1. Become familiar with
school site and district office facilities and resources.Your school site and district office media center can be valuable resources to tap into. Most school site have storage areas or closets with shared grade level curriculum resources and materials. The administrator or a veteran teacher would be person to point you in right direction. Depending on size of school district, a district library or media center will have materials available for checkout. Many districts have a new teacher orientation day to provide information about materials, procedures, insurance coverage, staff development and other key topics.
2. Set tone for year with detailed planning for first day and week.
Spend an extensive amount of time on planning first day and week of school. Make an impression and establish a positive tone for how your classroom will run. Describe in detail how you want your classroom procedures (homework, materials, line up, emergency, school/classroom rules) to work. Make sure students understand what your expectations are and why things need to be done in manner that you describe. Particularly with upper grades, much of description and discussion can be done as a team-building exercise, seeking student input and comments. The primary students would also benefit from participation in setting up classroom expectations. Have a plan in mind before hand so that students can be focused to develop something that is workable and acceptable to you and has buy in from students.
3. Develop a detailed description for student behavior expectations
The most important area to emphasize to students is that you have high expectations for their behavior. There are many models to explore, but your own personal model should blend with school rules for pupil behavior. It needs to be a system that is fair and manageable. Don’t put in consequences for poor behavior that can not be followed up with action. Talk to your colleagues or site administrator.
4. Talk to your colleagues.
The veteran teachers at your site can be one of most valuable contacts that a new teacher can make. They want to help new teachers. If you have questions or problems with discipline, lesson planning, parent involvement, ask for advise or suggestions. Don’t reinvent wheel. Many site administrators have already selected teachers that serve as informal mentors to aid first year teachers.
5. Use internet for lesson plan ideas.
Look at many curriculum and lesson planning ideas that you can find by doing a search on internet. Most classrooms now have access to web. Teachers can now do all their research in comfort of their own classroom and can find more ideas and plans than there is time to deliver.
