Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will be my 19th year of teaching. The past two years I've worked closely with two first year teachers. They are eager with enthusiasm and wonderful. We have learned a lot from each other. I love their fresh ideas and willingness to try new things, because everything is new. They enjoy my mentorship and advice when things get hard. Every teacher has his/her strengths. Give the new teacher a chance.

Great advice. We had a first year teacher and LOVED her--so much so that we were thrilled when our second child got her two years later. One of our kids has a second-year teacher this year, and I get a similar vibe from her: enthusiastic, energetic, invested, fun.

(I'd probably be more worried about a first-year teacher in HS; it feels like a different type of subject mastery and confidence is required to command a classroom of teenagers.)

I'm the teacher that wrote this. We are high school teachers.

I've been teaching for 11 years. I would be happy to have a first-year teacher for my elementary aged child for the reasons mentioned in previous posts: enthusiasm, no burnout, and energy. (high school is a different story)

Also, a teacher may not be the right fit for a certain child, but he or she will be able to reach another child. There can't be one perfect teacher for every child. People learn differently.

My fifth grade teacher was right out of college. We were his first class other than student teaching. And I still remember that year very fondly. He was enthusiastic and energetic and great.

And dont forget, new young teachers really rock classroom technology.

My DD's K teacher was new and I was nervous. She was AWESOME. Fast forward 2 years, the word is out and she is THE K teacher everyone wants.

Anonymous wrote:This will be my 19th year of teaching. The past two years I've worked closely with two first year teachers. They are eager with enthusiasm and wonderful. We have learned a lot from each other. I love their fresh ideas and willingness to try new things, because everything is new. They enjoy my mentorship and advice when things get hard. Every teacher has his/her strengths. Give the new teacher a chance.

Great advice. We had a first year teacher and LOVED her--so much so that we were thrilled when our second child got her two years later. One of our kids has a second-year teacher this year, and I get a similar vibe from her: enthusiastic, energetic, invested, fun.

(I'd probably be more worried about a first-year teacher in HS; it feels like a different type of subject mastery and confidence is required to command a classroom of teenagers.)

This will be my 19th year of teaching. The past two years I've worked closely with two first year teachers. They are eager with enthusiasm and wonderful. We have learned a lot from each other. I love their fresh ideas and willingness to try new things, because everything is new. They enjoy my mentorship and advice when things get hard. Every teacher has his/her strengths. Give the new teacher a chance.

DD had a new in 4th. I was pretty sure it was because our principal knew my DH had just become a teacher after years in another profession, and we were likely not to complain about having a new teacher. From watching my husband, he never worked so hard as a lawyer as he did trying to give his best to his students. We figured our young, bright new 2nd grade teacher would do the same, and she did. My only issue was that she wasn't so great at communicating with parents, but that turned out to be a 4th grade thing, not a new teacher thing. Also, I think one of the other teachers might have been better suited for seeing and addressing my daughter's organizational issues, but we'll never know. Her teacher did figure out how to manage my daughter's distractibility even without us discussing it with her.

Anonymous wrote:We've been so lucky with two great teachers for k and first. First grade teacher was just a few years out and I thought she was great. But brand new? It feels like the blind leading the blind...tell me I'm unfairly biased and you've had a great experience with a brand new, first time teacher. She seemed nervous to meet my son.

Get a life.

We've had a good experience with a new teacher, but as a seasoned teacher pointed out there can be bumps. The biggest one for us was classroom management. It sounded chaotic. Also the teacher was busy putting out fires-telling kids to stop this or that, writing frowns on the home-school page, etc. There's an easy solution. You tell the teacher what works for your child. Even though it's a well researched fact that you need to give more praise than corrective feedback, I find it is more successful to say this works for my kid, rather than try to tell the teacher how to run her/his class.

Also, sometimes this teacher lost the forest from the trees and would waste time on minutia-with horrid worksheets.

On the other hand she has genuine enthusiasm and she was an incredibly hard worker. She checked over all work and was truly commited to meeting each child's needs. She was open to feedback, because when you start, no "god complex" has set in.

There are many good seasoned teachers, but keep in mind there are plenty of burnt out teachers and those who think they know everything. We have had more issues with veteran teachers who somehow keep their job despite complaints year after year. They know everything and sometimes you have to go up the ladder because the person is so set in her or his ways.

DS's third grade teacher was a new grad, career changer with 3 boys at home. Awesome combo - she had enthusiasm, organization, and first hand knowledge of how active some boys can be & how to engage kids like that. Amazing - best teacher ever!

I would love to have a new teacher! The worst are the pregnant ones and the 5-7yr itch ones.

If she is a young first year teacher with no kids, chances are she will have lots of energy. You need it for this job. I am a teacher and came in today for a few hours to get my room set up and the new teacher next door's classroom is already ready. It looks great! I haven't met her yet but just looking at how she set up the room, she knows a few things already. Learning on the job as a teacher is exhausting so lots of energy is required.

My daughter had the same brand new teacher for fourth and fifth grades. Dd is now in seventh and still counts that teacher as her favorite.