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New teacher and overwhelmed
Hello,
I am a first year teacher, just graduated university in December. I felt so lucky to have found my first teaching job at a small local Catholic school teaching Spanish, Music, Computer, and Enrichment (which is basically almost like being a teacher's aide for the last hour of the day). After about 3 weeks of being on the job, I am starting to feel not so lucky. I know that I should just be grateful that I have a job at all, but I am so overwhelmed that I just don't know what to do.
First of all I teach 3 subjects for which I am the primary teacher, meaning I do all the planning. I teach music and Spanish K-8, giving me 18 separate preps on those subjects alone. I also teach computer for K-4, adding on another 5 preps. And if the other teachers decide that I need to plan lessons as part of my Enrichment duties, that adds on another 3 preps. That totals up to 23 preps required, 26 if the other teachers decide to give them to me.
I am new to this field, so I am inexperienced anyway, and on top of that I was not certified as an elementary teacher OR in any of these subjects (my certification is for high school English). Is it normal to have so many preps in elementary school? Student teaching in a high school I only had 2 preps and the most that any teacher had was 3. I was also given almost no information regarding curriculum for my current job, so I am creating my own completely from scratch, which I did not know that I would have to do when I took the job. Because of repairs to the building I was not able to even see the textbooks until about a week before school began. I am lost. I am overwhelmed. I am getting severely depressed because I do not think that I have the capability to do this job as well as my students deserve. I hate to sound whiny or lazy, but I am really at a loss.
What should I do?
Re: New teacher and overwhelmed
Ok, so take a deep breath and inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.
23 preps is an insane amount of preps. When I taught elementary music I had six preps, but I taught the same six lessons over a four day period. If this was a union job, it wouldn't be happening. But as you're in a Catholic school, unfortunately, anything goes, unless I'm severely mistaken.
What sort of books, tapes, DVDs do you have available for Spanish? Are there books you can read like See Spot Run but in Spanish for the little ones? What about parts of the body? Head, shoulders knees and toes? Do you have friends in public schools where you could peek at and borrow the curriculum?
Music has two series called "Share the Music" and "Music Connection." Can you get your hands on those books? It will outline the curriculum for you. Even if you can only get the teacher's guide and maybe one student book for each grade level, it will basically plan your curriculum for you.
I don't know what to say about computers.
How often do your classes meet? How many classes are there on a grade level? Can you get some mileage out of your lessons? Can you design them so that they stretch out over more than one day?
You have a daunting job, there's no doubt about it. But you need to reach out to people you know - THAT YOU TRUST - who can help. Don't try to do it alone.
RIP Dr. Irving Fishman - 10/1/19-7/25/10 - thank you for holding on for me.
You made my wedding day complete.
Hello,
I am a first year teacher, just graduated university in December. I felt so lucky to have found my first teaching job at a small local Catholic school teaching Spanish, Music, Computer, and Enrichment (which is basically almost like being a teacher's aide for the last hour of the day). After about 3 weeks of being on the job, I am starting to feel not so lucky. I know that I should just be grateful that I have a job at all, but I am so overwhelmed that I just don't know what to do.
First of all I teach 3 subjects for which I am the primary teacher, meaning I do all the planning. I teach music and Spanish K-8, giving me 18 separate preps on those subjects alone. I also teach computer for K-4, adding on another 5 preps. And if the other teachers decide that I need to plan lessons as part of my Enrichment duties, that adds on another 3 preps. That totals up to 23 preps required, 26 if the other teachers decide to give them to me. There has to be some way that you can overlap what you're doing for similar grade levels K/1, 2/3, 4/5, etc. Do you teach each of those classes and grade levels every single day?
I am new to this field, so I am inexperienced anyway, and on top of that I was not certified as an elementary teacher OR in any of these subjects (my certification is for high school English). Is it normal to have so many preps in elementary school? I have 7 preps/day which total to be about 35/week. Student teaching in a high school I only had 2 preps and the most that any teacher had was 3. I was also given almost no information regarding curriculum for my current job, so I am creating my own completely from scratch, Contact the company and ask for resources which I did not know that I would have to do when I took the job. Because of repairs to the building I was not able to even see the textbooks until about a week before school began. I am lost. I am overwhelmed. I am getting severely depressed because I do not think that I have the capability to do this job as well as my students deserve. I hate to sound whiny or lazy, but I am really at a loss.
What should I do? Ask for help. Use your resources at school. Ask other teachers for help.
I am a new teacher and took on 3 different courses, all with no curriculum or resources. I feel some of your pain. Your workload is A LOT though
Definitely reach out to whoever at the school is willing to help. I break everything down into smaller tasks. I freak out when just looking at the big picture, like "what the heck am I going to teach?!". I took one weekend to plan at least a basic unit outline of all my courses just to give myself an idea of where to go with each course. I googled a lot of different school programs to get ideas since my school didn't have anything for me. Use the resources that are out there. Don't reinvent the wheel, as they say.
I also second the idea of getting at least a teacher text. If anything it at least gives me an idea of what direction to go in and what order to put things.