These are 3 big lessons to know before becoming a teacher. Before I began teaching, I may have had an idealized view of what my day, year and students would look like. Looking back, if I knew these three things, I would have been better prepared.
1. Students have severe social-emotional needs that as a teacher, I might not be able to handle, is one of the first lessons that I needed to know before becoming a teacher.
I didn’t realize before I started teaching that students come to school with severe social emotional needs that I may not be able to handle. However, this doesn’t mean that I’m not a good teacher. There are professionals such as social workers and school counselors more equipped to handle these students’ severe social emotional needs.
Secondly, as teachers you have to deal with students’ social emotional needs but you also need to be emotionally intelligent and present to help meet the social emotional needs of your students.
I had to learn how to handle my own emotions so that I would be able to teach students those basic social emotional skills.
2. Sometimes you have to against the status quo for the best interest of students.
Administrators, principals and supervisors come and go but you know your students and what works in their best interest.
Once you know this, you may have to go against what everyone says is in the best interest of your students.
However, you should always refer to your district policies and procedures.
3. There is a learning curve when you have to work with a paraprofessional.
As a new teacher, you’re just trying to survive. Sometimes a paraprofessional might have more experience than you so you have to learn how to balance managing the paraprofessional and your classroom.
It wasn’t until my second or third year that my paraprofessional and I were really in sync. We had to learn how to work well together, so that all our students were learning.
Effective paraprofessionals are extremely helpful when it comes to moving students academically. It is important to learn how to work well with them.
Bonus: Students have an innate ability to tell how you might be feeling or if you’re passionate about what you’re doing.
I was working with a small group of fifth grade students and out of the blue, the student said to me you’re a good teacher. At the time I just said thank you. After thinking about it, I realized the student said it because he realized that he was learning.
It just made me realize that students can really tell what’s going on without the teacher verbally saying it.
To sum up:
- Students have social-emotional needs that as a teacher I might not be able to handle
- Sometimes you have to against the status quo for the best interest of students.
- There is a learning curve when you have to work with a paraprofessional.
- Students have an innate ability to tell how if you’re a teacher that cares about teaching.