Introduction

In effect, adolescents are going through a huge transition period in their lives when they change from the proverbial caterpillar into the beautiful butterfly. If you are a new teacher of adolescents or even an experienced teacher of adolescents the information contained in the blog below will help you to understand the theory behind this incredible metamorphosis while at the same time giving you practical information about how to work with adolescents in the classroom. The blog will cover many pertinent topics regarding the education of adolescents including the following: coping strategies for new teachers, useful tips for new teachers, advice on transitioning into adulthood, psychosocial issues of adolescents, cognitive issues of adolescents and physical development of adolescents. In addition, there will be professional resources provided within the blog that give additional insight into the life and education of an adolescent. The authors of the blog hope that you find it inspiring, motivating, and helpful.

Acknowledgement

The authors of this blog want to thank all of the devoted teachers and students who took the time to be informally interviewed for this project. These important people helped to give the authors insight into how to help new teachers of adolescent students. These teachers and students have shared much valuable wisdom for the teaching profession.

Who Stays In Teaching and Why?

By the end of five years, almost half of new teachers have left the profession. A 1986 study concluded that teachers who leave the profession show a lower mean income than those who stay, disputing the myth that all teacher unhappiness is related to low income.

This graph shows the retention rate of a typical cohort of teachers at the end of each of their first five years of teaching.

Source: TEA and Texas Teacher Recruitment and Retention Study

The following url links to an article on www.edweek.org that features an interview with research assistant, Morgaen Donaldson who works with the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at Harvard University. It discusses what educational research says about teacher retention in terms of recruitment and personnel administration.

http://www2.edweek.org/agentk-12/articles/2005/05/27/05pngt_tr.html

Finding & Improving Your Teaching Persona

Finding & Improving the New Teacher Persona: Methods for Not Driving Yourself Crazy At The Beginning of Your Teaching Career

“The only advice that I got when I started teaching was to erase the board using vertical strokes—erasing the board from side to side makes your butt wiggle.”

The Teacher As Actor

Teaching is a kind of performance, and the person you are in front of a classroom is in some ways different from the person you are the rest of the time. Developing your "teaching persona"--the person you become once you step into the classroom--takes time and experience.

Finding YOUR Teaching Persona

Over time, you will discover whether you, as a teacher, are loud or quiet, funny or serious, a sitter or a stander, a board user or a handout maven. In the meantime, experiment with different approaches until you figure out what feels comfortable and what elicits the best reaction from your students. Don't hesitate to try something that may not "feel like you," because your teaching persona may turn out to be an unexpected side of you. But, do not be afraid to reject suggestions on teaching that you feel your innate personality will prevent you from pulling off. You will look uncomfortable and be less effective, not to mention lose the attention of your students.

Teaching With Authority

For beginning teachers, there is often a progression from acting like you are in charge of the classroom to feeling like you are in charge of the classroom. This is normal. Unless you give them reason not to, students will generally accept your authority no matter how you feel about your qualifications as a teacher.

You will start to feel like you are in charge of your classroom as you gain experience. Until then, you may find that you rely more on "the rules" (school guidelines, due dates, syllabi) and on established teacher-student roles to create a feeling of authority. For example, many new teachers start by imitating favorite teachers of their own. As you get more experience and confidence, you will be able to act more natural in your role as an educator. You then will be able to be more yourself while developing your unique toolbox as an experienced teacher.

Teaching as A Learning Tool

At some point in your teaching career, you will fall on your face. It will probably happen more than once, particularly in the first years of your career. It may be painful, but you will survive. And you should find it reassuring to know that every teacher has had this happen.

You can come to class feeling completely prepared to teach brilliantly and leave wishing you had never gotten out of bed. See if you can figure out what went wrong. Keep notes--you might teach the same class every year and you will want to know what you could have done better as soon as you finish the semester. Learn from this experience but do not torture yourself about it. Focus on making the next academic year or the next semester better.

Maintaining Perspective

Your car broke down. A relationship ended. Your young child was teething and crying until dawn. You were up until 3 a.m. grading. You have had five cups of coffee, and you cannot wake up. You will have bad days. It is your responsibility to do your best not to let outside factors bring down your teaching. When you teach badly, figure out how you can take care of yourself so that you are in better shape when it is time to teach again. Obsessing about what went wrong will not get you on the road to feeling (and teaching) better.

