Teacher, You Are NOT Alone

Dear New Teacher,

There are not many jobs out there where someone who steps out of university is expected to do and achieve exactly the same thing as someone who has been in the industry and role for 40 years. That is why we need to support each other when teachers are just starting out (even after teaching for over a decade, things can get daunting and hectic at the best of times).

Perfection is a unicorn – meaning you can’t be the perfect teacher. The perfect teacher doesn’t exist. Even teachers with all the experience under their belt make mistakes, miss deadlines or forget important events. This article is to tell you, you are not alone out there…

We created this list from our experiences and we know our colleagues would be able to relate as well. Use it as a guide to know, we are in this crazy teaching world together and it is completely normal if you are experiencing some or all of these.

New teacher, you are not alone if you…

Take home a pile of marking only to return to school with the work still not marked
Have a pile of unmarked worksheets on your desk for the whole term
Have nearly all the coffee cups from the staff room on your desk
Are in your pyjamas before the sun goes down on a Friday night
Haven’t recorded any student results in your mark book for nearly the whole term
Teach a lesson without the resources you thought you had
Stay up all night prepping a lesson to have your students finish it in 10 minutes
Can’t get to sleep because you are dreading an upcoming parent meeting
Stay awake all night replaying a conversation you had with a student
Have students in your class talk over the top of you when you’re trying to teach a lesson
Completely forget there is a staff meeting
Eat all the treats you have bought for your students
Have your students sitting on the floor and you have no idea what you are going to do with them next
Forget to mark the roll… again!
Finish the lesson and half the class learned nothing!
Have lost your temper when you shouldn’t have
Open your weekly planner on a Monday and have no idea what you’re teaching for the week
Spend half an hour at the photocopier trying to simply copy a class set of activity sheets
Haven’t read the 30 emails sent to you during the day
Completely forget to dress up for the special school day
Arrive at school only to realise you are wearing mismatched earrings or shoes
Leave your students’ workbooks at home for the lesson you need that day
Forget your class is presenting at assembly, next week!
Think you’ve lost a student after doing a headcount whilst on an excursion
Forget to send home that ‘important’ parent note
Are the last person to hand in your reports for checking
Tell a sick student they will feel a lot better if they put a wet paper towel on it (and then they vomit everywhere)
Feel like no one ‘gets’ how you are feeling!

New teacher, we have been there and are right there with you!

Just remember those more experienced teachers just may be better at looking like they are more cool, calm, and collected than you.

Trust us… YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

One more thing before you go…

Do you wonder how experienced teachers do ‘All the Things?”

You can too with…

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