60. Advice for New Teachers

Ellie 0:00

Just recently, in Episode 52 we spoke with our friends about our first years in the classroom, and today we're going to head that way again with another guest, this time joining us all the way from Sydney, Australia. So welcome to the teaching toolbox. I'm Ellie, and I'm here with my friend Brittany.

Brittany 0:19

Hello

Ellie 0:21

and our special guest, Ashleigh Smith, one half of rainbow sky creations.

Ashleigh 0:27

Hello. Thanks so much for having me.

Ellie 0:30

It's awesome to have you, and today we're here to talk about new teachers once again, but this time from a different angle. So again, thank you for joining us, Ashleigh.

Ashleigh 0:41

thanks. I'm excited to be here.

Brittany 0:43

I just love the accent.

Ellie 0:48

We'll just stop and let you you talk the whole time.

Brittany 0:52

So a lot gets thrown at new teachers. Right off the bat, I think they call it drinking from a fire hose. But Ashleigh, what do you think that new teachers actually need?

Ashleigh 1:04

Well firstly, a lot is thrown at us as teachers. One thing I'm always saying to people that aren't in the teaching world is that there's not really another job out there that the person that has just finished their degree and is put into the job has to do exactly the same thing and achieve exactly the same outcomes as somebody who's been doing that job for 30 or 40 years. And we have to remember that it can be a really overwhelming thing, and that's why I'm so passionate about helping and supporting new teachers, because we need to let them know that they don't need to be riding that struggle bus. But there are some things that new teachers need. There's lots of fancy things that we see out there that are not necessary, but some of the things that I think are really necessary for new teachers to survive and thrive in those first few years of teaching is firstly, a good friend or a colleague that's there just to lend a listening ear or hear what you have to say. Bounce ideas off someone who's in the teaching game is really good for this, because, as I just said, people who aren't teachers or who have never been in the classroom, besides being students themselves, just don't quite understand all of the stresses and all of the pressures that are put on us as teachers. So a good friend or a colleague, is the number one thing that I think is so important. They can really help us get through that first couple of years, not even just the first year, but the first couple of years when times can be tough, or even just for celebrations. I think we need to stop and celebrate. I think that that is also really important.

Brittany 2:38

Yeah, Definitely.

Ashleigh 2:39

The next thing that we need, I think, and this one is not as tangible, but it's being adaptable and being resilient. Teaching is always ebbing and blowing. It is always changing. And if you are in the game for a long time, you will see things swing right around. So we'll do something and then that'll go out the door and we'll be doing something else and then, you know, the trends come back. So we need to be resilient. We need to accept that change happens. And also when we're dealing with humans, little humans, medium sized ones, bigger ones, you know, nothing ever goes to plan, and we need to make sure that we can adapt ourselves and be really flexible. And I think that's one of the things I really struggled with when I first started teaching that flexibility piece. I don't think I was a very flexible person, not in a bad way. It was just my personality. But the more I just let go of being rigid and trying to have everything exactly the way it should be and have everything perfect, the easier it got for me. And therefore, I got the best out of my students. It was just a much easier outcome for my students. So I think that piece is important for you and important for your students. And just to remember that teaching is a marathon. It's not a sprint. You're in it for the long game, even if we're just talking about a year of teaching, it is a marathon. If you come straight out of the gate, full ball, it's going to be really hard to keep up that momentum throughout the entire year. Next up, I would say it's really important to stay organized and get your systems into place to help you stay organized. So a teacher planner is the number one thing that I always recommend new teachers go and purchase, get a paper planner or a digital planner. Does it matter? What sort of one are you girls, paper planners or digital planner gals?

Ellie 4:27

I like paper. I'm a paper person, for sure.

Brittany 4:31

I've tried both, and I always fall back to the paper.

Ashleigh 4:35

I'm a paper girl too.

Ellie 4:38

But I mean, I've also got my post its all over everything besides that. So I've like written down what the plan is, and then there's post its everywhere besides.

Ashleigh 4:46

And there's nothing wrong with that, because you're organizing your thoughts that way. So get yourself a planner, post it notes, anything that helps you get those thoughts and ideas organized. Because there's a lot coming at us all the time, and I found when I first started teaching, people would always be telling me things as I'm trying to walk into the classroom and start the day with my kids. And when I wrote those things down, it made it far easier than trying to store it all in my brain and then just getting completely overwhelmed by it all.

Ellie 5:13

Oh, absolutely.