What Your Students Are Thinking...After Class

By the time Friday afternoon comes around, you may be fretting over whether or not your lessons were as lively as the tenured teacher next door. Rest assured that your adolescent high school students are not worrying about your class (or any of their other classes) as much as you are. For most teen agers, the reflective process ends the moment the period bell rings (if not before!). Some students may think about what happened in class right after they leave, but if the class did not go well from your perspective, it is not likely that the student's recall will be focused on your mistakes or nervousness; they will probably be more concerned with whether they are getting an accurate meaning of the material you presented or not.

"One night at the supermarket, I wheeled my cart into the check out line right behind one of my students. She looked completely shocked. She clearly believed that I did not exist outside of the classroom."

What You Should Be Thinking...After Class

An important part of teaching is learning from experience. When a class goes well, think about what went right so that you can repeat it. When a class goes badly, think about what went wrong, execute any procedural school guidelines to address behaviour or discipline problems right away, but do not kick yourself about it; just fix it. See it as a learning experience, not as a statement about your ultimate abilities as a teacher. Most mistakes can be fixed in time and remember that a bad day in class here or there does not make a bad teacher over time. Don't immediately consider fleeing the teaching profession. Give yourself time to reflect and reprioritze; always remember that even the most seasoned of teachers are ALWAYS learning their craft to teach again (better!) on another day.

Advice from Experienced Middle School Teachers for New Teachers

Strive to be respected, not popular. Be patient and compasionate; maintain your sense of humor. (Middle School English Teacher)

Be patient and be ready to learn a lot from your students and about yourself. (Middle School Special Education Teacher)

Even though they might seem adult in size, they are not mentally ready to be assessed in adult ways. Keep in mind that their brains are still growing. On the other hand, if you treat them with adult-like respect, they often reciprocate with an adult-like response. (Middle School Social Studies Teacher)


Remember that teenagers can be mean and sensitive at the same time. They can be cruel to one another and to you, but cannot take the same in return. Give them "timeout" space to get it together when they are angry or upset. They do not respond well to sarcasm--they don't always get it, so avoid using it in the classroom. Never be alone with a student. Keep the parents on your side; they can make your life miserable. In other words--bite your tongue. (Middle School Gifted Teacher)


I don't think you can assume the following.

don't assume they have prior knowledge of your topic
don't assume they are outgoing and comfortable with participating
don't assume the smile on their face means everything is okay
don't assume a frown means they are unhappy
don't assume a kid with expensive clothes has money
don't assume a kid in rags is poor
don't assume a kid in corn rows is going to be a behavior problem
don't assume a kid in a wheelchair is not capable
don't assume a kid has eaten breakfast or dinner the night before


Do assume:
Do assume that kids have bad days and need a break
Do assume that kids will only meet your expectations if they are high
Do assume that all kids can learn
Do assume that all kids want to make people laugh
Do assume they can behave if you are consistent and clear with rules
Do assume they can express themselves properly
Do assume that all kids want love
Do assume that all kids want attention
Do assume that all kids want to succeed
Do assume that if the material is over their head, they will struggle
Do assume that all adolescents want to fit in
(7th Grade Special Education Teacher)

Advice from 7th Grade Students for New Teachers

From the mouths of babes.....Below are some bits of advice from seventh grade students to new teachers of adolescents.

Be patient and try to understand their minds. Make projects fun and class fun so they don’t get bored. Have fun!

Don’t let them be the boss of you. Don’t give them a lot of homework if you want them to like you.

Don’t be afraid to tell them that they’re misbehaving.

Don’t fall for excuses. Tell jokes, but don’t be awkward. Don’t take off points for spelling. Be fun!

When we are loud make sure to be strict to quiet us down.

Be patient because adolescents can get off task and you need to be patient.

Don’t let the kids take over! Be strict, but nice. Be patient!

Use a lot of different ways to teach. Example: don’t always make kids take notes, sometimes play a game to help kids learn.

Treat others the way you want to be treated.

Don’t give them too much slack.

Everything is hard before it is easy. Let them chew gum, lots.

Control the kids, don’t let them talk too much.

Don’t give a test without telling the students a week ahead.

If you want kids to like you do a lot of fun stuff with the kids that you think they would like. You were a kid once think of something.

Be flexible but not flimsy. Don’t be super strict, like detention after the first day-late assignment from a relatively good student, but don’t allow them to turn things in a week late for full credit. Don’t take off a ton of points for spelling. Encourage them to read. Don’t overload them with homework – other teachers are giving them homework too. Especially from a textbook.

