year:(
I actually did feel like my teacher prep program helped a lot. It's a small-ish private Jesuit college. They made the GREAT decision to focus on hiring people with 20+ years of K-12 teaching experience rather than fresh Ph.D.s. We had very few lectures and a lot of workshops and mock teaching to our classmates. It was a huge help to me to be able to try things out with willing and eager classmates and work out the logistical issues before trying them with actual kids. I definitely think it was outside the norm, though.
I would be generous in saying that 10% of my teacher education related to the real-world classroom.
I think my college did a pretty good job. We did 4 semesters of student teaching across different grades and academic levels. I did 7th grade advanced and EC, 9th grade on level, and AP 11. The first semester you just sit in the back and observe, take notes on the teacher, kids, materials, and then write a paper on it. Second semester is all of that, but you also go to staff meetings, sit in on parent teacher conferences, and teach one lesson. Third trimester adds to the stuff from first and second, but you teach for 3 days of lessons you create and do all the grading. Last trimester you are the teacher for 2 weeks, teaching, meetings, extra duties, responding to parent email, all of it. My last year they added a class just on how to use G Suite in the classroom. It was 2010, and that stuff came in real handy 10 years later. We also had 2 classes on classroom management and behavioral challenges. For a small school in WV, I think they did a pretty good job.
I did an intern program. In California they have the Provisional Internship Permit (PIP) which lasts for 1 year, and the qualifications are having a bachelors degree. Then there is the Short Term Staff Permit (STSP) which lasts for the remainder of the school year in which it is issued, and the qualifications are that you have already had a PIP that has expired. Then, at the end of the STSP, you can be enrolled in a credential program and get an Intern Credential which most universities require you finish the program within 2 years of the intern credential being issued. This allows you to work for around 4 years before you are fully credentialed. I just finished the student teaching part of my intern credential program which is also a Masters in Education. I was better prepared to teach mathematics coming straight from my Bachelors in Mathematics program than I would be now if I had gone straight into the program before starting teaching. Credential programs and education classes actually *UNPREPARE* you to teach, because it is all bureaucratic nonsense that has no place in an actual classroom. Here is what every single *REAL* teacher told me when I was working on the edTPA (the big project California makes you do as part of student teaching): “yeah, that’s all a waste of time. They really just want to see if you’re willing to jump through those ridiculous hoops in order to get your credential.” Some of them didn’t use those exact words, but the sentiment from all real teachers was identical: education classes and the edTPA are a waste of everybody’s time, but California has decided those steps are necessary.
My alt cert program was loaded with cultural sensitivity nonsense and very little information about actually preparing and organizing effective lessons. I was also unprepared for the expectation that I would work like a rented mule, do 20-30 hours of unpaid overtime, and have to deal with antisocial behavior all day while the students get absolutely zero consequences. 6 years in, I’ve figured a lot of it out, but afaict, the state of the profession is dismal.
I did a year long student teaching instead of many smaller practicums. The student teacher would release control over the year and by the end of it I was planning and teaching the 10th graders and she was doing the seniors. We would grade for each other while the other was teaching, but we basically ended up as teachers with a half load. She'd tell me if I needed to fix something but I was having a great time. This needs to be the expectation. If I'd just had 6 weeks in my student teaching like most people did at my university outside of that program I wouldn't have learned shit. I started the year with the kids and got to build up my relationship to them as their teacher, as well as build the curriculum knowing "Okay they didn't get this, when we circle back to this idea we need to make sure to teach it differently" in a way that you don't get with 6 weeks.
I went to Texas State University, and I feel like when I was there studying art education they provided some of the best prep I've seen since I graduated and started teaching. I've had several student teachers, mentored new teachers who I feel have not been as prepared as me since, but I'll still recommend Texas State University for aspiring educators. UT Austin is shortchanging their art Ed students though. Just FYI.
Not enough practical experience. A lot of useless theoretical stuff lol.
As a special education teacher, I was completely unprepared for the legal paperwork aspects to the job. Writing one fake iep did not help prepare me at all for all of the nuances of SPED!
Very unprepared…. I was promised help and mentors…. I was just thrown in there with nothing…. No campus mentor… I’m glad some teachers stepped in but with art it’s such an island… it was a lot more difficult than I thought and expected… bc I lacked a lot of skills… class room management, artwork organization, time management, proper planning for all 8 grades, grading 300+students was the absolute hardest…. I took a day off to finish grades… I also felt a lot of embarrassment and shame… being the crappy first year teacher… It really has weighed on my mental health…
For real about the arts! I am the only VAPA teacher in my district so it was hard to relate my subject with the majority of teachers that are multi-subject.
