45 Tips for Beginning Teachers and Experienced Ones Too!

By Karlie Hooper

A must-read guide for beginning teachers before they embark on their teaching journey or for experienced teachers needing some guidance or change in their teaching practice.

Karlie Hooper has been in education for over thirteen years and has always held a secret passion for helping new teachers. 45 Tips for Beginning Teachers takes you on Karlie's teaching journey, outlining different tips that she has gathered along the way, from fellow colleagues and her own teaching. This book covers behaviour management, pedagogical strategies, routines and organisational skills and self-care practices that make the transition into the world of teaching as smooth as possible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ocean Reeve Publishing
• Release date: May 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9781922956781

Book preview

Tip 1:

How to Prepare for Your First Teaching Appointment

After you have spoken to the human resources department and completed all that you need for them, the first step is to contact your new principal. Your HR contact should be able to provide you with your new principal’s email; if not, go on to the school website and use the generic principal email address that is at the bottom of the school’s website. Send an email to the principal introducing yourself and letting them know how excited you are for this opportunity, and find out the following information:

•What day and date do the teaching staff return in the new year?

•When can you access your classroom?

•When can you access your school laptop and the school intranet system?

•What furniture will you have in your classroom?

After you have spoken to your new principal, you will need to contact your state’s teacher registration board for your provisional registration. This may be a lengthy process, so contact them as soon as you receive your teaching appointment. If approved, you will be given provisional registration for two years with the expectation that you will complete a teacher portfolio over your first year. This portfolio involves you demonstrating how you have met each of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers with evidence from your first or second semester of teaching. Discuss this with your new principal, as the school may have a set process for completing this portfolio.

You will also need to contact the relevant teacher’s union. Joining most unions are optional. I recommend contacting them and having a chat about your options and when your fees are due if you do want to go ahead and join.

Once you have spoken with your new principal, organised provisional registration and had a chat with your chosen union, make sure you take a break until the week before you are due to officially start for the year. Laminating, gathering resources, and creating a basic timetable are some preparatory activities that you can do; however, don’t do any curriculum planning, and be aware that many changes occur within the first couple of weeks of the school year, for example, the students in your class and which curriculum units you are teaching in Term 1. Your first year of teaching is going to be extremely fun but also very exhausting. Make sure you rest when you can so you start the year fresh.

Tip 2:

What to Do on the First Day and First Week of School

Before the First Day

Once you have access to your classroom, take the time to look around and visualise teaching in the space. Visualise your routines outlined at the start of the book. Where do you want your students to line up? Is there a set space outlined by the school, or is it up to you to decide? Where will you store the students’ extra books and equipment that they’ll bring? Do you want them to leave everything in their bag until it’s needed, or can they bring everything inside the classroom and fit it in their tidy tray and/or around their desk? These questions are extremely important, as you want to be prepared for the first day when most of your students will bring with them their books and equipment. Buy some A4 clip-seal bags from your local supermarket for each student to store their extra writing equipment in.

On the first day, check what equipment they already have in their pencil case and ensure they have the items that you would like them to have. You don’t want them to get their scissors out for an activity to find that all their scissors are in their A4 clip-seal bag in the cupboard. If you can, send an email or a letter to parents informing them of the first-day procedures, including where their child is to store all their books and equipment and what they need to do when they enter your classroom. I never did this, but looking back, I wish I did!

Once you have visualised your routines, decorate your classroom! A colourful classroom is always inviting and welcoming. Try to keep posters and information on walls to a minimum. If you have corkboards on the wall, go to Spotlight® and buy some colourful fabric to pin to the boards, but don’t put anything on them! Wait until you start teaching to decorate and cover the walls. Too much, too soon can be overstimulating for some of our students. Plus, decorating the walls with students’ work and posters that you’ve created collaboratively can give the students a sense of ownership of the room, which is extremely important.

Make sure you talk to your colleagues about the eating and play routines of the school. This is not something you want to be asking on the first day. You will have enough to stress about! Ask about where your students will be eating, how long they have, and where their play area is located. Also, ask about playground duty and how long each duty will be. Normally, most schools will go through this information on pupil-free days; however, you need to be aware of it in case they don’t. It’s also beneficial to ask, before the school year begins, about how non-contact is covered, library routines and expectations, assembly days, and staff meeting days.

Don’t go overboard in planning for the first day or the first week. Just remember, all you really need to focus on for the first day and week is routine, routine, routine! You won’t get anywhere near the amount of work completed on the first day and in the first week that you think you would. Focus on getting your routines taught, practised, and set. Worry about teaching the curriculum in the third week of school. In preparation for the first day, have a think about an independent activity you can place on each desk in the morning before students arrive. This activity is something they can do quietly after they have unpacked their belongings and whilst you are running around settling other students, talking to parents, or sorting equipment. I had an A4 Australian animal colouring-in book that I would photocopy a few colouring-in pages in A5 size and leave one on each desk. Have a piece of butcher’s paper with the title Classroom Expectations ready to go, and a get-to-know-you activity would also be valuable. This activity can be a verbal activity as well. Listening activities are great for the first week, too. These may help students in learning to listen to you and what you expect of them.

The First Day—Morning Session

1.Take some deep breaths to calm your nerves! Feeling nervous is completely normal. Many experienced teachers feel nervous on the first day of the school year, too.

2.Write on the board the steps that students need to follow once they have arrived in the morning. These could include:

a)Put your books and equipment underneath your desk.

b)Take out your colouring pencils and colour the drawing on your desk.

3.Once all students have arrived, mark your roll, outlining your expectations around roll-marking. If students don’t meet your roll-marking expectations, do it again until they do.

4.If you have a parent who is hanging around, tell the student to wave goodbye to their mum or dad and that they’ll see them this afternoon at their pick-up location. Tell the parent that they can call the school, later in the day, to check in to see how their child is going.

5.Collaboratively develop Classroom Expectations. See Tip 8

6.Explain the class reward system and, if possible, start following it.

7.Take your class on a walk to their eating and play areas.

Middle Session

If you can start the middle session with your after-break routine, then please do it. The sooner you get this routine cemented into your daily routines, the better. If it is too much to organise for this first day, then don’t worry. Just try to implement it the next day. Remember that your chosen after-break routine doesn’t have to be the one you use for the rest of the year. The focus of it now is to get your students into the routine of doing a short activity after breaktime.

Devote the middle session to organising students’ books and equipment. Which books need to go into their tidy tray, and which ones are spare? Are you going to use a book organisation system for each Learning Area, such as yellow sticker dots for English, or just write the word English in the top right corner of the book? What equipment do they need in their pencil case, and which can be stored in their A4 clip-seal bag? This activity can be very manic, noisy, and overwhelming, especially for beginning teachers. To create calm and structure in this activity, make sure you are very explicit with each step, and take your time. Stop the class frequently, and practise getting their attention routine. Make sure you have a copy of the booklist for the year level that you are teaching, so you know what they should have. Don’t rush it, as it will take you most of the middle session to complete. Continue these steps until all books are sorted. Instruct students to put their spare