Good Luck!

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Home : 2005 : May : 9

Good Luck!
By First Year

First of all, don't get discouraged by people who tell you about bad experiences! I had two different CT's, and both were absolutely fantastic! Just a couple suggestions that helped me out...

* Stay consistent with what
your CT is doing, in the big things like management system. You definitely want to show initiative and do what you feel comfortable with, but if you try to make big changes when you start taking over class time, it can really confuse the kids and make things much harder than they should be.
* Don't feel bad about stealing! You're going into a classroom with someone with lots of experience

... take advantage of it. I used tons of worksheets, activities, and resources that my CT already had.

* Ask questions. It's much better to ask something you feel like you should know and feel a little bit silly, than to be clueless in front of your class and look very stupid.

* On a side note, copy EVERYTHING you can get your hands on! I photocopied an entire unit from one of my CT's, and am now using it in my classroom.

* Pay attention to all of the teachers in the school. I stole hallway-behavior-management ideas from teachers whose names I didn't even know, just from what I saw while we passed in the hall.

* Don't expect yourself to be perfect. Your CT knows where you're at, and doesn't expect you to know everything. There will be days when you feel like nothing went right ... you have to evaluate it, learn from it, and get over it.