Your work can consume you. There is so much to do and learn. Your personal life can often suffer in the first year of teaching. Find time to relax and exercise to relieve stress and make your transition easier. It keeps you healthy. Exercise and meeting friends will help to maintain your energy levels.
You may experience a roller coaster of emotions, but it is important to stay connected with what is really going on. Experience it fully and act accordingly. Everyone has a first year. Laugh at yourself and enjoy yourself.
Perfectionism and Surviving
To have the perfect lesson and the perfect class where all students are working to their potential all the time is impossible. Look for the help of more experienced teachers and your principal when you need support or ideas.
No one expects a first-year teacher to be perfect. Surviving the first year depends on letting go of thinking you have to be able to do it all, all of the time.
Situations or concerns may come up that you do not know how to handle. Ask others and ask early. You do not have to reinvent the wheel in your teaching. Teachers rely on each other for support.
Saying Yes and Saying No
It is reasonable to say no to extracurricular activities or assignments. First-year teachers need to focus on instructional tasks and honing their teaching skills. There are just so many hours in a day and you have only so much energy. If it is too much for you, say so. It doesn’t help anyone for you to be so stretched that you either cannot do anything well or you are not getting adequate sleep.