How you survive the first day of school as a young teacher

You have finished your studies and your traineeship is also over. You look back proudly on the past few years. But when you think about the upcoming first day of school as a teacher, you start to feel a little nervous. The day that you have been working towards for almost 7 years (depending on the type of study). Some nervousness is absolutely justified. We at LYTD have exchanged ideas with dozens of teachers, students and trainees at the Didacta education fair in Cologne and during our projects and are now trying to prepare you as best as possible for this day so that everything goes smoothly and you can smile at some point on this one, very special day can think back.

Familiarize yourself with the surroundings in advance

Nothing is worse than being late or running late on the first day. Not even necessarily due to the fact that you should be at work on time in order to be a good role model for the students, but that it also puts you under extreme stress. After all, you definitely don’t want to be late – especially not on your first day at work. That's why it's important to plan enough time and, in the best case, be there too early, which in most cases also impresses the new employer. In order to do this, you should be very aware of your route to work and what potential time-consuming dangers can lurk there. Parking spaces at schools are often scarce: It is therefore advisable to arrive early and look for other parking options in advance.

You should also have a rough idea of ​​the school. Depending on the region and size, school buildings can be very large and so that you don't lose your bearings in the labyrinth of floors and crowds of students, it is advisable to take a look at the building in advance.

Explore the new environment

The first day is always perfect for getting an idea of ​​the new surroundings. The most important thing is that you introduce yourself to your new colleagues. The school staff is usually introduced on the school website. Here you can get an idea of ​​your colleagues and find out who has important functions. This gives you an immediate overview of the different contact persons. Apart from that, it is of course always well received by your colleagues if you address them by name when you first meet them.

As we all know, the first impression is the most important. Even though the first day is certainly extremely stressful, try to maintain a positive demeanor and make an interested impression on the new colleagues. But it's not just teachers who work in schools. The caretaker or secretary is also part of school life. So don't forget to introduce yourself here too.

Preparation for the first lesson

I think it would be a bit too obvious to mention at this point that thorough didactic/theoretical lesson preparation leads to more security and structure in lessons. Above all, don't plan the very first lesson too strictly or pack in too much learning material. Here you will find some free teaching materials about sustainable consumption that we have developed together with other teachers.

The students and especially you should have enough time to introduce yourself in peace in order to build an initial relationship with the respective class. You can then, for example, create name cards for each seat at the beginning so that names can be looked up at the beginning and can be memorized more quickly. This is an important basis for a successful teacher-student relationship.

Classroom management

In order to ensure lessons that are as disruption-free as possible and run smoothly, good classroom management is also essential. The term describes the methods and behavior of teachers that are intended to lead to effective cooperation and a reduction in misconduct. This also includes preparations such as clearly structuring the room. Especially when taking over a class, time must be taken into account to develop and establish rituals and rules together with the students. You can find some other methods of classroom management here:

• Being there : The teacher directly perceives misbehavior, gives feedback and creates the image of the “all-seeing teacher”
• Overlap : The teacher has no problems handling multiple activities professionally and remaining calm
• Smoothness : The lessons follow clear and comprehensible steps without causing confusion among the students
• Momentum : The teacher is always focused, keeps the class flowing, and avoids exaggerating misbehavior
• Maintaining group focus : The level of engagement in class is high and everyone is equally involved. This keeps motivation high and no one gets bored. We work according to the principle of accountability (control by partners, teachers, the group)

You've probably already learned a lot of this during your studies, but we hope we were able to give you one or two helpful tips and use these simple tips to take some of the tension away before the first big day 😊

And if you want to get involved at your new school beyond normal working hours, then ask us directly for an offer for your own sustainable school collection. We take care of the entire process from design to online shop to production free of charge.

Good luck!

Your LYTD® team

Authors: Andreas Depner, Lena Binzer, Vincent Azimian