A teacher, Deanna Finch, asked this great question to her FB Teacher Support Group, “What would you love to have in a welcome bag if you were new teacher to a school?”

I suggested a map of the building with teacher annotations for photocopying, bathrooms, break rooms any other thing individual to the building

But, truly, that isn’t enough!

With less people choosing teaching as a career as a response to the worsening teacher conditions in this country, we need to seriously and thoughtfully integrate our new teachers into our buildings.

I added a chapter to my book Teacher Dialogues on how to bring to light all of the hidden messages new teachers need!   This is a great gift for a teacher mentor to share as a springboard for discussion!

Here are the titles from that section of the book. It is available on Amazon and TeacherspayTeachers.

Cross-Generational Differences

Implicit Rules That Should Be Explicit

• Photocopying Machine Etiquette
• Holding Students After Class
• Violating School Rules
• Parking Spaces
• Bathroom Passes
• Late-To-Class Passes
• Lunchroom Etiquette
• Classroom Management
• Secretaries And Custodians
• Sharing A Classroom
• Being Collegial

 

Share it with your staff – you’ll be glad you did!

 

 

Why do some teachers and administrators resist using TeachersPayTeachers resources?

This topic was discussed last week at the TpT conference. It was a new paradigm for me, because it had never occurred to me that people would disapprove.

I would like to share why this secondary teacher is one of the two-thirds teachers in the United States who uses TeacherspayTeachers.

I am one of the most experienced teachers in my building. I have formally and informally mentored many teachers. Pre-internet, we veterans were life-lines to new teachers, repaying our debt to our own mentors by helping the newbies.   We would meet before or after school and touch base during the day as schedules permited.

About twelve years ago I noticed that new teachers tend to seek answers on-line rather than from veteran teachers in their building. It certainly is more convenient to have immediate answers rather than waiting for a mutually convenient time.

But more importantly, during my first ten years of teaching, I spent zero minutes of professional development time preparing students for standardized testing and spent zero minutes learning how to proctor standarized testing. Today’s new teachers spent lots of professional development time on these matters and they have less mutual time with a veteran colleague to discuss other matters.

Especially at the secondary level, a new secondary Spanish teacher, with a question about classroom management and students not working so well together, may not have another colleague in the building who also teaches Spanish. Or maybe the new teacher doesn’t want to ask someone for fear of being judged incompetent.

This teacher starts using search engines and ends up finding my product for random grouping of students. It includes a few pages of my wisdom gleamed from 30 years of being a reflective teacher.

Four dollars later, this teacher reads, absorbs and the next day is teaching like a thirty-year veteran. The collective wisdom of experienced teachers is shared and honored. It does not disappear with the teacher’s retirment. New teachers are teaching like pros faster than ever possible in the past.

And our students all benefit.

For giving me the opportunity to provide a legacy beyond my own building, and to  help this new generation of teachers to better juggle so many demands efficiently, I sing the chorus from THE TPT SONG.

“T-P-T I love what you give to me.”

At our recent 20th anniversary celebration some younger friends asked my husband the key to being a good husband. He told them, “It only took me 6 years to learn to first ask her if she still needs a safe place to vent or if she wants some suggestions, before I give my suggestions.”

A good, reflective teacher recently posted the following frustrations with her first assessment:

Our pacing guide is that we complete a chapter every two weeks. My purpose is not to fail the kids but they need to learn how to study. I had a section of multiple choice I had a listening section I had a part where they were given a situation and they had the right the appropriate greeting or farewell and… they had to answer questions. I’m just amazed that on the reading section the answers were written almost exactly as the multiple-choice fill in the blank and they were still unable to pick the right answer. I had three kids that didn’t realize we were doing the listening section although I told them we were doing the listening section and I played the tape twice. We had even done almost the same activity before the test as TPR I also had kids that didn’t flip over their paper. I know the kids have changed because they are a different generation but it seems like it’s getting hopeless. Are any of you experiencing this?

My response is to first vent:

I know, I know!   Welcome to the visual generation!

Then to problem solve:

We have to teach the kids in front of us – their parents aren’t keeping the better ones at home in a closet for holidays or for next year’s teachers!  An unintended consequence of technology is that children in our country expect a visual.  I am a voracious reader but when taking an online course I was offered the choice of a PDF to read or a video and yup, I learned faster from the video! So here is a 3 minute video with my suggestions:

 

snip tool for windows 10   snip tool for windows 7 just need first 90 seconds