By
Steve Springer, M.A.; Brandy Alexander, M.F.A.; Kimberly Persiani-Becker, Ed.D.
McGraw-Hill ProfessionalDon’ts
- Never give out your home phone number or home e-mail address. Instead, consider one or more of the following as a way of communicating with parents:
- Give parents the school phone number and your professional e-mail address.
- Design a teacher website so that parents can contact you through the website.
- Send home a weekly progress report, and be sure to encourage parents to write back with any questions or concerns.
- Don’t speak up in meetings unless you are clear about what is being discussed or requested. Instead, be prepared and thoughtful when you do speak up.
- Know exactly what the discussion is about before coming into a meeting with complaints.
- Formulate your responses in a productive manner and offer potential solutions.
- Recruit your mentor to speak on your behalf until you feel confident doing so yourself.
- Don’t get out of the habit of creating well-detailed lesson plans, because lesson plans are as important for you as they are for your students.
- Stay in the habit of preparing complete and detailed lessons, since you will be formally evaluated several times during your first couple of years.
- Realize that, as a new teacher, you must be more disciplined about lesson planning than more experienced teachers may need to be.
- Don’t forget to dress appropriately, and remember that you are a role model for your students.
- Be professional—and that includes how you dress.
- Respond to administrators and colleagues respectfully.
- Be thoughtful about how you organize conversations with parents
- Don’t stop taking care of your own health. Instead, remember that you must take good care of yourself in order to be able to take care of others.
- Continue exercising, eating healthy foods, and getting enough sleep.
- Be well prepared and aware of all requirements.
- Remember: What you don’t get done today, you can finish tomorrow.
- Don’t let your guard down. Remember that you are responsible for many aspects of your students’ lives in your position as teacher.
- Never touch any children in a questionable way.
- Never give rides to students.
- Never swear in front of students, colleagues, other school personnel, or parents.
- Never serve foods that contain known allergens.
- Never be alone with a student behind a closed door.
- Never send children anywhere alone.
- Never put a student in the hall or corner.
- Never use standards as punishment (for example, writing “I will behave” 100 times).
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