Welcome to the Teachers Need Teachers podcast, where we help new and beginning teachers
navigate through those crazy first years of teaching so you can maintain your sanity and
personal life. Here's your host, him Lapree. Welcome to the Teachers Need
Teachers podcast, the podcast for teachers who don't want to just survive teaching.
But actually, when I started teaching, I was a horrible teacher. In
fact, I don't even know how I was able to keep my job continuously
and never get laid off or I was never let go. I mean sometimes
I would come to school without a plan at all and I would just wing
it. And since I was in my twenties when I started my early twenties,
I thought I was invincible. And sometimes I would come to school with
barely any sleep and sometimes with a hangover. Yeah, I learned that lesson
really fast. My saving grace was the fact that I knew that I was
going to fail a lot, but at the same time I was going to
grow a lot. This despite the fact that I'm just kind of a perfectionist.
But I also knew that the only way that I was going to get
better is if I tried and tried again. And fell and fell again.
I basically approached teaching like a scientist, where I would make a hypothesis about
how something was going to go, and then I went ahead and taught the
class, or you can call that the experiment, and then I evaluated the
results afterwards, and then from those evaluations, then I decided what I was
going to do next and how I was going to improve. In today's episode,
I'm going to be discussing teacher daily struggles that I have had to deal
with since I started teaching, and that I actually really grew from and are
grateful for. And I know that all of you have struggled with these at
some point in teaching, and if you're just a brand new teacher going into
teaching, you need to be prepared for these because they are going to creep
up, probably from day one. And so I'm going to tell you how
I survived these, how I overcame them, and how they've actually made me
a better teacher. So the first teacher daily struggle that I've had to deal
with over the years is being unprepared. Now, this, as I mentioned
in the introduction, means coming in without a lesson or have you ever had
a lesson planned, but you didn't have enough plans, so there was like
say, fifteen twenty thirty minutes still left in the class and you had nothing
else to do. Or maybe on the flip side, a lesson took longer
than you had anticipated and so you didn't get through everything that you needed to
do, so maybe you either just cut it short and didn't teach the rest
of the stuff, which could be cut of bad sometimes, or it had
to bleed in into the next class's lesson. I've had that happened to me
many times too. I can tell you were sure that there have been many
many times over the past twenty two years when I would forget on the weekend
to plan out what I was going to do for the following week. At
that point, I wasn't planning my lessons, you know, two or three
weeks in advance. I was going sometimes day by day, week by week,
and I would just have to try to scramble and put something together,
and it was really really stressful for me, and I would just have to
really figure out what I was going to do on the fly. So that's
actually the benefit of having been a bad planner in the past and not being
prepared as the fact that I learned how to pivot really quickly. I learned
how to flex that muscle where you have to figure out what you're going to
do in a matter of seconds before your class falls apart. Because your class
knows when you don't have enough prepared and they know when you don't know what
you're going to do next. They understand when there's a lull in the lesson,
and it doesn't really take much even if you have like the best of
classes, it doesn't take much before if one person starts to talk to another
and then there's a lot of little mini conversations and the whole class just loses
it. But it took failing in this area multiple times to be able to
just pivot in the lesson right away, or if something was thrown at me
that I had to teach right away, or let's say that there was a
drill that I wasn't prepared for. I was able to think on the fly
and know exactly what to do next and not lose my class. And I'm
sure you've seen this with other teachers, where they just always seem cool and
collected no matter what is happening around them. The fire alarm goes off or
a student just seems to go crazy. They just seem to know what to
do next, even though it's unexpected. How you learn to do that is
