How to Survive Your First Year of Teaching: Teacher Vlog

so remember years ago I had gotten I'd finished college I had gone through all of my practicums I'd gone through all my student teaching I get to get my first job I get my classroom set up just right and I cannot wait to meet the kids and then on that first day of school when the bell rings and I can hear the swarm of kids coming down the hallway to my classroom I panicked and I thought what the hell did I get myself into here's some things that I think you could use to survive your first year of teaching [Music] number one thing that all teachers want to know about as soon as they start teaching is classroom management having that onslaught of kids coming into your room for the first time first of all you'll be amazed then when you ask him to sit down they will sit down when you tell them to just move their seater to take out a pencil or a pen most of them will do exactly that some of you have to remind them 17 times but that's just because they don't pay attention to anything you'll be amazed at from the onslaught how much stuff you'll you'll be able to say to the kids and they'll just do whatever you ask first step in classroom management is be prepared do your lesson plans come to class prepared come to school early get stuff ready ahead of time instead of waiting until the last minute I know this seems really basic but there's nothing worse than coming into school and something goes wrong and you're not prepared and you don't know what to do next be consistent if something is a rule it stays or rule there's no cell phones in my class that means there are no cell phones in my class don't ever write a red pen on the test that means don't ever write guess what in red pen on a test and if kids don't do it you have to stick to it hey that rhymed bars the thing I harp on the most and I and I tell new teachers is that relationships are key having good relationships with kids is everything you can't teach someone if you don't have a good relationship with them if someone hates you or if they're afraid of you or if they think you're a pushover or if they think that you're too nice or if they think they can get away with stuff or if they think they're terrified to do anything you've lost you can't teach anything I don't care how amazing your lesson plan is or how hard you worked on it or any of that if you don't have a good relationship it just doesn't work what that what that could look like is you know there's this idea that if you're too close with students then you become their friends or you become like that weird teacher that knows too much about the kids I'm not talking about friendships relationships do not equal friendships they're completely different so I think of my role is the role of life a professor that you had in college that really kind of weird yet handsome uncle that you had when you were younger it that was weird but ways that you can form relationships are with kids are just talk to your students every day ask them questions about their whole life who do you live with where do you live what was it like growing up what's your favorite video game what's your favorite cereal asking their kids all of those poignant questions well hey help them to realize that you're actually cared you're actually loving them by by asking them questions and being concerned about their lives and another way to build relationships is to share who you are talk about yourself if you want kids to be vulnerable and tell you what's going on and what a problem and about a problem that they're having in their lives make sure that you're feeling willing to do the same thing sharing who you are will help kids to share more who they are and then that really builds a relationship like nothing else we'll want to build relationships with kids be at your door every single day every single day no matter what I'm at my door shaking hands of kids that come in and that does a couple of things one it shows that I'm respecting you as soon as you walk in my classroom I shake your hand too it allows all the kids you'll see in your second third fourth tenth year of teaching that are walking through the hallway they get a chance to see you again and so you get the benefit from that when the freshmen are walking into my room now and this and my seniors that I had three years ago are walking down the hallway saying what's up or shaking my hand asking me about stuff that really leaves an impression on freshmen and so I love that I'm all over any chance to make myself at least appear better in the eyes of my students and lastly in the world of classroom management don't be afraid they're just kids even that dude that's six foot eight and who's built like a horse and is sitting in the back of the room and just looks at you with that hate stare he's just a kid that kid loves somebody and is afraid of something all the kids want to do is be loved and to be appreciated and have your approval whether they show you that or not that's all they want so do your best to do that try and bridge that gap by just not being afraid of them and if that means that something bad happens a place you have to put your foot down then don't be afraid to do it don't appreciate it they appreciate the consistency and they appreciate the attention and the concern for their well-being and so at the same time that I'm saying that I just want to remind you that fair is not always equal that each penalty shouldn't be exactly the same thing for every kid you can have rules and you can have consistency in your class but you can also have grace for kids so the next thing that I think I thought about that most when I was a first-year teacher was my content how was I going to make my content interesting and I think this is true for all teachers right whether you're a kindergarten teacher or you're teaching Latin for to seniors it's always you just want to make your content as creative and as interesting as possible but what you don't want to do is recreate the wheel you know if you want to get kids to read better or to or to become better readers have them read more if you want them to become better writers have them write more if you want them to become better or deeper thinkers think more creatively think more outside the box have them talk more and have more discussions in class a way you can sort of amplify that is by talking to teachers that have already done this used websites linked to teachers pay teacher's it's not a paid endorsement I do not have anything on you can borrow things from you know folks lesson plans that you can find online or other resources maybe that your school has already or programs that are already developed those are all really great ways to get kids to phone in on what you're trying to teach and to get them excited because otherwise sometimes you can literally lose your mind trying to come up with a perfect lesson plan it's also a good idea to teach kids through what they already know if your class is already into hip-hop or the rodeo draw from those influences learn more about them start watching things that the kids watch to be able to meet them where they are to get them to where you want them to be years ago I started watching Jersey Shore as an experiment because that's what all my students we're watching at the time and I ended up getting hooked on Jersey Shore just really bad slightly embarrassing but all of my lesson plans had something about Jersey Shore in them all of my vocab every week had words that I would use to describe the scenario from that week's Jersey Shore episode or describe the characters and so it was just a really fun way to meet the kids where they are without