Advice from a Veteran Teacher

To be successful, teachers become chameleons. It is impossible to do our jobs without learning to adapt. As I spend more time in this career, I continuously feel led to work with preservice and new teachers. As teacher turnover rates rise, I want to share some strategies I use to continue my work as an educator. I hope that some of these tips will help you adapt to a new career, new school, or give you a fresh perspective to better prepare you for the hustle of August.

Find a Mentor

I have been teaching for 16 years, and I’ve worked in six schools. Each time I’ve moved into a new building, I’ve been fortunate to find a mentor to help answer my “newbie” questions (and I usually have a lot). You will need help working the copier, ordering supplies, and scheduling your post-observation meetings, but just as importantly, you need someone to guide you through the complexities of getting used to a new work environment. Over the years, my mentors have saved me money by warming me the Dr Pepper is always mislabeled in the second floor vending machine and eased my mind that the school secretary doesn’t hate me-—she just has grumpy days sometimes. If you’re like me, these seemingly small pieces of advice will save you a lot of stress.

I’m fortunate to work with many preservice teachers, and I usually phrase this advice to them by saying you should “Find your Denise”. Denise started as a mentor but turned into my very own life coach. We were on opposite sides of our careers: she was a few short years from retirement, and I had not been teaching long. I was a people pleaser. I wasn’t a mom yet. I was a newlywed. So much of my identity was tied to my work. Denise caught onto that pretty quickly. She told me, “The best teachers have a full life outside of the classroom.” One of the things I admired most about her is that being a teacher, mom, and coach’s wife seemed to come with so much ease. I was all of those things as well, but I was struggling! Throughout my years working with Denise, she listened to me vent, offered guidance, and shared teaching wisdom that all became an integral part of how I navigate life as a teacher, wife, and mom. We spend so much of our time at work. As teachers, we invest a LOT of ourselves emotionally. Having a support system at work makes a world of difference. Find your people and lean on them when you can.

Stay True to Your Boundaries

I teach teenagers, so secondary folks, this next piece of advice is geared more toward you. Early on in my career, I felt guilty if I didn’t let students hang out in my room during lunch, planning, and at the end of the day. I rarely had a moment to myself, and it made it difficult to plan or get a lot of work done at school. This usually led me to taking work home at night. It took me a while to realize that having time away from students during the school day didn’t make me a bad teacher. It was a boundary I needed to be the most successful and efficient teacher possible. It is okay to set boundaries that help you clearly establish the student/teacher relationship.

Another issue I still deal with frequently, which I think is a common tactic for teenagers, is that my students will often ask me to get them out of other classes for one reason or another. My advice for this: just don’t. There may be a time when they need additional time on a project, and you want to help them out, but remember it sends the message to your students’ other teachers that their class isn’t as important as yours or that you don’t respect their time. A few of my previous coworkers created a lot of tension amongst the teachers in our building because they frequently called students out of other classes. In my experience, this isn’t a great way to build rapport with your colleagues, and it can create a messy student/teacher relationship where you lose your students’ respect. If you set the example that it’s okay to sneak around and break the rules, they’re going to do the same.

If You Don’t Like Where You Are, Move!

I used to have a quote on my wall in my classroom that said, “If you don't like where you are, move! You are not a tree!” Those words adorned my wall for years, and one day I caught myself staring at it wondering, “Well, then why am I here?”

Too often, I see teachers on social media announcing that they are leaving the profession because of the stresses they’ve encountered within their school. I always wish I could reach out to them and encourage them to try a different school before they try a different career. As I said before, I’ve worked at six different schools, and though they’re all within an hour drive of one another, each school’s culture was vastly different. Remember that it’s important to find your people. If they’re not in your current school building, they may be working at a school in another town.

Complacency is Comfortable, but Nothing Ever Grows There

Once you’ve gotten comfortable in an environment, it’s very easy to become complacent. It can start to feel like it would be easier to adapt to the environment you’re in rather than pack up and move on. Please don’t ever feel stuck. Find an environment where you're challenged, appreciated, and most importantly—HAPPY!

I’m rooting for you all and wish you the best of luck as you start the new school year.