TL;DR:
- Finding your voice as a new teacher can be challenging. But your voice is as important now than it has been ever before.
- Identify your why, get connected on social media, and get involved to find your voice.
As a new teacher, finding your voice in your new school community can be challenging. Add to that a pandemic, forcing us apart from our colleagues. It is time to think outside the box and build your community in a more creative way. Let me tell you a secret; your voice is needed now more than ever. New teachers can, and should, have a seat at the table as schools around the world redesign their learning experiences to meet the current needs of our society. Here are some ideas to get started!
Finding Your Voice: Identify your WHY.
What are you passionate about? What awesome experiences are you bringing to the table in your new job? You don’t just have an awesome resume and cookie-cutter transcript from your pre-service teaching days. Think about the extracurriculars you pursued when you were in school. Or think about the quirky classes you fit into your college schedule because you were fascinated by the subject. Your background and interests have set you up to have expert experience in more areas than your certified content area or grade level.
As a new teacher, you are still learning the ropes. That means you constantly need to be flexible, creative, and open to new ideas. Those characteristics that all new teachers share are invaluable. Click To TweetMy background is a great example of this. I started college as a Music Performance major. Even when I switched into Secondary Education, I still managed to squeeze some ‘passion’ courses into my schedule, like Genetic Biology and Honors Dinosaurs. Yes, I fully recognize my nerd status here! When I was hired for my role as a high school English teacher, my background gave me unique perspectives when teaching research writing. And it helped when incorporating creative art projects into my literary units. It also set me up to support the high school drama program as the Music Director in their spring productions.
These experiences in unique subjects don’t necessarily stand out on my resume. However, they fuel my passion for an interdisciplinary approach in my teaching. I need you to think about the experiences you are most passionate about, and connect that to your new job. Once you are able to narrow down ‘why’ you teach, you’ll have more direction when finding spaces to share your voice.
Finding Your Voice: Get connected on social media.
Building a personal learning network on your various social media accounts is a great first step to begin connecting with other educators and sharing your voice. There are so many great resources on the Teach Better blog about getting started on Twitter or Instagram (or even just navigating the many social platforms and finding the best one for you!). But the reason you should start sharing your voice on social media is because you’re probably already doing it. You got comfortable sharing your opinions, updates, and let’s face it, the occasional song lyrics on your favorite social media platforms long before you considered becoming a teacher. You just need to reframe your presence on the platform.
The concept of reframing takes some work.
Whether that takes the form of updating your privacy settings, deleting mass amounts of old content, or starting from scratch, is really up to you. I want you to pick a platform and start following awesome educators. They could teach in the same school as you, or in a different hemisphere! Because so many educators are publishing exemplary content, you’ll gain access to essentially passive, informal mentoring from some of the world’s best education thought leaders.
What I love about education spaces on social media is that the culture encourages everyone to participate. Others can support your voice and validate you in spaces from Twitter chats to Instagram polls. The rockstar educators responding to your questions about classroom management in the Teach Better Facebook Group don’t know your resume or background, they are just here to cheer you on and make sure you are doing your best work today, and even better work tomorrow. Once you gain more confidence in sharing your ideas and opinions in an online format, it’s time to bring that to your own school community.
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Finding Your Voice: Get involved.
Honestly, that’s harder than it sounds this year. In a typical year, you will be encouraged as a new teacher to take on leadership roles in your school. I remember my very first meeting with my principal after I was hired. We sat down to review procedures and evaluations. He told me that getting involved was the best way to understand our school’s culture. He also said that it was how I could earn top marks in one of the tiers of our evaluative cycle, which was an added perk! Because of my unique background, I was able to jump right into the theatrical arts…but your area of involvement may be the staff representative of the photography club, or the assistant field hockey coach! Working with the students is the best way to grow your connections and comfort in your new school.
Additionally, keep your eye out for emails asking for staff to join School Improvement meetings, provide feedback to the union representatives, or sit in on grant committees. It takes up a lot of time that you probably would want to devote to lesson planning, but pays off dividends in the long run.
You spent a long time in college learning how to lesson plan, but you will be an active member of this school community for (hopefully!) even longer.
And don’t forget, even if this new job isn’t your dream job, you will still learn so much from this position. And you will want to keep these colleagues in your network no matter where you end up. Take a seat at the table so your administrators, leaders, and colleagues know that you care about all aspects of this new position, and want to make a difference.
As a new teacher, you are still learning the ropes. That means you constantly need to be flexible, creative, and open to new ideas. Those characteristics that all new teachers share are invaluable, especially in 2020. You have so much to share with your colleagues, both in school and around the world, and everyone can’t wait to hear from you!
About Erin Healey
Erin is an English teacher at Chariho High School, in Rhode Island. She is the founder of the Young Educators Society of Rhode Island (@yesriorg), a Highlander Institute Fuse Fellow, current Master’s student studying Education Technology at the University of Connecticut, and can always be found drinking coffee (preferably a PSL)!