Ashleigh 5:15

And the last thing that I think is important, and it's not fancy, but it's to treat yourself to a water bottle or a reusable mug, because you need to really stay hydrated throughout the day of teaching so get yourself something that you really enjoy drinking out of and treat yourself.

Brittany 5:31

Yes,

Ellie 5:32

I used to have Diet Coke with me all the time, back in the early days, early days, it was like kids would buy me six packs of Diet Coke for Christmas because I drank it all the time. I gave that up, though I don't do that anymore.

Ashleigh 5:49

I think that that is a bit of an important point. Whatever you model to the kids. So they saw that you like Diet Coke, they're going to shower you with Diet Coke. I had a friend who decorated his first classroom with a pineapple theme. At the end of the year, he got so many pineapple themed gifts. He's like, I don't know what I'm gonna do with these. I don't even really like pineapples. I'm not gonna have another pineapple theme. Pineapple everything.

Ellie 6:14

Oh, that's funny. Yeah. So that is something important to remember as you're you know, as you're walking into your first classroom and thinking about, what are the students going to see? What are they going to pick up on?

Ashleigh 6:24

What can you hint to them that you like?

Ellie 6:26

Yeah, you know, chocolate's really, really tasty. Chocolate makes me happy. So when you're buried as a new teacher with prepping materials, learning curriculum, navigating parents and students, grading all the things. How would you suggest new teachers find a balance between work and play?

Ashleigh 6:52

Oh you know what? We have a membership for new teachers. And one of the main things is they say they want that work life balance, and then they say, is it even possible to get it? Yeah, and it's an important question to have as teachers that are starting out in their career, or teachers that have been teaching for years and years and years, we need to take control of that work life balance, because no one else is going to do it for you. Unfortunately, we work in a society that if you work 20 hours a day, there's not really going to be someone that stops you and says, don't do that. You're probably just going to be given more responsibilities, if we're honest.

Ellie 7:27

I mean, I feel like since I started, you know, doing all the after school hours and things like that, it just then became a habit, and that was my habit, to take things home, put the kids to bed, and do more work, and it was a habit that was very hard to break.

Ashleigh 7:44

I think habits is a really great point to bring up here, because we need to get ourselves into good rhythms and into good habits, and the more that we do that, the easier it's going to be. So instead of it being I'm going to do work after dinner every night, maybe it's going and reading a book or going for a walk or getting yourself into a habit of something that you really enjoy. The other thing I'm going to say in regards to work, life balance, I said you've got to take control of it yourself, but it's really important that you're gentle to yourself when you're working out your groove. Don't be so hard on yourself. I think as teachers, we want to be that a plus student right we want to do the right thing. We we're always striving to be our best for us, for our teacher, for our other teachers on our staff, for our leadership, but the kids in our classroom, for their parents. You know that's a lot of people that we're trying to please. So be kind to yourself. Don't overwork yourself to the detriment of your health. Remember, you can't be the best teacher if you're not the best version of yourself. And that involves getting enough sleep. That involves having enough water throughout the day and drinking it involves nourishing yourself so you're having good food and you're taking your breaks, and that you're making sure that you are eating throughout the days or not just starving yourself because you just don't have time. I actually was listening to a podcast, it was a little while ago now, but I thought it was really interesting that this person was talking about, you know, these sorts of things, self care. And they said, one of the things that we often do is we feel the need to go to the toilet, and we don't go, and why do we do that to ourselves? We're like, oh, we'll just quickly do this next thing. We'll just quickly do this. I'll need to get this done. And for teachers, you know, we're also in the classroom, so we can't go unless it's a break time, and that's not actually being kind to ourselves or listening to our body. I feel like I've gone off on a side tangent there.

Brittany 9:40

No, you're good. Keep going.

Ashleigh 9:43

The next thing that you can do to really help with that work life balance is utilizing the team around you. You know, we think that we're silos as teachers. We think that we're just alone in our own classrooms. But really, schools are full of people. You've got your colleagues and teachers want to help teachers. So ask for help if you need it. You've got the administration, you've got maintenance, librarians, parents, students, teaching is a team sport, so get people involved to help you. Now, when I say students help you, think about your classroom. It's a shared space. They can help you clean up that space. Don't let it be left to you at the end of the day. Parents can help you by coming in and assisting. They can help you. I remember, I taught kindergarten for a couple of years, and we used to love doing crafts on a Friday, but we would cut out all these like intricate bits, and I would send them home to parents, and they would cut them for me so the kids could piece the craft together, and it wouldn't take us, you know, two hours. And that was great. And the parents, they loved it because they were contributing. So there's lots of different ways that you can utilize the team around you. Just remember, you're not there on your own, and you don't have to do it all on your own.

