For some answers, I asked five recent
graduates from the secondary English
Education program at the University
of Delaware what kinds of actions and
approaches experienced teachers could
take to help new teachers acclimate to
the profession, their students, their first
classroom, and their school’s culture.
Their responses indicated a deep admiration for strong faculty communities
and a desire to spend more time in
community with fellow teachers. These
recent graduates tell, in their own
voices, what seasoned teachers did that
helped them make it through.
to try them all! Hoping to reciprocate,
I offered some of my lesson ideas to
those who’d shared with me, and before
long, valuable professional relationships developed. I cannot say year one
was easy (I don’t know any teacher who
can), but the guidance I received from
other teachers in my building made it
bearable and, at times, even fun.
—Julia Thompson-Calio,
Unionville, Pennsylvania
reflection and less on reinventing the
wheel.
—Anonymous,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Grade Together
As a new teacher, and especially as
a student teacher, I was comfortable
writing lessons and teaching them.
After I’d collected writing assignments,
however, I found myself at a loss when
“It would’ve been incredibly helpful to
sit down with an experienced teacher
Five Ways to Craft Community
Share Friendship—and Ideas
Experienced educators can’t assist first-year teachers with all their challenges;
unfortunate situations like not having
one’s own classroom or having to wake
up at 5:00 a.m. each day can’t always
be helped. What experienced educators
can offer new colleagues during that
challenging first year is ongoing support
and friendship. During my first year, I
continually felt like my successes were
few and my failures were many. I’m
thankful that no experienced teacher
ever criticized or harangued me when I
fell on my face; instead, my colleagues
listened to me vent, made me laugh,
and offered tried-and-true suggestions
for the future.
Some of my fellow teachers also
graciously provided me with a bounty
of teaching materials, lesson ideas,
and resources with permission to use
and adapt them. Before starting my
first year, I felt overwhelmed by the
idea of having to prepare lessons for
9th and 10th grade English courses,
which contained some unfamiliar
content. However, because my fellow
teachers were so generous, I quickly
found myself with so many quality
lessons that I didn’t have enough time
to evaluate papers together.”
Navigate Curriculum Together
During my first couple of years of
teaching, I taught in an underresourced
school in Washington, D.C. These years
were particularly challenging because,
on top of acclimating to the pressures
and responsibilities of my new job, I
was constantly creating instructional
materials from scratch and searching
for engaging texts for a wide range of
reading levels. Although I was given
a curriculum map that outlined the
order in which I was to teach certain
English language arts standards, I wasn’t
provided with aligned instructional
resources or suggested texts.
I believe new teachers could benefit
from a collaborative professional
learning community that shares instruc-
tional resources and ideas. Experienced
teachers should guide new teachers
through the existing curriculum. If
a complete curriculum doesn’t exist,
I suggest that experienced teachers
exchange instructional materials,
resources, and ideas with new teachers.
This would mean new teachers could
I tried to evaluate them. How often does
a college student read a 16-year-old’s
writing? I had no idea what to expect
from my students, and therefore no idea
where to praise and where to suggest
improvements. Only now, batches of
graded assignments later, after teaching
grades 10, 11, and 12 across college
prep, honors, and advanced placement
levels, am I finally starting to see the big
picture.
—David Cavagnino,
Wilmington, Delaware
Discipline Together
My first year as a teacher, I taught
English on a small island in the Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer. My
students were highly respectful and
responsive; I was greeted with a hearty
“Good morning, Sir Daniel!” every day.