Some extra thoughts to consider as a new teacher

One Hundred Years from now (excerpt from "Within My Power" by Forest Witcraft)

One Hundred Years from now It will not matter what kind of car I drove,
What kind of house I lived in,
how much money was in my bank account nor what my clothes looked like.
But the world may be a better place because I was important in the life of a child.


Hebrew Proverb"A child is not a vessel to be filled, but a lamp to be lit".

This is a great Video, watch what it means to be a teacher!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU

"Books are a form of outdated technology created in the dark ages for a society devoid of computers, electronic media or digital data. In today’s society, getting information from a book is like calculating math on your fingers and toes. To grade this report, please post your comments on my blog..."—Cartoon by Randy Glasbergen

3 practical ways to aid adolescents into adulthood

3 practical ways to aid adolescents into adulthood

Listen before giving advice: letting students make and correct their own mistakes is critical for student growth. Try remembering when you were a teenager and how you learned best. Often times you learned more when you were allowed to make a mistake and correct it on your own then being told not to do something and not allowed to even try one way and realize it was a mistake. A practical way you can do this in your classroom is by giving student’s more freedom and not setting up completely structure guidelines for projects.

An example would be to have students examine and teach a battle from the Revolutionary War to the rest of the class. Students could do this using power-point. They could have the students reenact this battle, they could write and read a poem they wrote about the battle but allowing them the freedom to see what works for them will allow them to learn more about themselves and their own learning styles and encourage them to further develop these styles in the future.

Another example is to have student’s pick their own topics related to a theme for a paper rather than giving everyone a specific topic.

When you listen to the student’s needs before hanging out advice and listen to the student’s ideas you can get to know your students better and allow them the freedom to express themselves and in turn learn more about themselves.

Model Adult actions and behaviors: One of the greatest ways you can influence your students and help aid them in growth is to act like an adult and model for your students how adults respond differently to situations verse how adolescence respond. You can do this in the way you say things or the way you do things and you can also challenge students to begin thinking like an adult in a safe environment such as the classroom. One way you can encourage them to think like an adult and reflect on how that is different from the way they think as an adolescent is to create a task where students would need to reflect on a situation how they would respond and how their parents or teachers may respond differently. They could then write a short paragraph on why they think their responses are different. This can begin to start the discussion on how students are in a transition phase of their life.

Have students reflect on their own life and their patchwork self: As teachers we can encourage students to grow and aid in their growth by asking students to reflect on their lives and why they take on certain roles. By encouraging students to think about themselves and interpersonalize their lives we can assist them in developing a greater knowledge about who they are as an individual. It is not until students understand at least to some degree who they are, that they can start to grow more into a role of who they would like to become.

Advice from teachers:

"Student's want to learn, we just have to make learning fun and interesting. With all of the stimulants student's receive outside of the classroom, they do not want to come in for a boring lecture. We must make history not only exciting but living and active." - Chicago Public School Social Studies Teacher 15 years.

"If I had one word of advice it would be to not let your job overtake you, good teachers have a life outside of the classroom." - 6th grade Math teacher

"Being a teacher is great! Remember though that you may not always see the flowers bloom you helped plant. But God calls us to only help plant the seeds, it is His job to water them and watch them grow." - Religion Teacher

The Use of Multiple Intelligences in Your Classroom

“I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place.” – Howard Gardner

Dear New Teacher,

The teenage years can often be terrifying for students, but it also can be just as scary for parents and teachers who spend everyday with these teens as they ride on an emotional rollercoaster. Being a new teacher and experiencing teenage angst and anxiety in your classroom has the potential to greatly influence your classroom environment. One way to turn these scary times into positive motivators within your class is to create an environment where different personalities, different body types and different intelligences are not only respected but encouraged. As new teachers we must create lesson plans and activities that are sensitive to our students and their wide rage of learning styles. There are many ways that you can create a classroom environment where students learning increases because they feel accepted and capable of contributing to the learning process within the class as a whole.

As new teachers it can be difficult to create lesson plans that encourage the use of multiple intelligences, however, the extra effort to develop creative lessons will be well rewarded with a positive response as different students who in a typical classroom would not do as well suddenly excel when creating an assignment using paint instead of words. Students express their knowledge in different ways. We as teachers need to acknowledge and allow for the freedom to use their strengths and also develop other intelligences. For example a student who does not have a high literacy rate may not do well in a history classroom essay exam, but he/she may excel when asked to create a diaphragm of a scene from the Civil War.

