Pamela’s Story:
"I am a fully certified elementary teacher, but nothing in my education courses prepared me for working with a lot of students who speak limited English. I often tell my friends that if my students just spoke English, then I could teach them! I know it is just my first year, but this is making my teaching especially difficult. Where can I turn for help?"
Who can help within your school system? Do you have a mentor or another teacher who is working with his or her ESOL students successfully? Perhaps you could spend a couple of afternoons in another teacher's classroom for ideas. The district should have a professional ESOL director or coordinator who may be able to provide you with some resources. Have you tried the Internet? Start with the following sites, then keep searching. http://iteslj.org/links/
http://www.esl-images.com
http://www.onestopenglish.com/esol-esl/

It is frustrating to not be able to communicate with students with limited proficiency in the language, but your acceptance of these students, as well as your perseverance to find ways to reach them will help them succeed in the long run. Don’t give up and keep asking for help.

Rick’s Story:
"I am a high school history teacher, teaching mostly the required U.S. history classes. Many students in my classes have all kinds of personal problems, challenges, and issues. They are not special education students, so no extra help is given to them or me, but I’m not reaching them and I fear that many will drop out of school without graduating. For some, low reading ability, combined with past failures, make these students very high risk. What can be done to help me get through my first year with these classes?"
A sarcastic answer to your question would be "welcome to the real world." However, sarcasm doesn’t help resolve deeper problems. Have you talked with your school’s counselor about these students? Is the counselor available to come to your classes and provide some group motivation sessions? While some high school teachers think that this wastes valuable academic class time, others find that a few sessions with counselors helps students get back on track.

Have you had your students complete interest inventories? Do you know about their part-time jobs? Their goals and aspirations? Maybe spending a little time having students write about themselves will help you find ways to motivate them. Lastly, consider having "staffings" for some of the most at-risk students. A staffing can be as simple as three of the student's teachers discussing the student’s work for 15 minutes and coming up with one new idea. In some schools, formal staffings involve teachers, parents/guardians, and counselors or administrators.

You are doing the right thing by not letting these students just fall through the cracks. Keep pushing the students to succeed.

Caroline’s Story:
"As a new teacher, I have been assigned a mentor. She always asks, “How is everything going?” or “Anything you want to talk about?” Well, there is A LOT that I want to talk about, but I am concerned about sharing everything going on in my room because things are quite crazy. How much should I tell my mentor, not knowing how much she will tell others? I don’t want the veteran teachers (or the principal) hearing all the details of my problems."
Each district establishes its mentor programs with its own guidelines. Apparently, your district has not yet explained the guidelines of your mentor’s role or that role is unclear to everyone. The confidentiality factor is an important one in any successful program. In many programs, the mentor does not and cannot give evaluative feedback to administrators. Ask your mentor (and maybe another new teacher) about the mentor’s role in evaluation.

Even if the district has established guidelines about confidentiality, sometimes not everyone follows the rules. Is there anyone outside of your district with whom you could talk—a former college professor or a friend teaching elsewhere? Would you feel more comfortable sending your concerns to others anonymously online? (Use the discussion forum on this site!) If your assigned mentor isn’t working out, try talking with others, especially those outside of your school. Good luck!

Joe’s Story:
"I teach in a state and district where just about everything seems to be “standards driven.” We write essential questions on the board, with short outlines of what the students must learn every week, as well as record the numbers of the state standards on our daily lesson plans. It’s Tuesday and I know I’m teaching language arts 6 F—how ridiculous! How can I meet the standards and still be creative?"
It is not just your state. The standards movement is everywhere. Remember that standards are often minimum guidelines, and that you can always add to the topics and objectives listed. Have you tried some team planning to learn what other teachers are doing? How about some interdisciplinary units that combine topics so that students see the big picture? Try adding more visuals to the basic lessons and involving students by having them make posters and do some small group teaching. Cooperative learning activities may add interest to the basic standards you are teaching. While the standards are mandated, your use of a variety of methods to teach the standards may add the creativity you seek in the classroom.

