Teaching IS Hard

I began my career over two decades ago. I walked into that very first classroom with all these ideas and plans, so excited for what was to come. I knew then how lucky it was to land my first teaching job at my alma mater, in the same department with teachers that shaped my learning. Honestly, it was like having a group of fairy-god mothers around me all the time.

But when I say I cried every single day for the first month, I am not exaggerating. I built lesson plans that flopped. I tried to manage behaviors that escalated out of my control and just left me frustrated and defeated. Daily. So at the end of each day, I cried. Teaching is hard.

Don't get me wrong, my mentor teachers supported me 100%. They observed my class and offered suggestions for classroom management, lesson ideas, strategies. They even gave me every lesson plan and resource they had personally curated throughout their respective tenures. I was still a fish out of water, barely hanging on most days.

Learning to manage the clock in the classroom was a game-changer.

I had an opportunity to attend a district workshop focused on bell-to-bell instruction. Although, it was not a magic bean that solved all my instructional problems, it was definitely a compass pointing me in a new and better direction. Learning how to chunk my classroom into timed segments for better engagement - immediately made a difference in behaviors that I had to manage. It did not solve all the behaviors, but I did stop crying after school every day.

Bell-to-bell instruction is not without its flaws and challenges. What the framework did provide a newbie teacher was a way to think about structure. STRUCTURE is EVERYTHING for a brand new teacher, and honestly, for a veteran teacher too. Once I had the skeleton in place, I was really able to deliver instruction in a meaningful way. I'll share the best bits I've learned along the way, and believe me, I'll share the massive fails too! I hope you find usable ideas and practical application to your classroom.