Are you a first-year teacher? Perhaps you’ve just finished your first year. Or know a friend or family member at the beginning of their journey. Here are 10 mindful insights I gained as a first-year teacher and am happy to share with you!

1. Give Yourself Grace

I know this might be something you hear all the time. However, if you’re anything like me, phrases that are most often said tend to lose meaning over time. Routinely, I’d hear this phrase as a first-year teacher and make a mental note of it, but never took any action to it. Really and truly, I didn’t know how. Between grading work, taking adequate data, and trying to wrap my head around past, present, and future participles, grace was just a 5 letter word.

Once we begin to understand the true definition behind something we can operate in the true essence of it. Erayna Sargent stated in a post on Well+Good that to give grace means to “practice self-compassion—aka having understanding, acceptance, and forgiveness of yourself. This looks like being realistic, flexible, and honest about your bandwidth, energy, and interest.” (Sargent, 2022)

2. Boundaries, Boundaries, Boundaries!

I’ll come right out and say it, I was too lenient with allowing hugs as a first-year teacher. I wanted my students to feel welcomed, but I unintentionally created a level of codependency in them that I wasn’t prepared to maintain. 

Over time I had to realize that it’s okay to set boundaries because it lays the foundation of trust, safety and respect. This lets my students know what I find to be acceptable within the basis of our relationship. 

At first, I hadn’t realized a simple task like hugging kids each day was draining me slowly. It would begin with one student and the next thing I knew, my entire class would be lined up for a hug from me. In the beginning, I guess I didn’t mind because at times I needed those hugs just as much.

As the school year progressed, so did the natural stresses of being a first-year teacher. The hugging became more frequent and at the most inconvenient times. Like directly after recess when they were all hot and sweaty from playing outside in the Texas heat.

While I wasn’t a stranger to saying no, I still wanted to meet that need most days. Plus I know how constant no’s can seem like rejection to a child whose mind is still developing. For some, a hug from their teacher might be the only consistent affection they receive from grown-ups until I realized what it was costing me. At times I’d be dealing with my own anxieties, lack of peace, and burn-out from the day. The last thing I wanted was to hug 20 nine and ten-year-olds at once.

It became so exhausting to the point where I put up a sign on my desk, and on that day if they saw “AIRHUGS ONLY TODAY” no physical hugging was allowed. The adjustment wasn’t easy for many at first, but honoring my need at that moment allowed me to be more effective by reinforcing my position as their teacher first, lowering my stress level, and building more positive energy within the classroom. Plus, this showed me to pay more attention to my body and notice when I begin to feel fatigued by those little things and how to best handle them in future situations.

3. You Don’t Know Everything and That’s Okay

In case you’re anything like me, I strive to be the very best version of myself when doing something. It’s like Martha Beck’s saying, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” Knowing this, I still wholeheartedly believed that it would take some time to get to the place where I could confidently say I knew what I was doing. In other words, I can promise you that no rookie has ever won Veteran Teacher of the Year.

With every intent to not be the annoying new person with a million questions, I watched closely but honestly still asked questions. There were times I felt like a fly on the wall during lesson planning with my team. I figured as a new person it would’ve served me better to listen more than I spoke. Especially when multiple people on my team in my first year of teaching had at least a decade in education under their belt.

I’d talk to other staff members and seek encouragement where I could. I’d also pray to God to not lose my mind day after day. The reality was I had strengths and weaknesses like every other teacher, but I also had the same requirements that qualified me to fulfill the role. Meaning, that despite how I was feeling at that moment, I knew that these things are natural and are what most new teachers go through. Knowing this, I casted away thoughts of incompetency and trusted in my abilities to be able to succeed. Go easy on yourself, know you’re never done learning, let this too shall pass, and remember to control only what you can control.

4. Find Your People

This is an absolute given. The workspace can often feel like a dreary Monday morning meeting. Community is important for your well-being and mental health.

5. Be Intentional with Your To-Do List

This will be a lifesaver for you! Realistically, even if there is time in the day to get tasks done something always happen. A student needs to see the nurse. A fire drill happens. It’s time to transition, etc. Many times I’ve sat down and told myself I was going to type an email in one setting, and it didn’t always work out accordingly.

To-do lists are simple and effective because they serve as a visual reminder of the tasks you need to accomplish. Break your to-do list into smaller sections by identifying which tasks are high priority, medium priority, and little to no priority.

1. High-Priority: The majority of your high-priority tasks will be time-sensitive. These types of tasks might involve prior planning, time to think, and collaboration. Submitting report card grades, attending an ARD, responding to emails, and preparing for a parent conference all fall within this category.
2. Medium-Priority: These may come disguised as a high-priority task until you’ve done it once or twice and realize it isn’t. Similar to a high priority, these might also require some time to think, plan, and collaborate. Such tasks are creating a test or quiz, calling a parent or legal guardian, filling out a SPED referral packet, data tracking, and the like of these.
3. Little to no priority: I like these tasks because they give me such a feeling of accomplishment when realistically it didn’t take much energy or time. However, these are also the tasks that if you don’t do them right away, might certainly inconvenience you down the line. These look like you making copies, re-doing a seating chart, creating an anchor chart, or checking your teacher mailbox.