by feeling as being prepared. So this leads me to my next teacher struggle,
which is time management. So before I used to spend so much time
looking for lessons or just going through every single step and a lesson and taking
notes. And then also when I would grade, I would spend so much
time writing feedback, just really detailed feedback that students weren't even reading. Or
I'd write these long emails to apply to parents or to apply to my colleagues
or administration. I just didn't have a good sense of how much time I
should spend on each task. And you might be guilty of this because you
feel like you had to do everything at two hundred percent. For some teachers,
it feels like this write of passage or it's just part of our job
to spend hours and hours grading and planning and replying to emails and things like
that. But actually that's not necessarily the nor is it healthy. A lot
of the problem that I had, especially in my earlier years of teaching,
was that I didn't have a system. I would show up to school and
just go through my day, and when my prep would come, I would
just kind of sit there and just look around, and the first thing that
I saw, that's what I would start working on. But I didn't have
a plan so that I knew what to do during my planning time, if
that makes sense. I just sort of use the time and filled it with
whatever came to my mind first. But the problem with that is that you
were then leaving yourself open to running out of time and then spending your personal
time on school related things, and we really want to minimize that as much
as possible. So the benefit of me going through so many years of wasting
time and so many years of spending countless hours outside of school doing school related
work is that I finally figured out some systems and now I barely take home
any work and I pretty much stew the majority of my school related stuff while
I'm in school during school hours. And this is especially important if you have
a teaching assignment where you don't have a planning period, you might have to
then spend some of your outside time working on school related stuff so that you
don't fall behind. But if you're going to give up an hour of your
personal time, you want to make sure that you maximize that. So trying
out news systems will really help you figure out what's going to work for you
so that you can make the most of the time that you have. The
next teacher daily struggle that I've had to deal with for quite some time is
planning and teaching a bad lesson. So this is different from the first struggle
where I'm unprepared, because this one is where I wrote a bad lesson,
or while delivering a lesson it didn't go so well. Of course, this
has happened many, many times, especially when I made that transition from teaching
band to teaching English, because breaking down a lesson is very different when you're
trying to do reading and writing and grammar and all that compared to teaching a
student how to play an instrument. So it was really hard for me in
the beginning. My lessons are really boring. I followed exactly what the textbook
told me to do, but the kids could tell that I didn't know what
I was doing, and so the way that I delivered my lesson was pretty
robotic. Also, sometimes you write a lesson or create materials for the students
that don't actually help them learn, And as you're going through it with them
and kids aren't getting it, you get really frustrated because you're like, why
aren't they understanding this? And then later on you come to find out after
some reflection, it's because the worksheet was bad. Orn there were times when
I just didn't read the room and I couldn't tell that kids weren't getting it,
and so then I would get frustrated when it was time for them to
answer out and I hadn't explained the concept well enough to them in order for
them to really be able to work with the concept or to be able to
discuss it with each other, and definitely not enough for them to answer out
in class. So it took me failing in that way multiple times for me
to realize that you do have to check in with the students. You do
have to make sure that they're paying attention. Sometimes I talk too much and
they're getting really bored and so much information has just gone over their head because
I keep yacking on and on. So then I was able to adjust how
I teach so that that doesn't happen anymore. And the students stay a lot
more engaged. But if I hadn't failed by boring the kids or creating bad
materials and bad lessons, I never would have gotten better as a teacher.
