Some mistakes I made...

I made a lot of mistakes when I first started teaching. Here is some fundamental advice:

• You do NOT have to grade everything. Throw things out if you have to.
• Sometimes your lesson plans don't work out. It's ok. It happens.
• You can't do everything. Choose some areas to focus on for growth, but there will never be perfection with teaching.
• Be yourself - perhaps that sounds corny, but students sincerely appreciate you as you are. They also like honesty. "I messed up" is something they don't hear often from teachers.
• Choose one day of the week where you don't work! I do not do teaching stuff on Saturdays. I just don't.
• Ask others for help. You'd be surprised - students, teachers, parents, well most of them are great at helping out!
• Don't freak out if students don't get it right away. Don't. Learning is a process - it might take my any lessons to teach one concept.
• Avoid gossiping. Be professional at work.
• Sometimes you have to do things you don't enjoy to reach the kids. That's ok.
• Let your personality shine. What makes you as a teacher? My students know I'm obsessed with cleanliness and organization, and they even tease me about it. That's fine! Don't take yourself so seriously.
• You are not their friend (most of the time, anyway). You are their teacher. Have fun, but have discipline and systems in place.

Again, my first year of teaching was the worst and I made a lot of mistakes. I am thankful for those mistakes ultimately. I know they were needed. I'm still making them, I'm sure, but I never want to go back to making mistakes with the