Tips for working with a brand new teacher

[Anonymous]

Just got my 1st grader's classroom assignment. His teacher, who has about 7 years of experience, is on maternity leave until November. His substitute teacher just finished undergrad in June. Brand new, eek!

The school district this year eliminated funding for any accelerated/gifted programming, and says the classroom teachers will provide this support.

Any suggestions for how to engage this likely 22 year old brand new teacher? Should I assume she'll be overwhelmed and back off? Or should I encourage her to challenge my kiddo? My child adores school, loves math, and is quickly becoming a very fluent reader. I want it continue, and I also want to hold the school to its promise - that they will support advanced learners.

I'm honestly a bit crushed. My older child didn't have great experience at this school. And then this child won the kindergarten lottery - his teacher was amazing. She also has nearly 30 years of experience, and was able to tell me things about my child that could only come with experience and perspective. I have two kids - it's meaningful to have the perspective of someone who's worked with 100s.

TIA!

[Anonymous]

You should stop thinking you need to do anything but read to your kid and send them fed, well-rested and dressed appropriately for the weather.

[Anonymous]

You’re lucky your kid will have a trained teacher. In many similar situations, the class would be staffed by a sub. Back off. If you see the teacher is very capable maybe then you can talk about your kid’s needs.

[Anonymous]

My child has had two brand new teachers, and they have been fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should stop thinking you need to do anything but read to your kid and send them fed, well-rested and dressed appropriately for the weather.

+1

And send a kind, supportive email to the teacher in September. And in October too if it feels genuine.

[Anonymous]

One of the best teachers either of my children has ever had was straight out of undergrad. We're still in touch with her.

[Anonymous]

I think it might be helpful to step forward and volunteer to help with tasks that parents usually help with. For example,if your school has a room parent, you might send an email to the teacher saying that you'd be willing to be the room parent if nobody else has claimed that position yet. And then, just do whatever the room parent normally does; don't ask for special treatment for your child. Your aim should be to take a few mundane items off her plate to help her settle in.

Remember, it's only a couple of months.

[Anonymous]

So you're already assuming this teacher will be bad. What is wrong with you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child has had two brand new teachers, and they have been fantastic.

I'm in another state, but my school had a new kindergarten teacher long term sub who was really good.

I will be frank and say that when I struggled in school, my mom often suggested to the teacher how to fix it. For example, my spelling marks were low, so my mom sent in a pack of stickers so that if I scored well then I could discreetly be slipped a sticker prize at the beginning of recess. My mom was a trained but not practicing teacher, so her suggestions were reasonable and not burdensome.

1st grade is pretty easy to figure out how to supplement.

-phonics workbooks
-appropriate free reading books (lots!)
-counting by 5s, etc. drills
-using money/coins
-Adding numbers that sum to more than 10
-If very advanced, work on multiplication and division facts and theory of these

It's easy to buy drill materials for these topics. Ask your kid to tell you if they "do it differently" at school. Acknowledge that there are multiple methods for learning. Just make sure your child masters one.

If your kid is bored in school, see if you can get permission for extra free reading.

[Anonymous]

I thought this was going to be a post about a current teacher working with a brand new teacher.

OP- you aren’t going to be working with her. You do your job and let her boss worry about her. Her boss is probably super pumped that he/she hired an actual trained teacher. They’re becoming unicorns these days.

[Anonymous]

My child had a brand new teacher for 1st and she was great. If your school has it at all together, they’ll give the new teacher an “easy” class and leave any serious behavior cases to the more experienced teachers. This is a small point but I noticed my DS’s brand new 25 year old recent grad teacher was very responsive to email and very communicative. That is something we didn’t get with older teachers, who will be juggling a partner’s career, kids, etc. The younger teacher will probably have more free time and be easier to get a hold of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child has had two brand new teachers, and they have been fantastic.

I'm in another state, but my school had a new kindergarten teacher long term sub who was really good.

I will be frank and say that when I struggled in school, my mom often suggested to the teacher how to fix it. For example, my spelling marks were low, so my mom sent in a pack of stickers so that if I scored well then I could discreetly be slipped a sticker prize at the beginning of recess. My mom was a trained but not practicing teacher, so her suggestions were reasonable and not burdensome.

1st grade is pretty easy to figure out how to supplement.

-phonics workbooks
-appropriate free reading books (lots!)
-counting by 5s, etc. drills
-using money/coins
-Adding numbers that sum to more than 10
-If very advanced, work on multiplication and division facts and theory of these

It's easy to buy drill materials for these topics. Ask your kid to tell you if they "do it differently" at school. Acknowledge that there are multiple methods for learning. Just make sure your child masters one.

If your kid is bored in school, see if you can get permission for extra free reading.

This is very helpful, thank you. DS is independently working through 2nd grade math online on Beast Academy and loves it (best $100 I've ever spent!). And tons of library books. We've just started money/coins and I will spend more time with him on that. And we could do analogue clocks, too.

I'm partially sad that the school got rid of the pull out for advanced kids. We were all looking forward to DS having the same teacher as my oldest. The kids would have in depth conversations about texts they were reading. Sure, I can do that with him -- but there's something cool about having that experience with your peers.

I wish I could be a room parent. My job doesn't afford me the flexibility. It's a big commitment in my district and kudos to the amazing parents who do it.

With my oldest, I rarely asked the school or teachers for anything, and then only later learned that other parents had requested things, like extra worksheets and extra supports, that I just assumed would be offered/provided. I didn't want to be an annoying parent. I don't think my oldest benefitted from it. So I planned on being different with DS2.

I will definitely give the long-term substitute the benefit of the doubt and engage her as a professional, as I would any teacher. I appreciate the suggestions on how best to approach her. I certainly want her to succeed.

[Anonymous]

Do not start the test by telling her how smart your child is!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child had a brand new teacher for 1st and she was great. If your school has it at all together, they’ll give the new teacher an “easy” class and leave any serious behavior cases to the more experienced teachers. This is a small point but I noticed my DS’s brand new 25 year old recent grad teacher was very responsive to email and very communicative. That is something we didn’t get with older teachers, who will be juggling a partner’s career, kids, etc. The younger teacher will probably have more free time and be easier to get a hold of.

Or not. Younger people tend to value work life balance a lot more than their parents. My DH is always complaining about the 20 something’s he works with.

[Anonymous]

One of my son's two best teachers from K-5 was a first year teacher OP.

As an ex public school teacher and a parent, my advice is for you to come to grips with the fact that there's very little about your child's 9am-3pm life that you can control. You're just along for the ride.