Howard Gardner is well known for his study on the theories of multiple intelligences. It is important to know what the multiple intelligences are so that we as teachers may develop lesson plans that incorporate all of them into our curriculum. By doing so we can increase the success rate of students and encourage students to broaden their abilities and critically think in different ways.

- Your Friend and Colleague

List and description of the 8 most common multiple intelligences:

Linguistic Intelligence: (good with language and writing) involves sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals. This intelligence includes the ability to effectively use language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically; and language as a means to remember information. Writers, poets, lawyers and speakers are amount those that are seen to having high linguistic intelligence.

Logical-mathematical intelligence: (categorizes, puzzles, how things fit together, good with organizing information) consists of the capacity to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically. It entails the ability to detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically.

Musical Intelligence: involves skills in the performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patters. It encompasses the capacity to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones and rhythms.

Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence: entails the potential of using one’s whole body or parts of the body to solve problems. It is the ability to coordinate bodily movements.

Spatial Intelligence: (seeing how things work 3D, good with understanding of space, artistic intelligence) involves the potential to recognize and use the patters of wide space and more confined areas.

Interpersonal intelligence: is concerned with the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. It allows people to work effectively with others. Educators, salespeople, religious and political leaders and counselors all need a well-developed interpersonal intelligence.

Intrapersonal Intelligence: (reflective) entails the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one’s feeling, fears and motivations.

Naturalist Intelligence: (The ability to make sense of the world around you) enables human beings to recognize, categorize and draw upon certain features of the environment. It combines a description of the core ability with a characterization that many cultures value.

Examining these multiple intelligences and looking at ways to fit them into your lesson plans can help you as an educator question your work and encourage you to look beyond the narrow confines of dominant discourses such as curriculum and testing to develop lessons that will encourage student learning and broaden their scope of the subject you are teaching. At the end of this article you will find suggestions on ways to bring these multiple intelligences into the classroom in practical ways.

A valuable resource to look at that lists other ways to use multiple intelligences in the classroom can be found at the Project SUMMIT website. Http://www.pz.harvard.edu.SUMIT/COMPT.HTM

This information on Multiple Intelligences was taken from:

• Gardner, H. (1999) Intelligence Reframed. Multiple Intelligences for the
  21st century. New York: Basic Books.

• Smith, M. K. (2002) ‘Howard Gardner and multiple intelligences’, the encyclopedia of informal education, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

Practical Ways to use the different Multiple Intelligences in your classroom!

Linguistic: Have your students write an essay, poem or speech about an important figure for the time you are studying (history) Have your student write a paragraph about why they would use a certain formula in a situation (math) Have your students write a poem about the process of growth from a seed to a tree (science)

Logical-Mathematical: Have your students create a time-line of events related to their cause and effect. (History) Have your students solve a problem on the board (math) Have your students categorize objects (science)

Musical: students can write a song or create an instrument/sounds that relate to a current time frame they are studying. (History) Students can interpret why certain sounds have a higher frequency (science)

Bodily-Kinesthetic: Students can create an interpretive dance or act out a scene from an event in history. (History) Students can solve math equations around the room at different stations or create movements based on angles measurements and numbers. (Math)

Spatial: Students can create a diaphragm of a scene from the civil war. (History) Students can become an architect for a day and create a building using equations. (Math) Students can organize a garden based on what each plant needs and design a greenhouse (science)

Interpersonal: This would involve group work

Intrapersonal: Have your students write a journal about how they would react if they were in a situation from the past compared to how they would react to that same situation today. (History) Students can journal about their strengths and weaknesses in solving math problems and reflect on how they may go about improving their weaknesses. (Math) Students can write a reflective journal about what they are learning in their science classroom and how those lessons can be applied to their everyday life. (Science)

Naturalist: Have your students examine their current community and compare it to a community 100 years ago. (History) Have your students find math problems in everyday life related to the environment such as how much gas it costs to drive to and from their home to school everyday. (Math) Have your students plant a tree and study the effect of using paper and other products that require trees to be cut down. (Science)

- Information interpreted and compiled by Samantha Harris

Aiding Adolescents into Adulthood: Examining the Patchwork Self

"Girls need a sense of belonging and it just makes sense to take the biggest distraction for girls out of the classroom so that they can focus better. I have also found these student's to participate more in an all girls classroom because they feel like they belong and do not have anyone over shadowing or intimidating them as boys often do." - freshman science teacher comment on single sex verse coed schools.






Common Questions of new educators:

What is a patchwork self! How can I as a teacher acknowledge and help students create a more individual identity?
Is this important to do, I’m only a teacher?

