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If you’re new to teaching in a career and technical education program, chances are you have some questions about how your year will go. After all, starting a position always presents unique challenges, so you want to put yourself in the best position for success.
You may be wondering how you’ll adapt to your new classroom environment and might be concerned about your ability to get and keep your students’ attention.
Thankfully, there are several steps you can take now to ensure your first year as a CTE teacher is successful!
In this article, you’ll learn about seven top tips for new CTE teachers, including:
- Seek Mentorship
- Prioritize Professional Development
- Give Yourself a Break
- Emphasize Routines and Processes
- Lean on Others
- Find What Works for You
- Don’t Forget Your Why
When you’ve finished reading, you’ll know how to confidently enter the classroom as a new teacher and start inspiring the next generation of professionals!
1. Seek Mentorship
The first step you can take as a new teacher to ensure a successful start to the year is to seek mentorship from an experienced educator. Guidance from a teacher with years of classroom knowledge can help frame your start to the year and act as a resource as you become comfortable in your new classroom.
The good news about finding a mentor is that you might not need to do it yourself! Many school districts have formal mentorship programs already set up. Ideally, you’ll be paired with someone who teaches the same subject as you or, at the minimum, has experience working in CTE classrooms.
You’ll likely be assigned to meet with your mentor a certain number of times during the year, but don’t be afraid to spend more time asking questions or getting help as the occasion arises. Solid mentorship can truly make a difference in your ability to become a confident and successful CTE teacher.
2. Prioritize Professional Development
Continual professional development is important to all teachers, but especially those who are new to the classroom. Professional development opportunities keep educators aware of the latest developments, teach them valuable classroom strategies, and allow them to network with other professionals.
There are many different professional development opportunities available for both virtually and in person. You can look for opportunities that interest you or choose options to develop skills like classroom management and CTSO advising.
Virtual professional development allows you to gain experience from your home or school office, while in-person gatherings at conferences and day-long seminars can allow you to build a network of support with fellow teachers. Regardless, taking advantage of professional development opportunities can build experience you can use to help your students.
3. Give Yourself a Break
Since you’re new to the classroom, you’re not going to be able to employ every successful teaching strategy right away. Allowing yourself to learn from your mistakes is essential as you develop as a teacher.
Being willing to step back, evaluate each class period, and apply what you learned are marks of an experienced educator. Know that not every class will go as planned, but that you can continually revise and improve your curriculum and instruction to create a better learning experience.
To make this possible, give yourself the patience to grow as an instructor. Be sure to recognize it will take time to fully understand what methods work best when teaching your CTE students.
4. Emphasize Routines and Processes
It can be difficult to set clear expectations and processes in your classroom for the first time. But you’ll thank yourself later for implementing a solid routine for yourself and your students.
A consistent classroom routine gives your students a sense of what to expect each day, allowing them to better prepare for each period. If you introduce bell ringer activities, regular projects and activities, and periodic assessments, they’ll know to be prepared for each element of the learning experience.
A standard routine can also ensure students stay engaged throughout the class period, maximizing their ability to retain information and perform well and exams and certification tests.
5. Lean on Others
Teaching is a team sport. This is why it’s important to build relationships with others who can help you through your first year in the classroom and beyond. Beginning with your new teacher orientation, building relationships with other new instructors can give you a community to grow with over the academic year.
You should also try to build relationships with experienced teachers, even beyond formal mentorship opportunities. Communicating with instructors in your department and others in your building and program can give you a network of support you can depend on when challenges arise.
Finally, don’t forget about creating strong relationships with your students. Establishing trust with your learners early in the school year will make classroom life easier going forward.
6. Find What Works for You
Successful teaching doesn’t work like magic. It involves constantly adopting and changing instructional strategies to ensure that your students are engaged and learning.
Especially during your first year, experiment with different approaches to find what works for you and your students. Consider blending learning strategies that incorporate a blend of multimedia lectures, projects and activities, and formative and summative assessments. Using both traditional classroom instructional and digital learning can help add variety to your classes to pique your students’ interest.
Ultimately, one of the best parts about being a teacher is the ability to try something new tomorrow. Soon enough, you’ll discover what gets the best results from your students so you can use these strategies again and again.
7. Don’t Forget Your Why
Our final tip for new teachers might also be the most important one: never forget your “why.” There is a reason you want to become a teacher. It might be because you had great teachers who inspired you. You might have wanted to be an instructor to make a difference in your local community or to give back to an industry which gave you many opportunities.
Whatever your reason for pursuing a career in education, it’s critical to keep this in focus each and every day. Inevitably, you’ll face challenges in the classroom that can be frustrating. Sometimes, these obstacles could even make you question your choice to be a teacher.
But ultimately, you became a teacher to help students and make a difference in their lives. Remembering this powerful “why” each day can give you the confidence to keep going, knowing that each day you are growing in experience as a teacher and making a lifelong impact on learners.
Start Your Teaching Career with Confidence
Starting a new career as a CTE teacher can be challenging. After all, if you’re new to teaching, it can be difficult to know how to adjust to the classroom environment and adopt teaching strategies that will ensure your students are attentive, focused, and ultimately, successful.
But now that you’ve learned seven tips for new CTE teachers, you should be in a better position to have a successful start to your teaching career!
Want to keep each of these tips in mind as you go about your day-to-day instruction?
Keep all of this new teacher advice in the front of your mind when you download your new teacher tips infographic. This free infographic covers each of these tips so you can remember to use them in your classroom!
