Thread: Suggestions for welcoming a new teacher to be hired in Febru

David, I have a great turnover of teachers in my program. My colleague and I have decided to keep a Notebook for each subject.

It is quite simple. One for each subject with a copy of daily work. and a small note with who "got it" and "who didn't" This includes copies of every handout, etc.

We just turned our 9-12 class into two classes and found the teacher having great problems keeping up, so we came upon this idea.

The second idea we had, was to pick our favoirte lesson plans for the rest of the year and put them in a book as an IDEA book for the new teacher.

This person will appreciate all your help.

You could even write a small paragraph about each student she will have so she has some background.

She will need lots of support and I know you will give it.

(You might even want to have the students do a llittle "welcome" decoration on the bulletin board BUT NO TOXIC BEARS!!!

jO-aNNE

Hi Jo-Anne!

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've already volunteered to help the new teacher put his or her classroom together - moving desks and putting up bulletin boards.

I don't know if 3rd grade will have time for the students to help work on a bulletin board.

For that matter, I don't even know if the students for the proposed new class have even been identified.

And yes - no "toxic" teddy bears. The fire inspector would certainly not approve. (sigh)

David

P.S. To anyone who didn't understand the reference to "toxic" teddy bears, a fire inspector recently told one of our teachers to remove all of the teddy bears from her room because they were "toxic."

When the teacher asked why, the inspector explained that teddy bears emit toxic fumes when they burn.

His scenario assumed that students would be within a burning classroom - which was silly because there are lots of things in a classroom that can burn.

Should we get rid of desks because the metal legs can heat up in a fire and burn the legs of student?

Should we get rid of our flammable textbooks?

I would personally love it if we could all get rid of our state mandated tests. They're all quite flammable. I'm sure they pose a terrible hazard to the students.

Sheesh ....

You should also get rid of pencils, lead is toxic

Glue is debilitating. Homework makes students sick.

All paperwork should be banned. Hey teaching might not be so bad now!

Hope the new teacher thing goes ok!!

Jo-Anne in sunny, warm, beautiful Florida

David-

I was a teacher who came into a district in the beginning of January. It was the absolute worst experience of my life and I certainly hope that your district will make a better effort of including a new teacher than my former district did.

First of all, make sure that the teacher is introduced to the rest of the staff immediately. This can be done at a staff meeting or by walking room to room. There is nothing worse than feeling invisible in a staff lunchroom.

Second, watch out for that teacher. If the teacher is struggling, make sure to lend a helping hand. A school can not run efficiently without the staff working as a team. Students will try to take advantage of that teacher and since you know the students, do your best to make sure it does not happen.

Thirdly, encourage the teacher to attend a PTO meeting to meet parents. Parents have the ability to make or break a teacher's spirit, especially a first year teacher. Parents will be just as disoriented as the students and teacher, so make sure they know that lines of communication are open. Problems should be taken up with the teacher first, and then the principal.

Fourthly, a quality principal is a necessity in any school and this does not always happen. The principal should make a point to stop in to her classroom just to check. The principal should be available to this new teacher at any point in time. The principal needs to lend support and back up his/her teachers. It is also the principal's responsibility to inform the teacher of any problems that students might experience. This includes a confidential list of medical problems or past disciplinary problems.

Fifthly, a teacher who comes in at the beginning of the year often does not have the advantage of an orientation that most new teachers have. Make sure that teacher is aware of district policies and knows her rights.

This brings me to the last point. Introduce her immediately to the union representative at the school. For a first year teacher, the union is the only protection she has against irrational parents or a staff that is unfamiliar with her character.

For a teacher to come into a school in the middle of the year is very difficult, for a first-year teacher to come into a school in the middle of the year can be tramatic. The complete lack of support that I received drove me out of the profession for an entire year. I can only hope that your district will do a better job of welcoming a teacher than mine did.

Hi Stephanie,

Thank you for your advice. Some of this I know from prior (recent) experience. Although I'm an experienced teacher, I was recruited from Oregon SIX WEEKS after the school year began.

I thought I had it tough but my goodness, the new teacher starts in TWO WEEKS!

The school is actually hiring someone to finish THE LAST TWELVE WEEKS OF SCHOOL!!!

I've never heard of hiring someone so late in the year.

The third grade students who will form the new class - all of whom have already bonded with their other teachers will be pulled from their respective classes. They'll leave behind familiar surroundings, friends, and classmates ... and I worry that they'll react to their new teacher by comparing everything to their old classrooms.

The new teacher will also be at a signficant disadvantage. Due to a high rate of turnover, most of the teachers who teach third grade at my school are brand new teachers. There is only one teacher teaching third grade who was on the grade level from the previous year. (She became the defacto team leader simply because she was the only person who knew the curriculum).

I wonder how administration will create the class. If a parent kicks up a fuss in protest, I'd hesitate about moving a kid ... because the one thing the new teacher doesn't need is to have to deal with a hostile parent who was angry before the teacher even began her first day of school.

I'm right around the corner from this teacher, so I'll keep an eye on her as best I can. The two of us will be the "odd teachers out." We'll both be self-contained. Everyone else is blocked. We'll also be out of location for our respective grade levels. Since the only classrooms available to form new classes were in the resource hallway, that's where my class was put. And that's where the other class will be put.

David

Great ideas list. Here are a couple more.
We've had this happen before also.
You could take digital pictures of the staff and students that she will have. Then make a power point which you could show her and the students in their new room so they can get to know each other. She could print it out for future reference. Include PTA parents that are always on campus also.
Give her a tour of the school. Walk her through her schedule for PE, Music, Library, Art, etc. Nothing like being lost. I know the students could lead her around, but I think she would feel more in control if she knew where she was going. It would tough if someone walked onto my campus this late in the year. We rotate PE, Music and Art strangly and people still get confused!

I'm also concerned about how the students will be chosen. I could see teachers dumping the students that they feel are not going to pass TAAS. New teacher's name will show up as their teacher! Our principal chose students by entry date. Sounds fair huh? No not really, the students that enter later in the year are ones who either move around a lot or whose parents just didn't bother getting them enrolled on time. Either way these are usually the lowest performing. Students who have just moved in don't need their life up turned either. They just got settled in.
Is this teacher from the Houston area? If not you could do what our principal did. She made a list of all the alternative names for the roads, such as East Tex highway, etc and gave their "real" map names. It would be confussing enough starting a year this late, but to move here and be confused in your personal life would also be terrible.
I hope everything works out. Keep us posted.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

The teacher who was interviewed for the job cut and run. I can't say I blame her. I thought it was hard taking charge of my class six weeks after the school year began. It would be harder yet taking charge of a class in December ... but taking over a class two grading periods before the end of the school year? I think that goes way beyond "hard."

Texas has a terrible teaching shortage and the problem is particularly acute in the greater Houston area. Certified teachers are in very short supply right now ... so if a teacher is available there'd be a good chance that this would be a newly graduated teacher.

Right now, the barrel is totally empty. We have NO teachers to plug into this slot ... and my school isn't the only one with vacancies.

David

I can't say I blame her either. Why doesn't your school see if they can get a waiver? This way you can be over crowded for the rest of the year without getting in trouble. Our school had to do that one year. Worked out to our advantage, next year we were able to hire extra teachers to keep that from happening again. Just a suggestion.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think we are applying for a waiver. Rumor has it that we're also trying to change our status from an "open campus" to a "closed campus."

In my district, parents who are not happy with their child's current school may request a transfer to another school - any school that's designated an "open campus."

Part of the reason for our current number crunch is because we've gotten too many transfers.

David