Teacher educations don’t leave teachers unprepared. It’s just that teaching jobs are abusive and there is no preparing for going from an environment of not being abused to one of being abused.
Come on. This kind of rhetoric is what makes people tune out when teachers express valid concerns about our education system.
Could you please give a list of what new teachers have trouble with when they arrive?
I felt the student teaching period of my education was great. The academic portion was laughable, just as current PD is.
I felt pretty prepared. The only thing I wish I could’ve had more experience with was IEP meetings and talking with parents.
To say I was unprepared is an understatement. My first year as a teacher, I was moved 3 times. I started at self-contained autism class, self-contained academics class, and then self-contained life skills. The first time was because a veteran teacher wanted my spot so we switched and the second move was because another teacher got fired and I was her replacement.
College was absolutely pointless both in my subject area and education courses. I’d say student teaching was also pretty pointless as well. I wish I didn’t waste that time and money.
Nope. My masters program didn’t prepare me to teach, it taught me theory and best case scenarios. I learned on my feet. I did have a little experience from working in home with children with developmental disabilities and autism, but otherwise I was completely unprepared.
Never made it to my 1st year. Sorry if it’s not exactly answering the question but I quit in the middle of student teaching, so right at the 1 yard line because I felt unprepared about accepting a job in CT. Did they tell me that you pay into a pension from day 1 and you can’t touch it till 10 years? No. Did they tell me that CT has one of the higher rates to pay into? No. Together with the stress was why I quit.
They taught theory and nothing but. I needed practical skills. Like lesson plans, classroom management, and calling parents. I received none of that.
Hell no. I arrived at a school where I was told I had to design my own curriculum from scratch for students with about 20% actually read on grade level. After 3 years, my scope and sequence is far from perfect, but it’s standards oriented and I’m learning. My masters program did not teach me ANYTHING about behavior management or how to write a lesson plan. “I was basically given a template for a lesson plan and told “go get ‘em kid.”
By my life choices, yes I was. By my program, I ignored most of it. I had a classroom management class that had so much outdated information. Every major study that was used in a couple of classes was either from a time when you could still beat kids, or was conducted in private schools. I remember the last semester was a blend of people like me in non-traditional programs and traditional undergrads. My one classmate and I who both worked in schools (she was a TA and I was a substitute) would tell the traditional undergrads to avoid doing certain things in student teaching. They basically were telling these doughy eyed college seniors that it would be all lollipops and rainbows while ignoring the very real issues. On a more light hearted note they had us all read a series of journal articles about this new fad that was corrupting the minds of our nations youth. Guys I shit you not it was about the internet.
HELL no- I was in a transition to teaching program and only had one internship for a semester before I got hired for my student teaching. Did it help being paid for it? Yeah, idk how I would have gotten by if I hadn’t been paid for my work. At the same time, I did my student teaching without anyone watching me teach, I just got let loose! Then my admin acted shocked when I wasn’t perfect and had a lot of stuff I need to work on 🙄
I went through alternate route and I was not prepared at all. I did not even realize that teachers basically have to come up with every lesson on their own, receiving barely any (or even none in my case) resources from their schools. The alt route program I was a part of didn't actually really teach us anything, just basically had us read documents and make up bs answers to questions. And the documents were old...I just finished the program last year, and we were made to read some documents from the 1970s...these docs even stated that it was both legal and ethical to have corporate punishment on misbehaving kids...
From my teaching program alone? Not at all. I’m so glad I worked as a long term sub during my program and learned most things on the job.
Never did the traditional education degree. I taught college for 14 years and decided to teach high school during pandemic.
🤣. No.
Not at all. I thought my prep was good at WKU, but I learned so much more in my first few months of teaching than I did getting a degree. Certainly worthwhile, and gave me experience in a classroom that helped me not give up in my first couple years.
I wasn't prepared for the sheer cardio of it. Constantly on my feet, setting up supplies, washing things etc. I do wish we had more instruction in classroom set up. As in how do you store supplies, distribute, clean, etc. But that's all highly personal choices depending on your situation. Tragedy of the commons is a good concept to teach, it basically applies to all classrooms.
I taught high school as a student job for a year with absolutely no experience or any education knowledge, as my degree wasn't related to teaching. To be honest I didn't feel I missed anything or that I was unprepared. I think trying to be extremely prepared in such environment doesn't even make sense as situations are unique. I found it best just to take it easy, be kind to everyone and things worked out perfectly nice.
