Rookie Mistakes

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I saw this on twitter and it really caught my attention.

I'm a third year teacher and I'm constantly finding myself thinking that I thought I would feel more self assured by now. In my first year teaching, I was so excited to write cool lesson plans and try out new ideas that I wasn't sure were going to work or not, but I kind of figured that eventually, I would have all my classroom procedures down by now, and be a totally organized teacher with a clear unit/year plan all the time. My classroom would be beautiful, colorful, and neat, and students would be learning way more from me.

Since it's my third time teaching Integrated Math 3, I really thought I would pretty much have my curriculum map finished, and I would only be slightly tweaking what I did the year before. Instead, I find myself re-planning entire units all the time.

I know I have improved as a teacher, but I was under the impression that a few years in, I'd find my groove and pretty much have my classroom flow down. Instead, I'm still changing my mind and questioning whether what I'm currently doing is best. I have certain procedures down-- I finally found a warm-up procedure I like that gets all my students to start on the warm-up when they start class without it being a battle each day. I'm certainly inputting more assignments every day and holding kids more accountable than I did my first year. But still, I'm not holding every kid 100% accountable every day. I have minor classroom management issues. I'm not the polished teacher I thought I would be by now.

My rational side tells me that halfway through my third year teaching, (and only my 2nd year full-time), I am still a "new" teacher. But my ego tells me that year 3 teachers should not be lumped in with first year teachers, and that I should have it a bit more together by now. I shouldn't have told my students I was going to do binder checks periodically, and then gotten too lazy/unorganized to actually do them. I shouldn't have minor typos on exams. I shouldn't still be making rookie mistakes.

But hey, I still am a new teacher. I'm trying, and I'm going to use this blog to reflect and improve.

Comments

  1. stevens009December 15, 2017 at 11:18 AM

    Julia,

    Thank you for your insight and perspective. Quite honestly, I had no idea how big this tweet would get, but I'm glad that it resonated with you. I have also written up a clarification on my blog and would be interested in your thoughts:
    http://www.fishing4tech.com/fishin-solo-blog/new-teachers-please-dont-be-fooled

    Keep doing the necessary work, as it is certainly worthwhile!

    John

    ReplyDelete

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