I do remember early, early on, being given the advice that, you know, make friends with the custodian, the maintenance, because they can be your best friend you know, if you need help with something. Also with the administrative staff in the office, because they could save you in a lot of situations, they're super helpful. So make friends with those people that are not just classroom teachers.

Yeah, because those other classroom teachers are busy like you are. The ladies in the office and and generally it's ladies in Australia, but I'm sure there's definitely office men out there too. But the secretaries, they are gold. They will help you if you have forgotten to copy a set of sheets, or you're having trouble with a student, or someone's sick, you know there's so many ways that they can help you. So I always say that you need to treat them like royalty.

Absolutely.

Yeah, sometimes they'll even come, like watch your class while you go watch somebody else and get some peer to peer contact and watch somebody else teach.

Yeah, that's a great idea, or even just to go to the bathroom if that's what you need to do.

Yes.

Okay, so next up is sort of along the same lines, and it's all about asking for help and being open to ask for help and ask questions if you're unsure, it's going to really save you a lot of time and energy than trying to work it all out on yourself. I remember in my first year of teaching, I had this mentor, and she asked me to give a parent a pacing guide so that the parent could give it to this child's tutor. And I said, Oh, okay, and this was before the days of like you could really search things really easily on the internet. Anyway, I went home and I cried because I didn't know what a pacing guide was. And my mom is a teacher too, and I said to her mom, I don't know what a pacing guide was, you know, she just said, I had to give it to this parent. I've got to give it tomorrow. How am I going to create this? And luckily, my mum was a teacher, and she said, Oh, darling, it's you know, it's just your scope and sequence. It's just the list of what you're doing each week in maths. And I said, Oh, I've got one of those. I know what that is. But if I hadn't have had my mum to ask, I would have just fumbled through that and felt so insecure, and I did know what it was. It was just different terminology that I wasn't familiar with at the time. So ask for help. And this is where going back to the very beginning of having that friend, having a colleague that you can go to, that you can trust and you can ask those questions, is so important because it's really going to save you so much time in trying to work everything out on your own.

Absolutely.

Next up is all about emails. I was very lucky when I first started teaching, we didn't have emails,

Right? Same, there wasn't any.

I feel like that makes me feel really old, but it wasn't that long ago, everyone. But with emails, it's a different world these days. So think about when you're checking those emails, and maybe don't check them after you've left work. I always recommend to take those notifications off your phone. It doesn't bring joy to get a notification from your admin or from a parent at eight or nine at night, and you feel like you have to reply, especially for new teachers, choose a time throughout the day, maybe two times throughout the day that you're checking emails, that you get back to emails, and the rest of the time, focus on your core work, which is teaching the children. And then finally, remember you have to do things that you love besides teaching. Don't lose yourself in becoming a teacher, and that's your only identification. Don't forget what made you happy outside of teaching. So do you like spending time with someone? Do you like doing something? For me, I love reading, so I really try and make sure that I've got a good book that I can dive into and read. Getting outdoors. Is that something you love to do. Everyone is different, but don't forget that you have a life outside of teaching, and that is okay. Does not make you a great teacher. If you're dedicating everything to the job.

I love this advice, Ashleigh. You're speaking like right to me, and I haven't been in the classroom in several years. So thank you.

Yeah, I think we say all these things for new teachers, but it's important for all of us. People have been teaching for many, many years, or people who are just starting out.

Well, I wanted to return to something Ellie mentioned a minute ago and ask you about it. What are your recommendations for new teachers, navigating parents and those parents that might be worried that maybe you're too young to teach their kids, or maybe you're too inexperienced to teach their kids, how do you handle that as a new teacher?

