1. Get plenty of sleep (6-8 hours per night) and exercise (3x/week). I speak from experience and want you to do as I say, not as I did. This is vital to keeping your stress levels down and alertness at its peak.
2. Keep appointment times with your mentor and PLC's sacred. Don't miss them! These relationships will keep you "in the know" and support you throughout your year.
3. Plan, plan, plan - content, strategies, groupings, remediation, extension, and assessment. These are the building blocks for great lesson plans. Do not "fly by the seat of your pants" routinely. Your students will be engaged and you will have less classroom disruptions if you spend time planning for learning.
4. Make your lesson plans into scripts the first time you present them. Include vital things you need to say into script lines for yourself. Don't hesitate to use your plans as a crutch in front of students. You can hide them in legal pads, or onto clipboards.
5. Do NOT beat yourself up if you get behind in the plans your PLC has made. Speak up and get help in determining what content is absolutely necessary and what can be released. Reflect on what has happened that led to this situation. This is a great time to have your I.F. (instructional facilitator) or mentor teacher come into your classroom to demonstrate lesson pacing.
6. Be humble and willing to accept criticism and advice from administration and coworkers. This kind of input should be sought out if no one is telling you how you could improve. If you can have your I.F. watch your entire lesson and provide feedback, that is ideal.
7. Learn your content! Some days you might be just one day ahead of your students, but please remember that you are the expert and need to be fluent in your content. Don't be too stubborn to spend some time in study.
8. Be firm, yet friendly with your students. They need to know that this is your classroom and that you will enforce the rules.
9. Don't take students bad behavior personally. Most students misbehave from either attention, power, revenge, or self-confidence issues. If you'll deal with misbehavior promptly and extremely professionally (even when you feel like "blowing your stack") you'll go further in developing a mutual relationship of respect with that student. You are most likely NOT the target for the complaining, anger, frustration, etc. that the student is expressing, so don't rush to defend yourself.
10. Remember, that your best tool for classroom management and student engagement is relationship, relationship, relationship. If you'll build relationships with those students that exhibit power issues first, attention issues second, and self-esteem issues third - you'll have far fewer problems managing your classroom.
2. Keep appointment times with your mentor and PLC's sacred. Don't miss them! These relationships will keep you "in the know" and support you throughout your year.
3. Plan, plan, plan - content, strategies, groupings, remediation, extension, and assessment. These are the building blocks for great lesson plans. Do not "fly by the seat of your pants" routinely. Your students will be engaged and you will have less classroom disruptions if you spend time planning for learning.
4. Make your lesson plans into scripts the first time you present them. Include vital things you need to say into script lines for yourself. Don't hesitate to use your plans as a crutch in front of students. You can hide them in legal pads, or onto clipboards.
5. Do NOT beat yourself up if you get behind in the plans your PLC has made. Speak up and get help in determining what content is absolutely necessary and what can be released. Reflect on what has happened that led to this situation. This is a great time to have your I.F. (instructional facilitator) or mentor teacher come into your classroom to demonstrate lesson pacing.
6. Be humble and willing to accept criticism and advice from administration and coworkers. This kind of input should be sought out if no one is telling you how you could improve. If you can have your I.F. watch your entire lesson and provide feedback, that is ideal.
7. Learn your content! Some days you might be just one day ahead of your students, but please remember that you are the expert and need to be fluent in your content. Don't be too stubborn to spend some time in study.
8. Be firm, yet friendly with your students. They need to know that this is your classroom and that you will enforce the rules.
9. Don't take students bad behavior personally. Most students misbehave from either attention, power, revenge, or self-confidence issues. If you'll deal with misbehavior promptly and extremely professionally (even when you feel like "blowing your stack") you'll go further in developing a mutual relationship of respect with that student. You are most likely NOT the target for the complaining, anger, frustration, etc. that the student is expressing, so don't rush to defend yourself.
10. Remember, that your best tool for classroom management and student engagement is relationship, relationship, relationship. If you'll build relationships with those students that exhibit power issues first, attention issues second, and self-esteem issues third - you'll have far fewer problems managing your classroom.