trying to appear like I was trying to be down or cool but instead I'm I'm what I am willing to watch this horrendous show like Love & Hip Hop and I will watch this so that I can teach you better it's my sacrifice sacrifice practical tips that no other teachers are going to tell you you don't want you to know this stuff because they want to be able to steal your things because you're a first year teacher and they want to they want what they want hide at least one ream of paper in the bottom of your desk no other teachers are gonna tell you this but I'll tell you what there's gonna come a day when the paper delivery didn't show up but schools and pay the bill where you ran out of paper and in the copy machine you don't know where the block is to get the rest of them who need to have extra paper because that test that you plan on that Friday you hold the kids they were having to test and then you show up without a test guess what BAM extra paper test is on put your name on everything everything in my room says Reynolds my stool says Reynolds my desk says Reynolds my stapler says Reynolds my tape dispenser says Reynolds my tool box says Reynolds you know why because people will take your stuff don't put your name on it and then you'll never see it again and you'll say that it was theirs because everything looks the same because all the staplers look exactly the same in the whole school and then you're just screwed hide your stuff people like to steal stuff or they borrowed it and they just forgot that they borrowed it and then you don't know where it is because you don't know who borrowed it so for instance my remote kept disappearing from my room for my projector and if I don't have a remote I don't have a projector because I can't reach all the way up there and the next thing you know I'm standing on a desk with a stick and in just its precarious situation so I mean this I took a book I act out the inside of it and there's my remove comes out easily enough I put it on my bookshelf nobody knows that it's there just looks like a regular book but I remember hearing in college they said something to the effect of make sure that you're nice to the office staff and the janitorial staff I'm gonna recommend that you were nice to everyone in the whole building from the principal down to the lunchroom staff over to the vice principal to the administrative staff to the secretary in the office of you just never know when you're going to need someone else's help and it's a lot easier to ask for help if you're just nice to everyone and also it just makes school a nicer experience if you're nice to everyone and you get along with the people that you work with no matter who they are or what their job is be straight with students and with their parents don't sugarcoat stuff don't say Jim I know you can do better than this you know believe in yourself although that's real a kid what I'd rather say to a kid you're going to fail by the end of the year you're gonna end up pushing carts at ShopRite in the middle of the winter through the snow it's gonna suck so Tim get your life together let's make a plan and work out how you can be the greatest team ever and then if you want to push carts at ShopRite that's fine cuz I can't get my own carts at shop rates of pain it's cold out there the last thing I want to talk about is just some real rap stuff brand new teachers you know nothing in fact you know less than nothing even knew that you knew nothing that'd be something but you don't yes sir and I see that in the nicest possible way to just say be humble when you start out you're doing yourself a grave disservice if you show up and you think you know too much so just go in with a humble mindset and ready to learn as much as you're ready to teach one of the things you'll hear from kids a lot is their disapproval people who try to be inauthentic people that try to be funny who aren't funny or people that try to be strict that aren't strict they're people that are trying to be down or cool or fronting in front of the class and they're not who they say they are to speak who you are it's great you'll be more comfortable the kids will be more comfortable and the kids will trust you with things that they won't trust other teachers with who are inauthentic have fun you're here hours a day whether that's six hours a day or you're one of those crazy fools that stays at school 12 hours a day and you get there when the school opens and you leaving the school closes and you come in on weekends like I am right now and if you don't have a particularly fun personality hang out with people that are fun and for those angry miserable curmudgeons that hang out in the teachers lounge and talk crap on everyone and hate all the children and post tons of stuff on Twitter hashtag teacher problems don't pay attention to those folks you're gonna have a better experience at school if you surround yourself with really good people and on that note be friends with your coworkers teachers have an awful tendency to stay in their room and to just deal with students and themselves and never make friends outside of school I'm telling you this now your year will be infinitely better if you go to the bar with people that you work with if you go to a restaurant with people you work with if you go to their weddings their bar mitts - they're not having bar mitzvahs otherwise they'd be like twelve year old kids teaching school which could still be awesome we have something called the secret coalition of Awesome which is me and four other teachers we meet in my classroom every Thursday and we have lunch and we're not allowed to just talk about school stuff we have to talk about regular old stuff I'm telling you it is completely life-giving and it makes the rest of your day a blast because you had a break for 40 minutes if the children have not just been waiting for you they're not sitting in a classroom lonely no one that cares about they're not doing that they might want that and they don't even know it but they're not just sitting there waiting for you so when you show up on the first day and you bring your a-game and you're super pumped and your room looks amazing and they don't care it's alright you got to work for it man no one falls in love with you in the first second right maybe my wife did but it's different what all said and done it's only always about the kids right from the content that you're teaching to the way you're teaching it to the lesson plans to the way your room looks if that is all centered around who we are as teachers or how we want to appear to other people then we're lost but if we make it all about the kids that's where you'll succeed that's where the kids will see what you're doing for them and they will really gravitate towards that and grab onto it and hopefully that will allow you to do some good out there in the world if there's any questions that you have that weren't answered here or concerns that you have or things that you want to talk about make sure you leave them in the comments below I'd love to get back to you and keep the having this conversation also my contact information is available in the description so you can hit me up on email or Twitter snapchat Facebook YouTube any of that stuff thanks guys peace

Channel: Real Rap With Reynolds

Views: 83,402

Rating: 4.9607458 out of 5

Keywords: teacher vlog, how to survive your first year of teaching, high school teacher, teacher life, teacher survival, real rap with the reynolds, classroom management, teacher advice, teacher strategies, student teaching advice, first year teacher, first year teaching

Id: 8HIJUfbi9Dw

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 19 2017