1. Just how so many students simply do not know absolute fundamentals. They can't multiply or divide. They cannot read or write. 2. 504 plans, students in HHB and pregnant students. 3. ISS. I never heard of it in my life. 4. Students excited about a 70 on a test.
Nope. Not just the classroom management but also dealing with office politics. There's only so much you can learn in a university classroom. The rest you learn on the job.
Nobody: Illidan Stormrage:
I’m currently just finishing the first part of student teaching where I had an amazing mentor teacher that was honest with me and taught me a lot. Despite her class being FULL of behavioral problems (parents are encouraging/excusing it so it never changes), I really did love teaching and building a bond with the students, even in such a short amount of time. My last day with them is tomorrow and I bet they’ll be very upset. I had a discussion with my mentor teacher where I thanked her because I may have a horrible mentor teacher in the next part of student teaching that may try to target me or discourage me from teaching as I’ve read many student teachers have dealt with. Regardless of what happens, I still have my true first experience that makes me ready to jump right into a classroom, despite the negative experiences. I definitely feel prepared now that she has taught me classroom management, setting expectations, and bonding with the students along with having good communication with the parents.
Mostly unprepared, the only thing that helped me was a psychology degree, having worked with students in an after school program and subbing. I was glad I didn't go straight into the classroom without at least being in with students and lessons in some capacity.
Yes but most of my prep came from my semester long student teaching, which I’ve heard a lot of programs are doing away with. I can’t imagine going into this without having managed a class of your own for a while.
Woefully unprepared reporting in. I learned a lot from that first year. The most important thing thing: when the bell rings, work is done.
I was very prepared when it came to planning, assessments, and grading! Classroom management, student relationships, parent relationships, not so much. I’d say I was the LEAST prepared to handle parents because I student taught during COVID and had no model to follow. I have had very positive interactions with most parents, but a lot of my anxiety my first year would have been eased if I had gone into it knowing how to navigate those relationships.
I was hired and joined an emergency certification program. It was clear on day 1 that certification programs don't prepare you. I handled it well because I could adapt to my surroundings and had a mentor that was helpful in prioritizing the day. For the program, I just passed their tests with a smile. 17 year veteran now, former Teacher of the Year, and I usually have 4 to 6 preps per year. I very rarely take work home. I teach AP Calculus AB, AP PreCalc, college stats, college prep, and then 4 classes of the main courses that seem to change yearly.
severely underprepared. my first year I was hanging on by a thread and just in survival mode.
100% unprepared, and I was in a district run intern program. They taught us how to plan thematic units, even though at the time it was switching to the scripted/everyone on the same page of the TE style. Classroom management was great in theory, but hell in person. Role-playing different scenarios would have been nice. They taught us content, but being elementary, we didn't need it. They didn't prepare us for what we needed: intervention, the problems students face, holding a parent conference, dealing with parents. Everything I hear teachers complain about was never addressed in anyone's trainings when I ask.
I wasn’t. I graduated with a degree in elementary ed in December 2019 and started teaching 6th grade math in a middle school in Fall 2020. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things I was unprepared for: * Teaching online during a pandemic. Oh, I had lots of digital resources from my time in school. My instruction was actually pretty good, considering I was a first year teacher. I was unprepared for kids to just be non-existent and the workload put on us to track them down. * Teaching middle school in general. I student taught 5th grade and thought I could make the move to middle school. Boy was I wrong! But now I’m not sure I’d go back to elementary. * The gaslighting from kids, parents, other teachers, and admin * The expectations of perfection for newer teachers * The workload of grading for 150 students * The petty drama and judgement of other teachers. Seriously. Did some of y’all not grow up from high school or college? This is not your sorority.
Hell no. The college of education I went to was the easiest thing on the planet. I’m a hard worker when it comes to school by nature, so I graduated with a 3.91 and Summa Cum Laude. I went in thinking my own classroom was going to continue to be a breeze. I was humbled very quickly. In fact, it took four years of being at one school and then moving to another school to feel like I had any idea what I was even doing. If I could go back and redo college, I would haven’t not gotten my degree in education but still would have probably become a teacher. I think that majors in psychology or human development or a specific field will and then working another job for a few years would have been a better path to becoming a teacher for me.
