5. KNOW WHAT TO DO ONCE YOU GET THERE
OK, so you've gotten the job. School starts in a week. Now what? Do you even know what you're going to do as you stand in front of all those sleepy, prepubescent faces?Fear not. There are enough lesson plan sites on the net to make a teacher out of anyone:
- Sources such as the GO Network contain links to various teaching resources, including The Disney Learning Partnership and ABC Classroom Connection.
- At The Gateway to Educational Materials Project, you can search for lesson plans by keyword, grade, or subject.
- Other sites like The Smithsonian Education Online, Discovery School, and Newspapers in Organization present lessons and activities directed toward specific subjects such as English and current events.
But wait… there's more. You'll have to do a lot more than make lesson plans when you get into the classroom. Along with the pure teaching of classes, teachers at all levels must also:
- Grade tests
- Hold conferences with parents
- Attend school meetings
- For extra pay, teachers often lead extracurricular activities (such as the school play or the Senior Yearbook)
For newbie teachers who feel overloaded (or pro-teachers who need help), there are also plenty of support group-type sites for teachers. Usually, they're along the lines of teachers-helping-teachers resources (who else would take the time to present endless lists of "First Day Suggestions"?). One good one is Teachers Helping Teachers, a nonprofit service featuring links to lesson plan sites, advice columns and news articles about the field of education.
If you want even more, all you have to do is type "teacher" into a Web search engine and you'll almost wish you hadn't spent all that money on teaching education programs.
And now all you have to do is sit back and enjoy. Realize, though, that you can always switch your focus as your interests develop. Maybe you'd like to teach 11th grade forever; maybe you'd like to eventually be a principal; maybe you'll hate it and go back to law school (where your parents wished you had stayed in the first place). As long as you're happy… and enjoy those long vacations.