Becky's Story:
"I'm implementing a classroom management plan, but there is chaos down the hall."
As a new teacher, I wanted a plan for my fourth graders—a real plan with rules, positives, and corrections like I used in student teaching. I read some good books over the summer and started the year with my plan. It hasn't been easy since students aren't used to observable, enforceable rules, but I'm making headway.

The problem is that the other fourth-grade teachers don’t have a plan. One manages the iron-fisted way and the other has chaos. I feel very alone and frustrated, and it is especially hard since all of the fourth-grade teachers share students at some point in the week.

One response to Becky:
The fact that the other teachers don't have plans is the best reason for you to have one. Try talking about your plan and other management issues with teachers from other grades if no one teaching your grade is supportive. E-mail a college friend who is teaching; she probably will be doing what you are and can be your sounding board. Your positive work will spread. Many times, new teachers are a good influence on others and are agents of change.

Rosa's Story:
"I'm really teaching and other teachers are teasing me because of it."
I'm the new ninth-grade general English teacher at my high school. Two veteran teachers told me I should make students do silent free reading one day a week so I can stay caught up with paperwork. I was taught to engage students bell-to-bell and now I'm being discouraged from actually teaching every day. I also am being told that I’m working too hard. How do I persist with what I am trying to do?

One response to Rosa:
Good teachers need to remind themselves of what they teach and why they teach it. Research supports keeping students actively engaged in meaningful activities. You've heard the phrase "hands-on, minds on." If research backs what you do, your previous experience shows it worked, and your heart tells you it's right, don't feel discouraged by others' comments. If your strategies are helping students learn, then keep doing them! Even if your colleagues aren't supportive, you can get support from professional associations such as the National Council of Teachers of English. Visit their Web site at www.ncte.org.

Mark's Story:
"I was prepared and it is still hard."
I was in middle schools since my sophomore education classes, and was really lucky to work with an excellent cooperating teacher. I was the lead teacher for over four weeks and left my placement with boxes of supplements, activities, and ready-to-use materials. I've had my own room for two months now and it still is really hard work. The hardest part is planning enough to keep seventh graders busy, and then keeping up with all the paperwork. When, and how, will this get a little easier?

One response to Mark:
Good teaching is hard work, but the results are worth the effort. Some ways to make the "nuts and bolts" of teaching seem easier include:

Paul's Story:
" Do I really want to do this?"
I'm not an idealist any more. I left my job as an accountant to change the world by being a math teacher. After just one semester, I am so exhausted I don't know what to do. I took classes last summer, passed the licensing test, got my provisional certificate, and am taking classes two nights a week. Nothing prepared me for teaching six classes a day to over 150 teenage students.

If I continue with this job, I will still be an intern next year and can expect seven visits from a university evaluator before I can finish course work and apply for full certification. I also make a lot less money than the other new teachers who seem to have gotten better classes. If schools are hiring people like me to lessen the teacher shortage, why are they making it so hard for us to do our jobs and keep our jobs?

One response to Paul:
Education doesn't operate like the business world. New teachers do get the worst assignments, and provisionally or noncertified teachers get even worse ones. Pay raises are based on certification and longevity, so full certification is a must.

A large part of the problem is that some administrators hire people to teach who have not completed programs, and do not fully explain the difficulties of getting certified. Teaching is a challenging job, and going into it without the advantages of course work and student teaching can add to your stress level.

You should have a mentor who can help you. If you don't, find a mentor or go to your principal and request additional support of some kind. Could your schedule be arranged so that you can leave school early on days when you have classes?

The evaluators who observe your teaching are on your side and are there to help you succeed. Hopefully, their comments are constructive.

And lastly, you are doing two full-time jobs—education student and teacher. This is very time consuming, and you won't have a lot of free time the first three years of this undertaking. Find support from family, friends, and others. Good luck.

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Frequently Asked Questions