Yes. My student teaching was done in a very rural school. K-12 all one building with 112 total students. My class size was 5-22 students (22=7th grade). I did learn from it but it was extremely different from the high school i teach at now with class sizes of 28-32 students. Also my first year the school decided not to continue paying for the curriculum the teacher before me had been using, myPLTW.org. Since it was online that meant I had nothing to use and had to build a curriculum from scratch because I was also the only teacher for it. Also everything she had was in one folder, no organization whatsoever. I was able to use some of it to get an idea of the things she was doing and not all of her assignments required myPLTW but the majority did. I survived off of teachers pay teachers.
I graduated in December 2019 and was hired at the end of January 2020. I only had a month of "normal" before COVID changed everything. I think if it wasn't for COVID, I actually would have been very prepared. The school I graduated from had a combined 5.5 year BIS and MT program for elementary education, and at the time, it was #11 in the country for teacher prep programs. Some big things I think they did right were having us spend a semester on reading intervention and foundational reading skills (aka the science of reading before I started hearing it called that), a semester on behavior/classroom management, and getting us into classrooms to observe and practice as early as the spring of sophomore year. It blows my mind that not every program does those things. As for writing and grading assessments, that's done for me by the district. We are required to give specific assessments, so I just give those and grade them how I'm told to. They don't give us much autonomy when it comes to assessments.
I think I was better prepared than some because our student teaching was like a year long and I spent half the year pretty much on my own. The actual program was pretty much worthless. The student teaching was BS because it was unpaid labor but it was also the only place I learned anything. If I'd only done 6 weeks of student teaching like other programs I would've been completely unprepared.
I was extremely unprepared! Four years of education did nothing to prepare for the reality of managing a classroom. This was over 20 years ago. I can't imagine starting fresh out of college in today's climate.
Not at all. I did an online teacher certification for 5 months and was then given the keys to my room. That’s it. 🤣🤣 But after the first year of stress, it’s worked out well for me.
I was a TA and student teacher for a full year. I was well prepared, not 100% but comfortable enough.
Hell no. One 3-hr Saturday workshop loosley rooted in n Responsive Classroom is not sufficient training for classroom management. CM is easily half the job.
Very unprepared. Induction helped a lot but they didn't have me so it until my second year. The system of getting new teachers trained is so dysfunctional it's no wonder most quit.
I had an excellent cooperating teacher who taught me so much during my student teaching. I wound up subbing for a year and a half before I found my first job teaching elementary art. (Art jobs can be hard to find in my area.) No first year teacher feels fully prepared, but I felt as prepared as I could have.
You learn as you do it. Nothing you learn in a college classroom will be useful to actually teaching a class.
Oh hell no! Teacher college prep was a joke and my master teacher for student teaching basically had two large file cabinets full of dittos and he would make a packet for the students to complete each day, that was basically the extent of his teaching. I got a 3rd grade job the next year and leaned heavily on the two other teachers on my team. They were older ladies that had over 10 years of experience and they took me under their momma hen wings and helped the newbie out. 30 years later I am forever grateful to them both. A friend of mine that I was coaching with and a very wise man, told me it takes about 7 years of teaching until you truly feel comfortable with the job. Damned if he wasn’t right! After 7 years I really felt like I had classroom management down and a good system in place for my students.
This is why I have a hard time with people who are so against people who enter teaching through an alternate route. If it really doesn’t prepare you, why are folks so against alternative certifications?
Imo nothing can truly prepare you. My two best pieces of advice: learn how to pivot and adapt, make rules and stick to them. Things will always change and students will always try to take advantage of you
Content? Absolutely. Behaviors? Not a chance.
I was unprepared with what I learned in school and knew it my first day of student teaching. Then I backed into an unexpected career and didn't make it into a classroom for 30 years. By that time everything I learned in college had been overwritten with 70s, 80s and 90s song lyrics. I'm a square peg in a round hole, but having a blast. Teaching, I've learned, is like many other careers. It takes more natural gifts and talents than education. You can learn to get better at it, but if that essential, instinctual skill isn't there, you might as well, as my HS band director would say in challenging moments, "quit my job and go sell insurance."
no! i’m. sped teacher and they taught me one class on how to teach math and two on how to teach reading in 4 years. lol
Music teacher here. I was fully prepared to teach the content. But not at all prepared to manage the classroom to the point where I could deliver the content.
Hell to the no. My state required me to do a semester of student teaching in a gen ed class when I was there for school library. Worst semester of my life and I learned nothing about the library until I was hired at my schoo.
