The First Time the Last Time
We have something like 37 teachers that are new to Boone this year. Some of them are first year teachers. Since this is my fourth year at Boone and I've been teaching over 20 years I fit pretty comfortably into the role of "veteran teacher". (It's better than being called an "old timer"!) So I try to make sure I encourage and assist the new people.
I'm pretty sure that the number of teachers that leave the profession within their first five years is still around 50%. It has been for a long time. While teaching can be greatly rewarding (emotionally, if not monetarily), it can also be extremely stressful and frustrating. I know that some of our new people won't last long-term. I don't know which ones though. It's fun to be around them when they are still wide-eyed and eager.
In a discussion with one of the new teachers in the week before classes started, she made a comment about how memorable my first day of teaching must be. It never occurred to me before that, in fact, I have no clear memories of my first day as a full time teacher.
I remember bits from that first year:
If any of our new teachers keep memories of their first day better than I have, I hope those memories are good ones.
I'm pretty sure that the number of teachers that leave the profession within their first five years is still around 50%. It has been for a long time. While teaching can be greatly rewarding (emotionally, if not monetarily), it can also be extremely stressful and frustrating. I know that some of our new people won't last long-term. I don't know which ones though. It's fun to be around them when they are still wide-eyed and eager.
In a discussion with one of the new teachers in the week before classes started, she made a comment about how memorable my first day of teaching must be. It never occurred to me before that, in fact, I have no clear memories of my first day as a full time teacher.
I remember bits from that first year:
- A boy in the eighth grade that turned 16 and dropped out. I have often wondered what became of him. How does one survive with less than an eighth-grade education?
- A day when the principal was watching from an adjoining room. He came in and yelled at a student for not following the instructions that I had given.
- Wearing green make-up on my hands and a lizard mask for Halloween. I don't know if any schools let teachers dress up for Halloween any more.
- The veteran teachers, Cookie and Grace, that took me under their wing.
- The assistant principal that could never seem to pronounce my last name correctly.
- The faculty meeting at the end of the year when the principal told everyone that he was a little worried when he hired me because I "barely spoke two words" during the interview. But that he had no more worries after the first time he saw me in the classroom with the students.
If any of our new teachers keep memories of their first day better than I have, I hope those memories are good ones.
1 Comments:
Interesting you mention the rate at which new teachers leave the profession. I was one that left after 5 years. I LOVED what I did. I LOVED the kids. I burned out REALLY fast.
I taught in TX (where curriculum is written to meet the requirements for the state's standardized test) and had a hard time teaching for the test. While I think standardized testing is a great tool for benchmarking, it is by no means an end-all, be-all. I miss teaching a lot and think about going back as an aide someday.
Cheers to you as you start a new school year and I still HATE it when people say how great teachers have it leaving at 3 PM (which I never did) and having the whole summer off. You guys work hard and it doesn't go noticed as often as it should.
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