This is a tough one, especially if you're starting out and you are young. I think we've got to remember that parents it's their job to be the biggest and best and loudest advocate for their child. That's their aim, and that's what their aim should be. You know, I'm a parent. My job as a mum is to make sure that I'm advocating for my child. Your job as the teacher is to make sure that they are feel safe when they come to school, and that they are learning. So really, you need to join together and work as a team. And I think that if parents know that you're on their side, that you're trying your best, you love their child and you're on their side, you're in the right spot with them. That team approach is really, really important. The other thing that you need to remember is that if parents come in and they are upset about something. Just go back to that piece, that they're being the advocate for their child. They're not necessarily upset with you. They might be upset with the situation. There's a lot of high level emotions when it comes to being a parent. And parents are just, you know, they're fairly new at being parents too. Generally, if you're teaching primary school, they might have a six year old. They've been a parent for six years, which is just a couple of years more than you've been a teacher for. So everyone's trying to work it out. Everyone's trying to do their very, very best. And I think that if parents know that you're trying to do their very, very best, they know that that's what they're trying to do. You can't ask for anything more than that. What you can do, though, to keep your parents on track and on your side, is to check in with them when you feel like their child isn't being their usual self, if they're having troubles with friendships or they're having troubles with academics, it doesn't matter even I know I've talked to parents over the time when I've noticed a child's going to the toilet a little bit too much. And I said, Well, this is a bit unusual. They've gone to the toilet throughout the day, you know, four or five times. Maybe that's something to check out, and a parent is honestly, really appreciative of that. Just that check in. So don't let it get to the point where you're like, This is a disaster. I'm having a disaster time with this child, with their behavior. Check in with the parents as you're going along, so that you can work together as a team. And finally, don't let anything catch parents by surprise. So if you're writing a school report card and it's the middle of the year or the end of the year, you don't want your parent to look at that report card and be absolutely shocked in a bad way about what's on that report card. And if you think that they're going to be call a meeting well in advance, to prepare them.

Right. You don't want them to look at that and say what I've never heard this before. Where is this coming from, right? Do you have any quick tips for quick ways to check in with parents? Like, is there a type of system you might set up for regular check ins so that as a new teacher, you can kind of keep on top of that without feeling really overwhelmed by trying to check in with parents?

What I love to do is have a class list, and I will either send home an email or a very quick phone call home, and I choose two or three students per week to do that, so I'll just set an afternoon aside. I know that this is my parent check in day, and I'll just go down the class list and just check in with them. If it's a phone call, you just call up, hi, it's Mrs. Smith. I'm just checking in. I just want to let you know that Johnny did really well in his writing this week. I just wanted to have a really quick check in. It doesn't have to be something huge, something positive that you are telling the parent can go a huge way, too. And parents, they don't often hear that often, we just get in contact with them when something negative is happening or when we've got the academics that we're not really happy with. So have a class list, either email, and it just has to be you could even get chat GPT to help you set up some sort of template for you, or a quick email, a quick phone call home, and if you do that with a few students per week, you'll be able to check in with everyone over the course of the year a couple of times, which is great.

That's great because then if, if you do need to call and there's a problem, they don't see your name, or you know your name in in the email address or your phone number, and think, oh no. Now what's what's happening, because they've, they've gotten some good communication already, and so they're maybe a little bit more comfortable with answering the phone or or opening that email.

Just make sure that if you're, if you say you're going to do updates, that you do them. Because my daughter had a teacher, and I happened to take a course from him about new teacher stuff, and he said he had a system like what you explained Ashleigh, where he did parent updates every two to three, two to three students every week. And then my daughter had him as a teacher, and I never once over the course of the year got an update from him. Hmmm you're not practicing what you're preaching.

Yeah either keep your promises or don't make the promises at all.

Maybe don't even mention it, but just start doing it. Well. This is some awesome information already, but before we wrap up, do you have any other top time saving tips for new teachers? Any other tips like that?

Yes, I'm all for saving time as a teacher. So the first one is a bit of a mindset tip, but progress over perfection. Remember sometimes getting something done is better than it being perfect. Sometimes we just have to tick it off the list. So start with that mindset complete shift when it comes to doing some of that that work. Sometimes it does need to be really important and really great. Sometimes it doesn't. But some other time saving tips include, don't recreate the wheel. See if something is out there that has already been created, especially within your school, there's been a teacher that's taught your grade before, and you're not doing the wrong thing by saying to them, Do you have some lesson plans that you did for this? Do you have the resource that you used for this topic? You know, ask around. Teachers want to help each other, and I'm a really big advocate for this.

Like do you have something that worked very, very well for this? I mean, if somebody's been teaching for 10 years and they've got a tried and true lesson for a certain topic that they know is wonderful for students and really helps them, then why wouldn't you want to access that or find out about that?

Yeah, absolutely. I think teachers are really bad at creating more work for themselves and creating things from scratch when it's already been done before. We've been teaching the same curriculum. Maybe it's had modifications over this time, but it's generally the same thing, and we've been teaching it for years and years and years, and still we're being asked to recreate, rewrite the lesson plan that someone's already written. So ask for that help. Don't recreate the wheel

Absolutely.

