First-Year Teachers Feel The Pressure, But Enjoy The Rewards Of Profession

The first year spent working as a teacher is an education in and of itself.

With nearly half of the school year under their belts, three new teachers in the Valley say the experience comes with its own high points - and its own lessons.

Those lessons include the hours involved in planning; the realization that nothing like classroom time prepares you for teaching; and the satisfaction of learning from their colleagues.

Heather Jordan says that even the janitor teases her - “He’s like, ‘You’re a first-year teacher, Heather”’ - when it’s 5 p.m. and she’s the only teacher left at the Millwood Early Childhood Education Center.

“I love what I’m doing,” says Jordan, a first-grade teacher. “But I spend 10-hour or 12-hour days.”

“Sometimes, I think people think these lessons plans just come out of a filing cabinet,” says Stacey Heaton, University High School journalism teacher. Many people are unaware of the hours of preparation and correcting classwork that goes on at home, Heaton said.

Never mind student teaching. Never mind working as a substitute.

More hands-on time for student teachers is what both Heaton and Jordan recommend.

Volunteering in a classroom before the formal experience of student teaching is, Heaton says, the only thing that got her through. Even so, at the beginning of this school year, the feeling of always being “on,” of performing, was staggering to Heaton.

Jordan, who followed the usual career path of starting as a substitute teacher last year, knew that flexibility, planning and good materials are invaluable.

Paperwork, paperwork, everywhere. It’s a sign of schools in the 1990s.

Voni Elliott, a Central Valley High School special education teacher in her first year with her own classroom says the amount of paperwork was an eye-opener for her.

Detailed education plans must be written, with goals, for each student, and then OK’d by parents. Even fund-raisers come with a paperwork burden these days, Elliott has learned.

These newcomers also value the helping hand extended by their colleagues.

Jordan found that substitutes earn scant attention from other teachers.

“In some buildings you go to, nobody acknowledges a sub. After you’ve been with kindergartners or first graders all day, it’s nice to talk to an adult,” Jordan says.

Jordan has that in spades, now with a co-teaching relationship she and another teacher worked out at Millwood. They meet once a week to collaborate on planning.

The mentor system at U-Hi gives Heaton an experienced teacher to turn to for help. She calls the program a life-saver for new teachers. Other U-Hi teachers offered everything from ideas on discipline to room decorations.

That helpful attitude has been a high point for Jordan and Heaton.

Elliott’s happiest time this fall was watching her math students come together with a Christmas gift project for a needy family.

Not only did the project allow for all sorts of practical math lessons - learning about fund-raising, test marketing, profits, wholesale vs. retail - but the 15 students got to make some tough decisions about moral matters.

Did they really want to buy gifts for the parents when there was some concern that their lifestyle choices were hurting their own family? Weighty decisions for teenagers, but they finally decided, in the spirit of Christmas, to go ahead with presents for the whole family.

“I was the proud mother of that project,” Elliott said.

, DataTimes