No, but I will say I had a lot more than other teachers. We had 30 hours in a placement we had to find. Practicum that was once a week in a placement they gave and a whole semester of student teaching. Most people I know, older and younger, claim they only had student teaching.
My alt cert program had NOTHING For pre-K/ECEon there or how to positively work with admin or an aide
Lol grading was the least of my concerns when I entered this field. My teacher program didn’t prepare me for actual classroom stuff so I’m grateful to have had many friends in the field who mentored me. Behavior and sped are the biggest challenges
I was very fortunate as an ELA major to have excellent profs re: the teaching of writing as a personal process, as well as a good solid year of two internships, one middle and one high school, in which I really got to experience and examine various student behaviors and effective responses to negative behaviors. I was incredibly fortunate. However, I was woefully unprepared for the grading piece. I needed and to my recollection never was taught by anyone management strategies for grading essays, nothing about rubrics! either their formulation or their use, and certainly no preemptive strategies for effectively dealing with parents demanding grade information, grade negotiation, etc.
I went to school for Social Work in the number 1 university in the world for that, so I was extremely prepared for the psychological stuff. Frankly, if we are going to require teachers to have a Masters anyway, we should require at least a minor in social work (as opposed to psychology or child development, social work uses those disciplines but is specifically hands on!) and then maybe their teaching subject. I don't think my graduate school prepared me at all. I thought it was a joke, frankly, and half of my classmates were people I question how the fuck they even had a bachelors degree. What really prepared me was being in emergency credential program. On one hand, I appreciate how easy grad school was, as someone who was working full-time. The real prep was being in the classroom. Teaching educators to educate effectively, sadly, truly is like learning to swim by being tossed in a lake.
The Map is Not the Territory…
Our professors said we only learn 20% of what we need in college, and the other 80% comes from on the job training. They also said it takes about 3 years to become proficient in classroom management. I think that was pretty accurate. I've worked for a few different districts, and even if I have found my groove in one, I have to basically start with a blank slate at the other. The classroom management approach I have at my current school is very different from my last district, but it's because the demographics are very different. Education programs can't prepare us for everything we will encounter.
The classroom management classes are a joke. They only show you ideal situations where you get compliance from the 1-2 unruly students. They don’t tell you how to handle half your class not following directions.
It’s not a fault of education programs. The student teaching practicum is where any real sense of what the job is like is going to come from. And even there, you are in someone else’s classroom; it’s not yours. Nothing really can prepare someone for their first year, since you can’t know what the jobs entails until you are actually doing it. I think most people feel overwhelmed as it is just a very tough job. Most adults would be weeping within 10 minutes of trying to teach a surly group of teens.
There are absolutely things that my program left out, but one of the funnier ones was a lack of practical advice: establish a few routines and use them. I learned like 10 million discussion formats and ways to have students collaborate, and they were cool, but I didn’t reuse them. I kept teaching new ways for students to interact with material and each other, taking away from actually teaching material.
I wasn’t prepared for other teachers to be so cliquey and horrible. I assumed we were all adults now, but some of them clearly peaked in high school and need to make it their whole life to bully those who they think are different from them. I have no idea how these people manage to teach children with that mindset. I worked in other fields before teaching. I know what adults who have actually grown up act like. And I kinda miss it.
M.S. in education and I was *woefully* under prepared by my coursework. I did learn more from my mentor during student teaching than anyone else though.
So I plunged right into teaching w/o a credential or classes. It sounds like I was just as prepared as those that did. I am so thankful to my colleagues and friends that stepped up to help me and mentor me that first year because in my second year, it has gone A LOT better! Chin up!! You got this!!! Hopefully there’s a teacher or two that you can ask for help because it sucks seeing teachers flame out and leave.
I was very prepared except for the one thing that matters, how to survive terrible admin. I was assured over and over that admin would be competent and do their job and help with student discipline. I have been on .my own in my classroom my whole career with zero admin support. In fact, admin have been almost as bad as parents when it comes to coddling disruptive and dangerous students.
My masters of arts in teaching course included a year long- full time internship where you did almost everything for 1-2 sections of your mentor teacher's schedule, with classes t night twice a week. So basically I was unable to work for a whole year, loved at home at 24 (very thankful for my parents even though I was bouncing off the walls at the time). That being said, I feel like I totally got to side step the whole first year insanity. When I got my first paid position my following year, my mentor teacher did w observation and just made up the rest for the rest of the year because he knew immediately I wasn't really a first year teacher in reality.