And then on the other end, accept help when it's offered. If someone comes to you and says, I can help you with this, or would you like a hand with this, or do you have any copying you want me to do while I go down and do mine? Say yes and give it to them, accept that help. The next one is creating a good morning tab to save you time when you're opening your web pages every day. Now, what I mean by this is that you can save bookmarks on your Google Chrome, and you can save them in folders. So I will actually send you guys a link to our Instagram where I visually do this, and you can, like, see it through a reel, because it's kind of a little bit tricky to explain, but being able to open all of your web pages up in one go without having to scroll through and find everything is a real game changer and a massive time saver. I know that's something that I wish I did earlier in my career. And then finally, which is one of my life hacks that I use for everything, is the five minute rule. If you can do something within five minutes, five minutes or less, do it straight away. So we were talking about emails earlier. If you get an email and you can respond and action that email within five minutes or less, reply to that email and get it done, get it off your list. Because by doing those things straight away, in the five minutes or less, you're not actually putting it on your to do list. You're just moving it away and moving it on. And I think as teachers, we have to do lists that are a mile long and they never get any shorter. It doesn't matter if you've been teaching for 20 years, you're still going to have a really long to do list. So if anything comes your way that you can do in a short period of time, get it done. I worked with a grade partner that did this brilliantly, and she was never really overly stressed. And I think this is one of the reasons why - we were sitting in staff meetings and they'd say, Could everyone send a list of students that have allergies to the office? And, you know, people would be writing it down in their diary, and she would just get on and send it off straight away. And I think that there's something key to that, just getting it sort of don't even put it on the to do list.

Yeah because then it doesn't take up any of your mind space. It doesn't take up any of your paper space. And sometimes there are things that you're kind of like, Oh, I know I need to get that done, but you know it's going to take and you got you go and do it, and it does not take long. It might only take a few minutes, but you've kind of built up in your mind that this is another big thing you have to take care of, when it could really be a small, quick thing like that. I really like that idea.

Yeah. It's kind of like putting dirty plates in the dishwasher. You could put them beside the sink, and then it builds up, and then you've got to put it all in and, oh, such an effort. Or if you just put it in straight away, this is what I'm trying to tell my kids you guys, like, put it in straight away, and then it doesn't build up later.

Exactly.

Do you have any words of advice for new teachers?

Oh, I've got so many words of advice, but I'll try and keep it short. Firstly, you're going to get better every single year. The first year is pretty much boot camp. Hang in there. You can do it. You get better as you go. Going back to that to do list, it's never going to be done. So let's get comfortable with the fact that you're still going to have things on that to do list, the aim is not to get it all done. The aim is just to be comfortable, to be able to move on to the following day and go and do something that you enjoy after school, if you can. Also remember, not every student's gonna walk away from your lesson with this like, Yes, I got that. You're the best teacher in the world. Thank you so much. That is okay. You know, if 70% of the students get it, you know that you've nailed it. If they don't, you know that you need to go back and work on that a little bit more. That is the part of teaching that we need to remember, that it is a process. It's not a ticker box. It's not a we can achieve that and just move straight on so you're not a failure if your kids aren't getting it or don't understand. It's just a way to be creative and to shift that and to learn. Okay, let's see. Let's approach this in another direction. Remember that kindness goes a long way for your students. They are kids. Love them, get to know them. They're going to know want to know you as a person and let them know you as a person. You get to know them as kids. It's going to make your classroom management so much easier, even all the way up into middle school and high school. Getting to know those kids, who they are as human beings, and be kind to yourself. The days I know in America are getting shorter. The holidays are looming. Don't have unrealistic expectations of yourself. Be kind to you, because remember, the best version of you. If you're the best version of you, you are going to be the best version of a teacher as well.

Absolutely.

That's awesome. Thank you so much. Where can our listeners connect with you?

Oh, we would love for you to come over to Instagram. We're at Rainbow sky creations I spend a lot of time hanging out there. We're also on Tiktok. Or if you want to learn a little bit more about being a new teacher and how we can help with that, come on over to our website. That's www dot Rainbow sky creations.com.

Awesome. So for those new teachers out there, we've learned some awesome ideas about having a mentor or colleague friend that you can talk to, that resiliency and adaptability, building in that work life balance that I still need to work on, working with parents and making sure that you take in those words of advice from Ashleigh that she so wonderfully shared with us. We've heard great words of advice, and my favorite tip, progress over perfection, work on that one every day. So thank you so much for sharing all of this great wisdom with us, Ashleigh.

thank you so much for having me.

We hope you heard some tools you can add to your teaching toolbox. Remember to follow or subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and remember to head on over to Instagram or Tiktok and follow Ashleigh. We'll talk with you soon.

Bye.

Bye.