What tips can you offer a first year junior high Science teacher?

I am a 7th grade science teacher starting my 16th year in a couple of weeks. just some thoughts off the top of my head…

I agree about reading. Take others ideas and use them. Harry Wong’s book is re-read every year to get me thinking about it.

Find a like minded teacher at school and hang around them for ideas.

Decide now about your grading system. Find a gradebook program, see if your school has a prefered system. (I personally use gradekeeper… made by a teacher for teachers..www.gradekeeper.com)

Ignore the old addage about no smiling till xmas but don’t be their friend. (friendly, but not their friend) Be yourself, make your decisions with their progress in mind.

Talk to their other teachers and try to coordinate what you want to do with what they are doing. incorporate graphing or research when their other teachers are doing so, ask for help with written drafts when you are doing lab reports.

find a balance between teacher demonstrations and student hands on. hands on better, demonstrations can be fun..

think about what the students are actually doing with every lesson. Early in my career i had a favorite unit on the solar system where the students needed to calculate relative sizes of the planets and create a model ( I was so proud of this) and yet I found that the students were spending their time simply cutting stuff out of paper. not alot of thinking was going on. You will need to look at the rigor of every lesson you produce.

go with Harry Wongs ideas of procedures vs rules.

ok. good luck and have fun!

Congratulations and good for you! I am about to begin teaching 8th grade Science but it will be my 30th year in the classroom. I am thrilled to know you are joining our ranks.

Science is the best! Do you love it? I can’t understand why anyone would want to teach anything else. Share your love of Science with your students. They may not feel the same way as you do, but they will recognize your attitude and respect you for it.

Much will depend upon the demographics of your school and your administration. Find a mentor teacher who can answer everyday questions for you. There are a ton of resources on-line, you can modify those to fit your style. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel for every lesson.

Be flexible and keep your sense of humor.

Good luck!

Use Harry Wong’s First Days of School first day checklist. Read another book with a tile like “How to avoid a dance in the classroom” This book helped me so much last year when had to deal with the student that wanted to argue or compromise with what I said or requested. My classroom managemnt was treatly improved by reading and implementing the strategies. Also if you can focus on only one thing I would definitely say CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT. Teachers leave the prifession quickly if they do not have good managmet. Read and practice everything you can about it.

I would suggest reading Fred Jones, “Tools for Teaching,” and Harry Wong, “First Days of School” (or watch his video, if you can get a copy of it)

Get there early, don’t stay too late! You can only do so much.

Try to take as little home as necessary.

Don’t try to do it all the first year. If you create maybe one or two rock-star lessons in a week, great. You’ll add on next year.

Anytime you can bridge topics between your preps, it’ll save you some mental juggling (I have 4 preps, and really burnt myself out my 1st yr, trying to do it “all” day in and day out).

Find a mentor in your building. Talk to him/her daily.

Take it easy, it’ll get easier and easier, I promise.

Kids will give you alot more respect if you give them respect but if they still dont give you respect then dont give them any respect and try to talk to the kids like their not 4th graders but theres some kids that you just cant help it. And talk to the kids like their actual people and not just things your teaching. Trust me in going to be a junior this year and i remember my junior high year and i had a teacher that acted like that and i wish she was my highschool teacher.