And this ties in with my next teacher daily struggle, which is bad classroom
management. I don't know anyone who has had perfect classroom management from the get
go, or even perfect classroom management at all. We all at some point
struggle with classroom management in terms of keeping our kids engaged, keeping them on
task, and keeping them from going crazy in class. This past year has
definitely been a struggle for so many teachers. But I can tell you,
guys that I've gone through the gamut of different ways that I've handled classroom management,
and in the beginning, a lot of them didn't work. When I
started out teaching, I wanted to be the fun teacher because I wanted to
be accepted and liked by my students. So I was little more loose in
terms of my rules and implementing my rules, and I was a little too
nice to them because I thought that if they liked me, then they would
listen to me. I came to find out that this actually doesn't work in
the long run. Sure in the beginning, if students like you, then
they were willing to listen to you. But when they start to get out
of hand and you really have to lay down the law because they're being inappropriate
or they're not focusing and you can't get through the lesson. Now they just
look at you like what's wrong with her? And then they don't want to
listen and they resent you. And then I went to the other extreme where
I was too strict with them and very unbending and inflexible, and students just
didn't like me in general. Now for that, I didn't like that feeling
either, because they like to interact with the kids, and I also know
that when they don't like me, there's always going to be some kid who
wants to rebel and not listen to me just for the sake of the fact
that he or she doesn't like me. Also, over the years, I
learned things like, you shouldn't turn your back to the class for very long
because that's when all the shenanigans happen. And he also has to just be
able to read the room like I was talking about in terms of delivering a
lesson. So these are failures that I've had over the years that I'm actually
really really grateful for because it's made it so that I can keep my class
in control but really really engaged and we have a good time together. But
when it's time to get down to work, they are more than willing to
work. Or comes a point with time after failing and observing your class that
you're going to be able to predict student behaviors before they even happen, and
you can do things to avoid anything from even starting up at all. So,
for example, if you have one student who wants to throw something away
and it's across the room, you could be proactive by the trash can to
them. That way, they don't have to go and talk to their friends
on the way they are. Things like that the next teacher daily struggle dealing
with parents. Now I'm going to make a whole other video about how to
deal with parents and how to best be proactive with them as well. But
this is something that also took some time, and actually it didn't really hit
me how to do this very well until I myself became a parent. In
the beginning, when you get emails from parents that are upset about something that
you said or that you did or something that's happening in class, or complaining
about a student's grade. We can get defensive because we feel like we're being
personally attacked. But I found after a while that they're not exactly attacking me
as much as they're trying to help out their students. So, you know,
if they feel like their student is being picked on by you, then
what they're trying to do is defend their student. They're trying to stand up
for their child. And yes, and may feel like it's an attack on
you, but what they really want is for their students to not be picked
on anymore. Same thing. Let's say that they're being bullied in class and
the parent feels like you're not doing anything about it. What they really want
is for their child to not be bullied. So after a while of reading
these emails or having discussions with parents, I finally realize that I had to
look at the situation from their eyes. Now, I can't control what kind
of parent they are, how much they enforce consequences or anything like that at
home. The only thing that I control is how I react to the parents.
And I found that the less reactive and defensive that I am, then
the better the situation ends up. I also learned that starting out the year
really warm and communicating with the parents as much as possible makes it so that
parents aren't in the dark and they don't feel caught off guard. Granted,
not all parents will read the emails or the message that you send out,
but at least you can say that you did communicate with them, and so
when they come back to you or your principles saying I didn't know about this,
who can tell them exactly when you inform them about it, And it's
really on them if they didn't get the message. But I've had my share
of angry parents sending emails or messages, parent conferences, and you know,
honestly, I know that they just want to work things out and they just
want to be heard. But I personally don't want to even have to bother
with them. I don't want to be hassled. So I do everything in
my power to just not have angry parents, something that I just learned along
the way. Similarly, I've had my share of bad administrators and not so
great colleagues, and I'm sure that you're already in the situation. It would
be great if all of the administrators out there, and all of our colleagues
were just amazing positive teachers who are just looking out for the kids and not
for their own interest would just be so harmonious. But we know that that's
not really how it works. I mean, a school runs just like it
does any other business in terms of having people who are at the top and
the rest of us who aren't, and we just have to deal with a
lot of weird personalities. Have you seen the office Just because we're in a
school, that doesn't mean that office politics doesn't happen in our schools. And
so learning how to navigate that has been something that I've had to really work
on because I tend to be a little more meek, and I tend to
be someone who just kind of like lets other people get away with things,
and after a while I learned that I was resenting them, and it was
affecting how I showed up in school as a leader and how I showed up
for my students as well. So one thing that I've learned is how to
be diplomatic and really work with my administrator, whether or not I like them.
