One of the real challenges that all young teachers face is translating what you’ve learnt at university into practical skills once you’re in the workforce- whether you are working casually, temporarily or you’ve secured a full time position. Even if you’ve done a lot of practicums or teaching internships, the learning curve as an early career teacher is pretty steep, and it’s easy to get swamped with everything that you’re required to do. With that in mind, it’s important for teachers to realise that there is assistance out there - and it’s only sensible to get the most out of it. Read on for more.
There are lots of sources of information for young teachers - but there are also a few traps out there for young teachers too. Here are some sources of assistance that might help you get stated:
1) Your mentor
Lots of school systems have mentorship arrangements in place, either in a formal or an ad-hoc basis. If you are working towards proficient accreditation, you are meant to have a supervising teacher who can assist you through that process, but many schools also engage a more formal mentoring program, either as part or in addition to a supervising teacher. Ideally, your mentor should be a more experienced teacher - preferably in the same KLA (if you are in high school). Often, coordinators get given this role, but they’re not always the best choice. Coordinators are busy at the best times, so sometimes a more experienced classroom teacher is a better option as they will have the time to meet with early career teachers. And the meeting part is crucial. The benefit of having a mentor is in the regular face to face contact. You should use these to talk about difficulties you’re having - whether that’s to do with behaviour management, or programming or assessing. Your mentors job is not to do any of these things for you, but rather to assist you to learn to do if for yourself. Make use of their expertise, and try out strategies that they recommend - but remember, you’re not trying to be a clone of your mentor. You still need to work out what you want to do.
2) Professional Teaching Associations
Another good source of information is professional teaching associations like the English Teachers’ Association (ETA) or the Science Teachers Association (STANSW). Although these are membership organisations (meaning you have to pay a fee to join them) the benefits far outweigh the costs, as joining them means you get access to professional development, special seminars, resources, programs and lesson plans. Some of the PTAs even do mentoring for early career teachers. If you are just beginning as a teacher, and you want to get the benefit of learning from other, more experienced teachers, it’s hard to go past the PTAs. And don’t forget, these organisations are often run by volunteers - so don’t be afraid to offer your services to assist.
3) Teacher Online Communities
In a similar way to PTAs, there are many online communities that are useful for teachers. These communities are great places for teachers to share their ideas, resources, talk about their challenges and get some advice. In fact ,if you’re reading this, you’re already on one such online communities. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are no guarantees that these online communities check the validity of information they share. For example, teachers might share programs they’ve developed - but these programs might only be relevant to teaches in Queensland, or overseas. And some of these online communities have specific agendas to push - for example, some will support specific forms of schooling, or pedagogical approaches - all of which might not fit in with your own views or those of your school. That’s not to say there’s not good content on these sites - there is - but teachers should approach them critically and carefully.
4) The Independent Education Union
Last, but certainly not least is your union. While the IEU NSW/ACT doesn’t really engage too much with subject specific content (we leave that to the PTAs), that doesn’t mean that we can’t assist with a whole range of other issues that early career teachers often face. For example, the IEU runs courses on behaviour management, on child protection and on voice care (to name just a few). These are all important factors for young teachers (indeed, all teachers ) to consider, but they are often overlooked during initial teacher training or professional development that is run by schools. The IEU recognises their importance and seeks to assist early career teachers with these course.
