How to Be Successful in Your First Year of Teaching Elementary School Everything You Need to Know That They Don't Teach You in School

The early years of any student s life, those first elementary school years, can be incredibly overwhelming and stressful, resulting in a slew of emotional, behavioral, and study problems that they rely on their teacher to help overcome. As a first year elementary school teacher, your role is more than just knowledgeable teacher; it is to become a mentor, a friend, and an older figure for young children to look up to. This can be overwhelming, and along with all of the other issues that face first year teachers, it can result in high turnover rates and problematic issues. This thorough, well research book has everything first-year teachers in elementary school need to learn how to deal with including supplies, planning, parents, overcrowded classrooms, the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, piles of paperwork, money shortages due to budget cuts, negativity from students and other staff members, at-risk students, students who are capable but choose not to work, and special needs students. You will learn how to ask principals and administrators for help, how to memorize names quickly, how to create seating charts, how to write lesson plans, how to follow a daily routine, how to help struggling readers, how to gain respect, how to get a mentor, how to develop and implement a grading system, how to discipline students, how to create assessments, how to find free things for teachers, and how to build your confidence. And of course, as a first year teacher to students learning how to interact with the world, you will learn how to converse with them on a mature level and help them overcome stresses and problems that they may face in life at school and at home. Also, you will read about where to go for support, the reality of spending your own money on classroom supplies, mandated tests, technology solutions, and behavior management skills. We spent countless hours interviewing second year teachers, as well as veteran teachers, and have provided you with their proven techniques and strategies for surviving your first year as a teacher. This book will provide everything you need to effectively start teaching students that need a mentor, a teacher, and a friend at a young age and prepare you for your second year as you start becoming the inspiring force you always dreamed of being.

With insightful encouragement from her sixth-grade teacher, Tena Green started writing at age 11. In 2000, she took a journalist position for a local newspaper, The Bellevue Gazette, where she gained a priceless education from her editor and co-workers. While working for The Gazette, she wrote more than 300 articles and started doing freelance work. Less than two years after starting as a journalist, she published her first novel, The Catalyst (2003), and has since written A Woman's Touch (2006), X-30 (2007), a collaboration with friend and horror writer Richard Dean, and Your First Year as a Principal: Everything You Need to Know That They Don't Teach You in School (Atlantic Publishing 2009). Prior to her writing career, Tena raised four children and worked in the local schools as a volunteer, substitute secretary, intervention specialist, and teacher's aide. It was there that she realized her passion for children and their education. Tena continues to write novels, give presentations for students on how to use reading and writing as an outlet, and write books to help educators become effective and successful.