In fact, there's been quite a few administrators that I didn't like but
all of them like me. Does that mean I kiss their butt? No?
But I do want to have a working relationship with them. I do
want them to think favorably of me, because that way, when I need
something that is going to benefit my students or benefit my department, or benefit
the school, they are more willing to listen to me. If you constantly
attack or confront or do anything negative like that with your administrator, whether it's
the principle or assistant principle, they are going to be on the defensive and
they're less likely to want to work with you, even though it's something that
could benefit lots of people. I've learned, not necessarily through my own experience,
but from observing some of my colleagues, that the more confrontationally you are
with administration, the less you can actually accomplish or get away with at school.
And finally, the teacher daily struggle that I actually struggle with a little
less now is stress. The biggest lesson that I've learned in terms of stress
is that you just want to focus on the things that you can control and
affect. So I've spent all kinds of time worrying about all kinds of things.
My students and their home life. Colleagues who are being great teachers are
not so great teachers, or administrators who I feel like are being vindictive or
aren't running this show right. I mean, there's so many things that could
stress you out at school, test scores, things like that. But I
can only focus and control the things that are within my sphere, So that's
what I worry about. I only worry about the things that I can personally
affect and control. So if a parent doesn't like me through maybe no fault
of my own, or even if it is something that I did, I
can't change that. I can't worry about that. I can just try to
be as diplomatic as I can. But at the end of the day,
if they don't like me, they don't like me. Same thing with a
student. If a student doesn't like me, that's fine. I'm not going
to be hurt about it just because they don't like me. But I am
going to just focus on the students who do like me. And when that
student that doesn't like me, if they don't interact in a positive way with
me, I'm not going to treat them any differently because they're just a kid,
right, I'm not going to sit there and take it personally. Now,
there have been colleagues throughout the years that I haven't appreciated. And what
do I do when I see them? Do I scal in their face?
Do I get all up in their face about something that they said or did?
No, I'm pleasant with them. It's not that I'm being too faced.
Is that I don't see a point in being unpleasant with them. What
is that going to accomplish. If I'm trying to change them or try to
change the way they act or think, then I shouldn't hold my breath because
you can't change people, but I can change myself. I can control how
I react to them. And that has just made school a lot lot less
stressful for me. If students don't do so well on an assessment and my
administrator comes and talks to me about it because they should have done better,
I'm not going to get upset at the students. I'm not going to get
upset at my administrator. I'm just going to try to do better next time.
And that's all that I can do. And if the administrator doesn't appreciate
that or doesn't like it, then I can go or I can suck it
up and stay. The one thing though, that I do sometimes get sucked
up into is just drama. I don't know why I hear about drama or
I get sucked up into drama. I actually mentioned that in a video about
how things have been really hard for me lately, because sometimes I do get
sucked up into that a politics at school, and that's the kind of stuff
that stresses me out. And I really should just be sitting back and relaxing
and not worrying about it because a lot of time is the things that cause
the drama have nothing to do with me, So why am I getting stressed
out? So I'm sure that you're struggling with some of these and you're maybe
you're wondering, is there something wrong with me? Is it going to get
better? There's nothing wrong with you. We all go through this and we
all have to learn the hard way how to get through it. But just
know that as long as you're learning from it and you're getting better and you're
growing, things are going to get easier and you're going to become an amazing
teacher. You just have to believe that there's a reason why this is happening
for you or happening to you, and then you just got to move forward
and do better. So how many of these have you struggled with just this
past week. I love to hear about that, because I can tell you
right now that I still struggle with some of them. Most of them I
figured out, but from time to time I still have to deal with things
like classroom bad, classroom management because I dropped the ball or I wasn't paying
attention, or time management. Sometimes I just I'm not using my time to
the best of my abilities. So you know, these are things that you
have to constantly work on over and over again, but with time it gets
better. Thanks for hanging out with me today, you guys, and I
will see you next week. Thanks for listening to The Teachers Need Teachers podcast.
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