6. Girl, Don’t Take it Home

I know this one is very tempting at times, but you’re not on contract hours and it may only temporarily make you feel better. This was the number one piece of advice veteran teachers gave is to not take work home. Though I’m not saying there aren’t times when this is acceptable. You surely don’t want to make it a habit.

Sure, there are always exceptions to the rule. I knew a teacher who would go to a bar every Friday and grade that week’s stack over a margarita, or two. I knew another teacher who’d go home and plan for two additional hours by creating interactive online games her students could play alongside the next day’s lesson.

Do what works for you, but recognize by taking work home you’re not only compromising work-life balance but you’re:

1. Adding extra pressure on yourself. You may start to feel your lessons are better when you put in the extra time, which eventually may lead to imposter syndrome.
2. Leading yourself towards a faster burnout. Knowing what your triggers are can help combat this.
3. Causing yourself to lose your passion.

7. “Kids Don’t Learn from Teachers They Don’t Like”

These are the very words of the late educator Rita Pierson that stuck to me like glue as a first-year teacher. I want you to take a second and forget all the pedagogy you were taught in college or an alternative program. Teaching is what you’re there to do, but it’s only part of the job.

A major key to successful teaching is the relationships you build with your students in the process. No matter how passionate you are about the content if your students see you as cold, belittling, and overly critical, they aren’t inclined to hear anything say you beyond that.

Some might argue that it doesn’t matter if students like their teacher, but should still respect them. This is true, however, relationships (and respect) are a two-way street. By showing interest in your students as people too, their respect for you shall naturally follow. However, don’t be so determined to get your students to like you that it comes off disingenuous. The best version of a person you can be is yourself.

Here’s some helpful tips:

• Display actions that show you care such as hugging, greeting them in a friendly manner, and asking about their day.
• Validate their interests. (Ex: “Hey Jay, that’s the best I’ve ever seen any student draw Godzilla. You should show the art teacher and see if she’ll display it in the main hallway.”
• Display an optimistic outlook. Which certainly isn’t always easy. Life happens in and out of the classroom, but make sure to not make it the students’ problem.
• 2×10 Strategy: Pick a particular student who you may have trouble connecting with. Take 2 minutes for 10 consecutive days to talk with them about nonschool-related topics. This can be their home life, friends, and/or hobbies.
• Compliment them. (Ex: “Hey Tasha, nice shirt. Is he your favorite singer? My daughter also listens to Prince.”)

8. Adults Can be Bullies Too

There’s no secret that adults in the workplace can be just as cruel as the kids. Though unfortunate, bullying may occur in ways you might not even expect it. It may even take a while for a person to realize they’re being targeted. In the oftentimes hectic environment schools are known to be, people’s demeanor easily change immensely under stress. Repeated behaviors are something to take note of and know it’s okay to stand up for yourself and let bullies know their place.

Adult bullying can look like:

• Gossiping/Spreading False Information
• Exclusion (leaving one out of important information, meet-ups and decisions)
• Threats (Whether physical or emotional)
• Belittling
• Snarky remarks

Reasons this may be happening:

• That person may be feeling insecure within themselves
• They may be going through a difficult season in life
• The bully is internally unhappy
• They possess the need to control the narrative

What you can do:

• Avoid or limit interactions with the bully by. only speaking when required and make sure you’re never alone with this person)
• Speak up, which you can do effectively while still being assertive and collected.
• Alert higher-ups to get ahead of the situation. If the bullying is occurring for quite some time or you’ve been threatened, go to a trusted administrator to fill them in on what you’ve observed.
• Document, Document, Document! Descriptively track every occurrence you encounter with the bully and include dates, in case you file a complaint with HR.

9. Continue Learning…and I don’t mean P.D.

One of the surprises I had as a first-year teacher is how much fun it was to learn alongside my students. There were so many moments while teaching that I found enjoyment in the content I was presenting and in return it made my students more engaged. Once they begin to see their getting excited it naturally fosters a love of learning inside of them.

Also, as a first-year teacher, depending on what grade(s) you’re teaching, this may be the first time in years since you’ve learned this information. As a fourth-grade RLA teacher, I seriously wasn’t aware of the many different types of verbs and adjectives that existed (lol).

Plus, many times my students were able to teach me things as well. Whether it was something related to technology or just a different way of thinking, I loved when my students came up with new songs, riddles, or phrases to integrate into the lesson! Including them in that way made for a more positive learning environment.

10. Being Kind is Still Cool

Character building is a biggie within schools and organizations. Many schools will have a specific word of the month for students (and staff) to exemplify until the following month. As a student, I’ll be honest, I thought these were silly and uncool. Which meant that I’m the exact type of kid this thing was designed for.

There’s a quote in Wonder by R.J. Palacio that states, “When given the choice between being right and being kind, CHOOSE KIND.” So often as humans we’re naturally selfish because that’s how we’re designed. Who’s the first person you look for in a group picture? YOURSELF!

Just like that, there’s many other instances in life where we instinctively look out for ourselves and to ourselves before we do others. Even as the teacher, I had to check my heart posture to see if I was outpouring kindness intentionally. Teaching is a profession where you’re used to uplifting children’s spirits and trying to maintain yours.

This post was all about 10 mindful insights to gain as a first-year teacher.