DearAnxiousTeacher

  Well, at least, that’s the goal. Teaching is overwhelming, stressful, and the grading just doesn’t stop—won’t stop. The first few years, no lie, you will take home your job to grade and make lesson plans on the weekends and over breaks. You might even think about canceling events, because you’re now in a full-time relationship with your computer. Hello Dell! You’re pretty warm over there. This will compound and cause you to feel frustrated and irritated. Then later the following day, deal with that really annoying kid in your last period class who is just waiting to press your self-destruct button. Trying to get away from this job is difficult. You will need to make time for yourself, no matter what. Even if it’s for only an hour, “teacher life” needs to be put away and put to bed. Remember, dedicate Friday night to yourself, no matter what. Go out and have fun! You should do the same thing during holiday breaks. Work hard when you’re at work. Don’t get too caught up in the teach...

  I’m from the 90s and early 2000s—the birth of the dumb phone. Remember Nextel’s and Nokia’s? Yeah, me too! Fast forward to this new generation of heavily addicted teens who bring devices to school and spend upwards of 4-5 hours on average of screen time. Shockingly, a kid last year told me she averages 10 hours a day—I didn’t believe it until she showed me her phone. Yikes! A few years ago, phones would really stress me out because of inappropriate videos and images being airdropped or shared. How is that educational? Who can focus nowadays, anyway? Students today will defend and assert they need to text their mom or family members, when in reality, it’s just a fib to text friends and go further down the “rabbit of hole” of distraction and addiction. Whose problem is this now? Do we blame the school or the teacher? Do we blame the tech companies who employ neuroscientists and engineers who purposely target our dopamine receptors? It’s like trying to avoid the calling of that brow...

  I don’t understand. I try to be super kind, fun, helpful. They just don’t like me. Welcome to the actual world of handling student criticism and hate! Well, at least it feels like that! For me, rapport is everything, and—this I promise you—students will dislike you. No matter what you say or do, there will always be 1 or 2 students who will find something to dislike about you. Know this—it’s them, not you! Don’t worry about student judgement and dislike. Keep your head high, be you, and carry on because this experience is one of life’s great lessons: The sooner you accept that not everyone is going to like you, the easier your life will be.  Please read my advice below on handling this uncomfortable feeling or emotion. 1.  Let Go. Students are young. Students’ brains are not fully developed or mature yet. Sometimes impulse control is absent. Remember their ages when you’re dealing with this part of teaching. I still need to remind myself that we are super imperfect be...

  The following teacher apps below are the best pieces of digital technology to add to your classroom. Supportive and helpful to teachers, these apps will offer benefits to grading, communicating with families/students, building communities, and managing behavior in your class. I will update this list as I review more and more apps to help you in the classroom. Google Classroom:   Rating:  9/10 This app and website offers a gradebook, integrates with Google Drive, and provides a one stop be-all and end-all of an online classroom with apps to help support your learners. Invite students into your class, setup a gradebook with percentages, create Google Slides (presentation software), and write with Google Docs. I recommend being “all in” on Google Apps like Docs, Sheets, and Slides because these services work collaboratively; however, one issue with the gradebook is that it doesn’t allow you to create a new quarter. You might need to remake another classroom and again mass ...

    It’s your first year. Late nights, anxiety, stress, caffeine-induced insomnia, canceling dates, missing family events, and freaking out plays like a broken record in your mind. Rewind, rewind again, and hitting play with the same emotions repeatedly. Hard to believe this—it gets better! Questioning your decision on the regular will take up a majority of your thoughts. God bless the person you’re dating during that first year because your relationship might get a little rocky. My wife wondered where my personality went during my first year. “I liked you so much better before you became a teacher,” with an old lady’s nagging, husky voice. Pretending to be an excellent teacher and acting like you know what you’re doing will prevail during this time period. Self-doubts will arise and tests will challenge your confidence. From this experience, you will grow into the best version of yourself as a teacher. Don’t judge the field by the first year. It’s a huge transition, includ...

  Multiple Choice: You may receive a look of disdain for choosing this style of assessment. Rightfully so, this isn’t the best approach to assess student performance, but because of the limitation of time, go with this method more often than not to save time. Make quizzes/tests and maybe even homework assignments multiple choice when you’re overwhelmed. When you’re caught up, look for other methods to assess and grade students. Look into Google Forms and the app Zipgrade to help you grade quicker. Zipgrade will allow you to print out scantrons that you can scan with your phone for an immediate, accurate grade. Snapshot Grades: Teachers can grade homework assignments with a scale of 100, 75, 50, 25, 0. If students complete the homework fully, neatly, and with effort, give the student a 100. I call this a snapshot grade because the grade is really about effort and responsibility. Or maybe…grade the first 5 questions on homework. Are your students being compliant? Reward them with a...