Hindsight is a gift, and I have never appreciated it more than when I talk with newer teachers and share the things I wish I knew when I was in their position. So what advice would I give to a new teacher? The number one piece of advice I would give is to protect your energy. You will need your energy for yourself, your family, and for all the other demands that teaching can bring.
I have distinct memories of putting my head down at the end of the day and nearly falling asleep, taking bags of student work home that I inevitably would not mark that night because I was just too tired to face it. When I became a parent, it became clear that I needed to preserve my energy since there was no longer an option to take a break after school and a long commute.
I’m thankful when I consider how much experience has made my life easier. I spend less time stressing over things that I cannot change, working “smarter” instead of harder to be more efficient, and knowing when it is time to stop working and focus on what matters – health, family, and relationships.
Teaching a new class, and planning units and lessons is so much better when you know where to start. As a new teacher, it was overwhelming to face the realities of planning, classroom management, and school events every day.
Here are the top 4 things I would do to protect my energy if I were a new teacher – and even if you are not “new” to the profession, perhaps you will find something you can bring to your practice.
Rethink Classroom Management
When I started teaching, I foolishly believed that all my energy should be focused on creating great lessons and planning activities. Let’s be clear – this is all very important – but you’ll never get to implement those plans if you don’t have a well-managed class.
Classroom management is so much more than setting high expectations for achievement and behaviour and setting up routines and roles (though those are all important elements to have in place). It is also about determining which times of the day will be most conducive for teaching certain subjects and running certain activities.
For example, in my experience, mornings are usually the best time for teaching essential core subjects like literacy and numeracy. The later part of the morning and later afternoons are times well spent for independent or group work. These are great times to take your foot “off the pedal” and create space for collaboration, relationship-building, and student conferencing.
It can be exhausting when you feel like you are constantly trying to calm students down, or motivate students to self-regulate when you are in the middle of a lesson. Know when your lesson simply isn’t working, and when it is time to shift gears. A good “red flag” is when you can feel your own emotions – frustration, anger, or despair – bubbling up.
Focus on Time-Saving and Efficiency when Planning
When I started teaching, I found that resources were scarce, and my colleagues were rather protective of the content they had created. To be fair, the internet was nowhere near as useful as it is today and educators were deeply dependent on textbooks and blackline masters (no, we didn’t have Google Drive to keep all those documents close at hand). I spent endless hours trying to develop lessons and content, and naturally never had the time to get my lessons exactly the way I envisioned.
Avoid spending excessive time researching and creating content – this can be a drain on your valuable planning time minutes and after school time. Focus instead on building on the content that is already available to you – whether you find something great online that aligns with the Ontario curriculum (always be critical of what you discover on the internet), at a professional learning session, a teacher resource, or content a colleague has shared.
As an experienced teacher, I now know that most, if not all of my energy on the job should be spent teaching, working with and managing my class, and adapting content for neurodiverse and multilingual learners. Sure, it can be fun and even rewarding to develop a brand new lesson – but if you are teaching multiple subjects avoid doing this for everything all the time.
Another great energy-saving strategy is to co-teach a unit or lesson with a teacher whose schedule aligns with yours, or that knows your class. Swap classrooms to implement a lesson you know well. For example, I had a colleague who was great at teaching podcasting, so I’d teach his class a lesson in news article writing while he’d teach a podcasting lesson to my class.
Get Connected with the Right People and their Resources
It’s amazing how much time and energy you’ll save by networking with the right people and leveraging their resources, knowledge, and experience. There are so many other educators in your school and board that have expertise and can share their “tried and true” strategies, tools, and resources.
For example, you may have teachers who have a role where their purpose is to share resources and consult in areas like educational technology, literacy, mathematics, the arts, or or social studies. They may have the title of coach, itinerant, or resource teacher – it can vary from one board to another.
You may have people you work with that are particularly passionate or skilled in an area like math or reading. They can tell you exactly what practices are most effective, which will save you a lot of research and time spent on trial and error.
Optimize Assessment
I remember being a teacher that gathered piles and piles of student work, only to be overwhelmed when reporting time came near. Save yourself a lot of marking time by taking a triangulated approach where you are not only collecting products, but frequently gathering evidence from conversations and observations.
It is important for students to be assessed through multiple means, so gather assessment as much as possible through activities like group work, presentations, and media creation. Assess students in the moment, and focus on providing 2-3 pieces of feedback at a time (and share it in the moment, if possible). Use an tablet or mobile device to gather assessment data quickly and take photos of student work and collaboration for your records.
Final thoughts
Your time and energy is precious. Protecting your energy as a teacher is critical for work-life balance – ensuring that you are investing your efforts wisely is key to longevity in the job and maintaining your mental wellness.