Reply to Am I Making a Mistake?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’ve been teaching for 15 years. The last 10 have been in 6th grade at a large and diverse public middle school in Northern Virginia. I don’t think having a degree in education is a necessity (my ed courses were pretty useless), but you do need thick skin, clear boundaries, excellent communication, good organization, strong work ethic, and perseverance. It’s a tough job, particularly the first couple years. And even tougher for teachers in tested subjects like language arts; lots of pressure to get good SOL scores. Expect to work most evenings and weekends those first couple years. But if you stick it out, it eventually gets easier and it can be rewarding. Plus, you get the summers.

Seek out mentors. Borrow or purchase lessons and materials from others that first year; you can reinvent the wheel later. Enforce rules consistently. Contact home for both bad and good events. Figure out what admin actually cares about and focus on that thing. Post everything online; it’s a huge pain but keeps students and parents happy and keeps admin off your back. Try to plan and teach with your co-teacher, but accept that you will probably do more work than them; it’s rarely an equal relationship. And save every positive note and email that you get; they are good to read on tough days.

Good luck.[/quote]

I am saving this for future reflection and reference. TY for this very valuable advice. [/quote]

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