You tried many different jobs working with children and it seemed to fit what you wanted to do with your life. You found a university program,worked with great people, did your student teaching, and now – drum roll please – you’re a teacher!
You have your very own classroom and your very own students. You might need a few of the nitty, gritty details about teaching.
 I hope, with this blog, to share with you some of those details, some of the wisdom others very generously shared with me during my long, long teaching career.
Please ask questions, share your stories, and impart your wisdom. We’ll share it with others who are starting out (or in the middle of) what I found to be an amazing journey.
Even after thirty-five years of teaching, I retired but I can’t seem to give it up!
Very encouraging! Thanks so much.
This is a great article I found that helped new teachers I have worked with not feel so overwhelmed
Don
How to Keep From Feeling Overwhelmed As a Teacher
By Ron E. McDevitt | Submitted On October 08, 2009
O.K., so you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to get prepared for a new year of teaching in the classroom. It doesn’t matter if you are a new classroom teacher or a veteran we all feel that way. Too much stuff gets thrown at us at the beginning of the school year. I myself just finished two days of textbook training with two new book adoptions. Each publisher provided about four hours of ample confusion to start off the school year. Teacher editions, PowerPoints, exam generator software, enrichment guides, standards practice material, assessment materials, benchmark testing, CST support, skills practice, web access codes, student enrollment procedures, teacher logins, and more. That was just a small sample of the first four hour session to be followed up by the second publisher who provided their own version of all the same stuff but yet somehow managed to make it just different enough that it’s a whole new process.
Then, no doubt, you will have several days of orientation, staff development, staff meetings and department chair meetings before the students arrive. Upon which you are given curriculum road maps, calendars, previous year test scores to analyze, student rosters, first week procedures, school goals, mission statements, behavior policies, staff guidelines, school protocols, safety training, health training, material distributions and a partridge in a pear tree. Then you remember that you still have to get your classroom ready. Arranging desks, decorating walls, organizing files, creating student worksheets, lesson plans, student handouts, completing your teacher planner, buying classroom supplies, setting up technology in the classroom that never works quite right, inputting students into your grading programs, creating seating charts, making benchmark tests and copying, copying, copying. Not to mention the million or so things I forgot but you will no doubt discover.
So how do you keep from feeling overwhelmed as a teacher?
Stop for a moment and take a deep breath, picture a happy place and go there. Then when you mentally return find comfort in the fact that you are not alone. Everyone feels this way to some degree. A new teacher usually feels this way times ten. Don’t panic because you will get through it, I promise. But here are a few things to help you along:
Stay as organized as possible. I am not one to brag about my own organizational prowess but I know that it is a cornerstone of being an effective teacher in the classroom and staying calm. Get yourself a teacher planner with a weekly and yearly calendar. Ask your administration because many times they have them in the office. Fill it out as best you can with all the known dates for the year. This will help you feel like you’re at least ahead of the game and know what is coming up. Then plan a week ahead to get your head above water. You can plan further in advance as you begin to get in the rhythm of your year later on. Don’t worry about all the other stuff, just get your classroom ready and plan for a week. Make any copies, buy any classroom supplies you need and write down your lesson plan for each day of the week in your fancy new teacher planner. That is really the most important part of it all. The other stuff will work itself out as the year goes along. You can go back later and start to prioritize, arrange and complete everything else as needed.
If you’re a new teacher, just focus on the basic core tasks, focus on the students and try to file all the other stuff in your “I’ll get to it when I can” file. Believe me every teacher has a BIG one of these files on their desk. So go to the meetings, gather all the materials, smile and then go back to your classroom and plan for a week. When you’re done make sure to stop and take time to relax. Remember inch by inch life is a cinch and yard by yard life is hard. Nobody expects you to have it all done. If you’re afraid your administration is watching you with an eagle eye I would venture to say they have more compassion and understanding then you may realize. I bet they feel just as overwhelmed as you.
All teachers feel overwhelmed at times but the better you can get at creating a workable classroom management plan the more relaxed and calm you will feel during the year. Take the time to learn how to create and implement a plan and it will pay you back with relaxed and happy days of teaching. Take it one step at time, focus on your procedures and your students; everything else will work itself out in time.
Have a great school year!
Ron McDevitt holds a Masters in Education and is the co-founder of [http://www.teachingcrusade.com] which is an online resource providing classroom strategies and resources that really work for teachers in education.
Visit [http://www.teachingcrusade.com] if you would like to receive classroom management , classroom discipline and classroom resources from the experts in education.
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Thanks for the resource!
This is awesome!! I’ll definitely be checking back 🙂
What a great resource!