A "Survival Kit" for New Teachers

A new resource, bulging with practical ideas for classroom use, would make a great welcome gift for your school's new teachers! Included: Ideas for building "teamwork" skills, motivating students, and creating reading response journals!

New teachers have no clue! They have no idea what is really in store for them the year they begin teaching...


GET READY FOR A ROLLER COASTER RIDE!

The first year of teaching is like riding a roller coaster! It's a year full of ups and downs. The year might be coasting along smoothly when -- all of a sudden -- a mountain of a task will present itself. The task completed, the new teacher might feel a momentary release, a brief period of exhilaration. But, soon, there will be a new mountain to climb. And, between mountains, all kinds of new experiences and new feelings await.

No college program can prepare new teachers for the enormity of the task ahead. But the year will be made more manageable if the new teacher is prepared to take on a few mountains. That's why every teacher needs a "bag of tricks" -- a "survival kit"!


SURVIVAL KIT FOR NEW TEACHERS

Not long ago, teachers Emma McDonald and Dyan Hershman were new teachers. They remember those days well; they know what all first-year teachers go through! That's why the two veteran teachers have put together the Survival Kit for New Teachers. This "survival kit's" 200-plus, spiral-bound pages are packed full of practical ideas and strategies for beginning teachers. Even the most experienced teachers will find the "kit" to be a useful teaching tool!

That's one of the great things about this profession. Even successful, experienced teachers are always looking for new ideas, for ways to improve themselves and their classroom teaching performances.

Some of the ideas might be familiar because, as all teachers know, teachers have a way of taking ideas -- from textbooks and teacher magazines and other teachers -- and reworking or adapting those ideas to meet their own needs. This sort of "professional sharing" is common in the profession, and it can help turn good teachers into great teachers.


NO PROBLEM UNCOVERED!

Hershman and McDonald, both teachers in the Dallas area, cover just about every problem a teacher might encounter in Year One, or Year Twenty-Five. Useful and workable ideas, tips, strategies, and activities are offered in response to teacher questions and comments such as:

• What questions do I need to ask to help me get a better start?
• How do I talk to parents or hold a conference?
• My education classes didn't teach me this!
• How am I supposed to grade this? What is a rubric?
• I'm so frazzled. Somebody help me, please!

And if a new teacher gets stuck, can't find the solution to a question or problem, all he or she needs to do is email the question to the authors of Survival Kit for New Teachers! Just go to the book's website at http://www.inspiringteachers.com and click on Ask a Mentor. A response will come back "as quick as a student being called for recess!"

"This book is meant as a starting point, not as a program," Hershman and McDonald caution in the introduction to their book. The book is one more resource to use in building a curriculum, one more tool to help teachers cope -- and excel.


TEAM-BUILDING ACTIVITIES

One of the chapters in Survival Kit for New Teachers highlights activities for getting the school year off to a good start. Ideas for icebreakers and rainy day games can be found here. Also included are some great activities for new teachers -- no, any teachers -- to use in developing cooperative team skills. Here are a couple of the many activities offered to build "teamwork" skills, activities that will serve any teacher well throughout the year:

1. MOTIVATING STUDENTS
   
   Another section of Survival Kit for New Teachers focuses on ideas for motivating students. In this section, McDonald and Hershman share bunches of "meaningful, creative, and unique ideas," a veritable ABC of exciting ideas!
   
   
2. INDIVIDUAL CURRICULUM SECTIONS!
   
   Survival Kit for New Teachers includes individual sections of teaching ideas for language arts, math, and science and social studies. In each section, teachers will find all kinds of activity ideas -- many complete with reproducible teaching masters. For example, in the language arts section, McDonald and Hershman offer tips for using the writing process. They address a handful of different writing styles (ie., persuasive writing, descriptive writing) and provide graphic organizers to help students write in each style. Just for the teacher, a grading checklist (rubric) is offered for each writing style. Also included, 25 question prompts for students to answer in their reading response journals. Among them:
   
   
   • What would happen to the story if the setting was 1000 years into the future?
     
     
   • Would you be friends with the main character? Why or why not?
     
     
   • What animal is the main character mostly like? Why?
     
     
   • Choose one of the characters to invite to a party. Which one did you choose and why?
     
     
3. AND MUCH MORE!
   
   A quick scan of the book's Table of Contents reveals more of the topics covered:
   
   
   • Career Bound
     Advice for the job search, a list of possible questions that might be asked in an interview, a guide for helping applicants design appropriate questions for them to ask in an interview, and a casual reminder to send a thank you note to the interviewer.
     
     
   • Before School Starts
     Tips for organizing the classroom, getting to know a little about your students before you meet them, creating a file for substitutes, and much more.
     
     
   • Classroom Management
     A guide to establishing procedures, establishing rules and consequences, reward-based discipline (possible rewards included!), and a list of things you should never, never say to your students (I really mean it this time!, If you don't stop, I'm going to..., etc.).
     
     
   • Parent Communication
     Ideas for getting this all-important relationship off to a good start, tips for creating a simple parent newsletter and keeping records of parent communications, thoughts about preparing for Open House or the first parent-teacher conference, and a list of "positive ways to inform parents of negative behaviors."
     
     
   • Technology in the Classroom
     Ideas and Web sites for integrating technology into math, science, social studies, and language arts.
     
     

THE PERFECT "WELCOME GIFT" FOR A NEW TEACHER!

Survival Kit for New Teachers is a terrific resource that should be included in every school's resource library, no, in every teacher's classroom! Teachers -- new and experienced -- will find in the "Kit" many practical classroom ideas. This volume could make life easier for all teachers, while making it more fun for their students.

In those schools where staffs like to welcome new teachers with something very special, why not provide a copy of Survival Kit for New Teachers to each new teacher? No more practical and useful gift will come their way!

Article by Gary Hopkins
Education World® Editor-in-Chief
Copyright © 1998 Education World