A Taylor Swift Take for New (and Not So New) Teachers

“Older Ladies Have Fun Too” Era

First, a story. My best friend, who is two years older than I am, was at a concert, minding her own business with several friends, dancing. They were having a good time, not a care in the world about what they looked like because they were not there to be documented on social media. But they were. A video, recorded from several rows behind them, appeared on Instagram with the comment “Older ladies can have fun too.” Ever since then, I’ve considered that the descriptor of the era I’m in. As this pertains to my teaching career, in the “Older Ladies Have Fun Too” era, this means I’m much more interested in making my class fun, enjoyable and engaging, in part because I don’t have to think constantly about standards, lesson plans and parents. After 23 years, those are parts of teaching where I have reached automaticity, and I don’t have to plan for them nearly as much. However, as a new teacher, you certainly do! This year, especially if you are in your first year, embrace the eras of a school year because one day you’ll be looking back on the eras of your entire career, and you too can be in the “Older Ladies Have Fun Too” era! 

Survival Era

Even if you have wanted to be a teacher your whole life; your parents’ basement is full of teaching stuff you’ve hoarded since eighth grade; and you are a natural—in the first few months of teaching, you will be in your survival era. (Check out this webinar and blog for more advice.) Everyone who is new to teaching will be in this era together. It is inevitable because suddenly you will be dealing with an insane number of acronyms, some universal (IEP=Individual Education Plan) to some that are school-specific (DEAR= Drop Everything and Read). You’ll be pulled into meetings of every variety: team meetings, grade-level meetings, new teacher meetings, faculty meetings, to name a few. You’ll be up late and early constantly trying to stay one step ahead. This era is challenging, but exhilarating too. As a mentor, I often hear, “I had no idea it was going to be this hard.” I always encourage new teachers to remember other transitional periods—going to college, moving, and the like—and know they will survive this too. I tell them not to beat themselves up about any of this; veteran teachers also collapse at Thanksgiving. It’s just an era that will pass, and they should try to remember that teaching is an amazingly satisfying career once they get past the survival era.    

Exhausted Era

I’ll preface this era by saying that it doesn’t matter where you are in your teaching career, the exhausted era will happen every school year. None of us has the magical ability to make the job something different than it actually is: The last month of school is the last leg of a marathon you didn’t know you were running. Suddenly, all the work you’ve been doing, the new responsibilities, the lack of a social life, and the incredible pressures of being a teacher knock you down. It is OK to take a sick day. Let me repeat this again: IT IS OK TO TAKE A SICK DAY. Not a skip day to go to the mall, run errands or leave town, but a day to turn your computer off, read a book, scroll mindlessly or Netflix binge, or read this blog about this special time of year. It is OK to be human, and every single teacher I know appreciates the teacher memes that May (or June, depending on the end of the year) has 547 days. Bored Teachers’ 38 Hilarious Teacher Memes to Make It to the End of the Year has got you covered if you need to laugh to keep from crying. Summer vacation is just around the corner! 

Reflective Era

My school has a great tradition of standing outside and waving the kids off to summer vacation. No matter how exhausted I am, I immediately feel simultaneous relief and nostalgia. I will miss these kiddos who I have weathered a year with as they too went through their eras, and as a middle school teacher, their eras are terrible! As you leave for your summer break, and give yourself some time off, know that you’ll never have that first year again—whether it was great or tumultuous, but the amazing thing about teaching is that every fall is a fresh start, a chance to reinvent any part of yourself or your teaching that you want to. It is incredibly freeing to know that every school year is different, the challenges change, and we evolve. During your downtime, you’ll find that you can make more sense of the year from a slight distance. Read, relax, work a mindless job, exercise, or sit on your porch. Whatever you choose to do, take the time to ruminate a bit and then consider what went well and what didn’t; and then start the process of planning for the next year, but this time with a fresh perspective. 

Rebirth Era 

I teach a class on Danielson’s Domains that new teachers take (you can see some of the materials on my website, flexibleclass.com under the Danielson tab). As we talk about the different components, particularly sections about “reflecting” and “adjusting,” the second- and third-year teachers almost always comment that their first year was simply staying afloat, and that they are excited to finally think about the years ahead knowing what it feels like from behind the teacher’s desk. I love the excited conversations that happen as new-but-not-brand-new teachers swap war stories, laugh at their silliest rookie mistakes, and remember why they wanted to be a teacher. Be forewarned though, for most teachers I know, this involves buying fancy pens, new notebooks, or deciding to revamp your classroom vibe! In all honesty, the rebirth era happens to all of us every fall. 

If you haven’t caught on yet, I’ll make it plain here: All teachers experience the eras of a school year, it’s just your first time through, so give yourself grace and room to grow. One of the things most teachers love is the predictability of the career. I jokingly said to one of my classes for teachers, “You could plop me down in a classroom, give me a few minutes, and I could tell by how it felt what part of the school year it was.” It sounds like a weird flex, but I’ve done “school”  over and over again for 45 out of 50 years! As you begin those first few weeks, remember you are not alone. Look around and you’ll see that we are in this together, and there are people beside you who can help you navigate the eras of a school year and become the work family who is with you for all the eras of your career.  

At some point during that first year, you’ll get to a time where you are not just treading water. One Sunday night, you’ll realize you don’t have the “Sunday scaries,” and you’re planned for a few weeks out. During the evolving era, you’ll begin to see what works for you and what doesn’t. You’ll start to improvise for your students, making adjustments that are more than the lesson plans you had clung to just a few months earlier. In this era, you may have a harsh reality to face. Maybe you aren’t good at creating centers or running a morning meeting or dealing with cellphones. In this era, you can’t fix everything because you are too busy teaching, so do damage control and take notes for yourself for your reflective era. However, before reflecting, you have to survive the exhausted era.