If you are asking yourself any of these questions it is important to read this article! The adolescent years are some of the most important years in a person’s life because they are the years that often times define and develop a person’s personality and identity that they will carry throughout their adult life. During junior high and high school this identity process can often lead to instability and emotional outbursts that often seem out of character for the student and can be disruptive in your classroom. The identity process is one of the most crucial processes that students will go through as they create a patchwork self. David Elkind is one of the leading researchers on student personality development and has identified students as creating a patchwork self. He defines a patchwork self as, “an end result of a personality growth by substitution” (Elkind 1998). A patchwork self is the result of different attitudes, values, beliefs and habits that do not really connect. It is a combination of students trying to create a personality that mirrors someone else, such as a popular kid or a well liked student at school to the struggle of trying to decide what is best for them as an individual. Student’s who create a patchwork self often have low self-esteem and are trying to fit in with a more popular crowd at school. They may for example go to a drinking party that goes against their religious beliefs but sacrifice their own values in order to be/feel accepted. This creates an inner anger problem as they struggle with being angry at themselves for not standing up for what they believe in to the polar opposite of being angry at themselves for standing up and not going along with the crowd (Elkind 1998). The stress that goes along with this inner struggle can cause many difficult situations within your classroom. It is important to understand the causes of this stress in your students in order to be better able to help them coup with the stress and help them begin to create an identity that is true to themselves which is important for a solid transition into adulthood.


David Elkind defines many different stresses that can cause problems for students with a patchwork self. Two that we will examine are anxious and conforming teenagers because these will be the two most common found in your classroom. Anxious teenagers stew over their decisions because they lack a sense of self and can not decide whether to give in or get out of a situation, when these students are confronted with negative situations that are avoidable oftentimes their conflicting values within their patchwork self can pull them in multiple directions at the same time, this can lead to a potentially dangerous situation. Elkind compared anxious adolescents to those lacking mature stress-management skills and often times reverting back to infant skills such as pretending to get sick to avoid the situation (Elkind 1998). While many new teachers could have trouble seeing how this personality disorder can have an affect on your classroom an environment it is often something that when not considered can cause a huge problem during class. An example would be when you ask the students to break into group to solve a problem say in a history textbook. This problem could deal with how the students would react to a situation during the Great Depression. A student with a patchwork self who leans toward anxiety disorder may pretend to get sick or not participate in the group for fear of saying something that would not be accepted. One way we can help encourage our students to develop a greater sense of self identity and maturity is to encourage each student to first write down their thoughts separately and then compare them. We also must create an environment where everyone’s ideas are respected and heard. You can create this environment by setting down ground rules on day 1 about respect and the consequences of not respecting their peers. Conforming teenagers have similar issues as they deal with creating a patchwork self but differ from those with anxiety because they lack self-acceptance and often do not get support from home so they seek it in their peers (Elkind 1998). These are the teenagers in your classroom who most likely will engage in risky behavior to get the attention and support of their peers. It is important as educators to notice when a student is acting out in class to get a response from their peers and to not respond to them in front of their peers. In order to deal best with these students it is important to set up a time to meet with the student outside of the classroom time when their peers are not present. Often it is during this time that we can talk with the student and encourage them to discover their own identity and not define it by others. One way we as a teacher can assist students in this process is to assign classroom time or homework where the student is given a life situation or a problem and they must journal how they would respond to this. By the student being able to write privately about their response they will avoid the stress of conforming to their patchwork self. It is with hope that this will help aid the student into a more mature and adult like identity and allow them time in quiet to get to know their inner self and not the outward self they claim to be in front of their peers.

While we as teachers want to make a great impact in teenagers lives and often times go into the teaching profession seeking to “change” students, it is important to note that we may never see these changes that many times will occur. Often times these changes take years to see and we as educators may never see the benefits of what we have done but we must still march on and continue to encourage our student to grow in maturity. Creating a classroom environment that is accepting of students from all background and cultures can help open the door for new identities to be formed and students to start breaking away from the patchwork selves. Acknowledging this issue is the first step into aiding students in a transition to adulthood. You can not change them even when you see negative behavior but you can use your knowledge and understanding of these behaviors to create lessons and environments where individual learning is encouraged and respected.


Elkind, D. “All Grown Up and No Place to Go.” Perseus books, NY, NY 1998.

A video about what teaching middle school truly looks like?

