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4 essential classroom tips to help you survive your first year of teaching 4 essential classroom tips to help you survive your first year of teaching
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4 essential classroom tips for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)

Feb 11, 2017

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Page 1: 4 essential classroom tips for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)

4 essential classroom tips to help you survive your first year of teaching4 essential classroom tips to help you survive your first year of teaching

Page 2: 4 essential classroom tips for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)

Facing your first year of teaching? Your first year of teaching will undoubtedly present many challenges and triumphs, running you through nearly every emotion there is to experience.

For NQTs, this first step into the ‘real world’ of teaching can be incredibly daunting, particularly as recent figures from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers suggest a significant proportion of teachers leave the classroom within a year of qualifying.

So how can you avoid becoming a statistic and, moreover, thrive in your first year of teaching?

We’ve found the best tips to help you make it through...

Page 3: 4 essential classroom tips for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)

1. Put yourself in your students’ shoes? It goes without saying that preparation is key for your first few days in the classroom - and every day thereafter. But aside from the basic classroom setup, decorations and lesson plans, there are a few more tricks you can employ to ensure these key first impressions are positive.

Approach your classroom layout from the perspective of a child and consider if there’s anything that could be distracting to them.

Similarly, review your lesson plan to check for any words or phrases that could be misconstrued by students. Kids will always find something to throw you off course, but this extra bit of preparation can give you the confidence to shake it off.

Page 4: 4 essential classroom tips for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)

2. Over-plan your lessons While it’s great to have freedom and flexibility in your lessons, as a first-year teacher you may not have the confidence or experience to navigate a more free-flowing classroom just yet.

For your first few weeks, you might find it beneficial to over-plan your lessons so that you have no breaks or unorganised time that could throw the classroom into chaos.

Unless you happen to be teaching a class of angels, it’s unlikely your students will wait quietly for you to figure out what’s happening next.

Try to always have a game or task on hand to help fill in any gaps.

Page 5: 4 essential classroom tips for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)

3. Seek respect, not friendship Ideally, you’ll click with all of your students and develop a rapport with them right away.

However, this is unlikely to be the case for every single person in your class, so it’s important to remember that gaining your students’ respect is more important than their friendship.

Remind yourself that they don’t have to like you, but they do need to respect you.

Page 6: 4 essential classroom tips for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)

4. Form a support network It can be tempting to try to ‘go it alone’ when you’re just starting out, but that road will always be so much harder than one that is paved with support from your peers, friends and family.

When you start at a new school, seek out friendships and professional relationships with your peers to help bounce ideas off and add an extra level of support.

Stay in touch with your fellow NQTs and share your journey together – if you have a bad day, no doubt someone else has had a worse one. And if you’ve made a brilliant breakthrough with a student, they’ll no doubt share your excitement.

Page 7: 4 essential classroom tips for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)

If you are an NQT looking for a new placement,

contact Capita Education Recruitment on

0800 731 6871.

www.capitaeducation.co.uk

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Good luck with your first year of teaching! We know you’ll

be great.