This newsletter was supposed to be about how to prepare your students for your state assessment, but I couldn’t wait until January to share that important information…you can find it in the section of newteacherhelp.com called “NCLB & You”.  So…since my January topic has already been addressed, I’ve decided to touch on a different (but still important) topic for you to consider as you enter the teaching profession:

Periodically, the news media will tell the story of a teacher who was removed from their position because of some mistake they made.  When I was a teacher, those stories used to make me angry.  “Why can’t people leave teachers alone!” I would scream at the T.V. (as if they could hear me)… “Once again, people took a small mistake and blew it out of proportion!”  I couldn’t believe that a person’s career could be ended because of something that the teacher probably wasn’t even taught about in college (or warned about by their colleagues).  Some of the things teachers are dismissed for today were common practice just a few years ago.  What bothered me the most was the reaction of people in the “non-teaching” public, who seem to enjoy hearing stories about teachers being disciplined.  I suppose most people have a memory of a teacher who corrected them (unfairly?) when they were in school, so there’s this tiny feeling of resentment towards people in authority…the same kind of feeling that results in a crowd laughing when a referee falls down during a football game.

As a new teacher, you need to know that feeling exists among the general public.  A friend of mine who works in the news media told me recently that a team of investigators (usually interns) at his T.V. station spend hours surfing around on Facebook and MySpace, looking for inappropriate content posted by teachers.  He said that it is a common practice at many T.V. stations, radio stations and newspapers around the country.  You will notice that if a dump-truck driver makes a mistake, it probably will be printed on Page 17B of the newspaper…if a teacher makes the same mistake, it’s on Page 1.  You will also notice that students can publish their opinions about teachers on Facebook, but teachers cannot publish their opinions about students.  Our society holds teachers to a higher standard, and whether you think it is fair or unfair, you need to know the rules of the game.

Speaking of games, two coaches were fired recently for actions they took against their players.  Mike Leach was fired as coach of Texas Tech football for putting one of his players in an equipment shed during practice because the player had a mild concussion, and South Florida coach Jim Leavitt was dismissed for making physical contact with one of his players during an angry tirade.  I am not going to defend their actions, but I will use them to make my point…these coaches were the most successful coaches at each of these institutions (Leavitt was the ONLY football coach that USF has ever had), and they developed the mind-set that they were above judgement.  They found out that they were not, and it was an expensive lesson for both of them.  They each stand to lose millions of dollars because of their actions.

So, when you hear a negative story about a teacher, refuse to see it as a negative.  Look at it as a positive!  “How do I do that?” you ask…just see it as a reminder that you are not above judgement.  Learn from their mistakes, and always be aware of the traps that you can fall into as an educator.  As we go through life, we sometimes get so focused on what we are doing that we forget to do the right thing in all situations.  These types of stories come along every so often to remind us of our important status as role models for our nation’s youth.

With that said, I want to shift gears a bit and thank all of you for giving me feedback on what to put on newteacherhelp.com, and how to make the website more helpful to new teachers.  I have been getting a ton of emails, and I also have had the opportunity to interview many student teachers and new teachers at job fairs in the area.  I will be addressing the topics they suggested in the coming days and weeks, as I put new content on the site almost daily.  I will share with you one interesting nugget that several new teachers have told me regarding the “New Teacher Survival Kit”…when I asked them if there was any reason why they would NOT buy the kit, most teachers said that they may not buy the kit because they were confident in the training they had received in college.  I could see where people would feel that way, even though veteran teachers know that it is a matter of time before their perceptions change.  The other answer I received really shocked me, though…some new teachers wouldn’t buy the kit because it was too cheap!  Several new teachers expressed the feeling that the kit probably wouldn’t be helpful because I was only charging $20 for it.  They said that I could sell a ton of kits if I RAISED the price!  If you haven’t bought the New Teacher Survival Kit yet, don’t worry…I am not going to raise the price.  In fact, when I publish my “Next Level” series in April, 2010 it will also be $20.  I just don’t believe in charging exorbitant prices for my products just to give the impression that it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  I will just let the product speak for itself!  The NTSK has everything that you will need to get your teaching career off to a great start, don’t let the cheap price fool you!

I will sign off for now, but I remind you to keep checking back with us on newteacherhelp.com as we address more issues facing new teachers, such as homework policies, providing incentives to increase student achievement, building a system of interventions to reach all students, writing grants, dealing with student plagiarism, determining whether an educational trend is a “fad” or real, motivating the unmotivated student, and making sure your “probationary” contract becomes a “tenured” contract when the time comes.  I am also working on getting rid of that annoying html code like <!—[if!supportLists]-->, which only appears to people surfing my website using Internet Explorer.  It is taking a while to remove all of the code because I am having to go into each individual web page on this site to remove the code by hand.  Keep those emails rolling in to newteacherhelp@yahoo.com to add your concerns to the list I’m building…and good luck to you!!