Teachers of adolescents should check out the article below from The New York Times that has a video about teaching middle school students. The video came from an article entitled: “For Teachers; Middle School a Test of Wills”. Click on the link below to see the article and view the video. www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/education/17middle.html

Advice on Adolescents Transitioning into Adulthood

The goal of the teacher in an adolescent’s life is to help the adolescent get ready for the real world by giving the adolescent enough practice so that there are no big surprises when adulthood arrives. In order to accomplish this goal there must be reciprocal behaviors between the teacher and the adolescent. The teacher should have expectations of respect from the adolescent, expectations that school work should get done, and that overall grades should be average if the adolescent is of at least average intelligence. On the flip side, the adolescent should have expectations of support, expectations that they may ask the teacher questions, and expectations that the teacher wishes the adolescent good luck in the future.

Teachers cannot be too involved in bailing adolescents out of bad situations. This is why the teacher should at times wish the adolescent good luck, and let the adolescent solve some of their own problems. If a teacher becomes too involved a message may be sent that the teacher thinks the child cannot solve the problem on their own and that the teacher better do the work for the student.

Teachers need to give adolescents responsibilities. If the adolescent student blows the responsibility, then it will be a learning experience for the student. Generally the cost of a mistake as an adolescent in school is cheaper than in the adult world. When an adolescent makes a mistake regarding responsibilities consequences should occur and at the same time the teacher should express empathy to the adolescent student. Following the mistake, the same responsibility should be given to the adolescent again to show the adolescent that the teacher believes that the adolescent has learned and the job will get done. Teachers should encourage adolescents by focusing on their strengths. Adolescents like it when teachers can recognize their strengths. Also, teachers should let adolescents improve at their weaknesses before taking away an activity that is their strength.

Adolescents do need consequences. Teachers should give consequences that will hurt from the inside out. These consequences feel like they are from the real world. The consequence must be something that will truly make the adolescent internalize what they did wrong and correct the behavior in the future. Teachers should not give punishments that hurt from the outside in and do not make a lasting impression, but instead just create anger.

Teachers should try to be calm and rational when getting angry with adolescents. Teachers must also avoid being inconsistent with discipline. This will send the wrong message to adolescents. If a disagreement continues between a teacher and an adolescent a third party, who both the adolescent and the teacher respect, should be sought out to help end the disagreement. A good person in a school would be a guidance counselor.

Teaching adolescents to transition into adulthood means teaching adolescents to take responsibility for their own actions. The goal is to teach adolescents to make their own judgments, to make decisions, and to live with the consequences.

Tips for Teaching Transescents

Students are going through incredible changes during the adolescent time period of their lives. Adolescents are going through cognitive, emotional, and physical development. It is at this time that many students begin to be able to “think” for themselves. This is also the time where students begin to test the boundaries in the classroom. Below are some suggestions for providing a positive school experience for adolescent children.

First, a new teacher needs to work hard to provide an engaging learning atmosphere. An engaging learning environment motivates kids. This environment is one where student work is celebrated and showcased around the classroom. An engaging learning environment also needs to maintain high learning expectations. Learning can be fun, but there must be a learning outcome for each lesson with results showing achievement of that outcome. In this day and age an engaging learning environment will also be media-rich. A media-rich classroom may include many different resources such as books, computers with internet access, power-point presentations, and hands-on manipulatives. This is no longer the time to solely use a textbook to teach effectively. An engaging learning environment should be task-based, but follow the student interests. It is possible to follow student interests and address core content and skills at the same time. If student interests are tapped into, then there will be a natural motivation to learn. Finally, students must be involved in the lesson from the moment they enter the classroom until the moment they leave. Work from bell to bell.


Second, a new teacher of adolescents must maintain a structured learning environment. It is important to set up classroom rules, routines, and procedures at the beginning of the year. Next, the new teacher must remember to consistently enforce these rules, routines, and procedures. Adolescent children like routine because it makes class predictable and the students are aware of the expectations placed upon them. A structured learning environment will be very helpful to any teacher when adolescent students begin to test the boundaries in the classroom as part of their developmental process.


Third, starting teaching for the first time can be exhausting at any grade level. In order to avoid severe exhaustion, new teachers should get involved with a mentor teacher program. Even if there is no organized program in your school or district, find an experienced teacher who you can work with. This is not a time to reinvent the wheel. This is a time for new teachers to breathe life into a good lesson that may have already been established by an experienced teacher. A mentor teacher can be a great help in planning engaging lessons for adolescent students. Finally, let your mentor teacher help you to say no to taking on too much responsibility in your first years of teaching. A new teacher who is stretched too thin will not be as effective in the end.