So, it is time for your first year of teaching. You just got out of school or have just been accepted for a lateral entry position. Good for you!

Let's get honest some of you wanted to be teachers, and others didn't. However, you are now in a position where if you don't step up to the plate you will be joining teachers across America especially in NC who are jobless. If you want to survive, you have to get beyond survival mode. A survivor is never successful. You need to get your heart right. Bring it to a place where you are thankful for each and every day leading up to the school year, where you are thankful for each and everyday you wake up to go work with impressionable youth, and where you are thankful for the opportunities to learn how to live life with a shield protecting you from having to work without all of the precious teacher benefits that you receive.

Living Life

Before school begins, you have/had to go through New Teacher Orientation of some sort. You are presented with a lot of information positive and scary. TAKE NOTES!!! It will help with your planning I promise. It's quite the secret that no one ever thinks to share because we are all over 20 now, and we should do it naturally.

Before school begins, you are required to fill out a lot of paperwork--like I said, there are benefits that protect you from the horrors of life that so many brand new graduates have to face. However, these benefits require some time to fill out the paperwork. Typically, you are not asked to do it all in one sitting. DON'T. Ask to take it home and look over it. There is a lot there, and you do not want to make any mistakes.

Before school begins, many of us less fortunate teachers are tasked with moving into an apartment or new home, setting up our rent, water, electric, Internet, car payments, car insurance, cell phones, etc. We are just getting involved with local government, churches, outside school activities, etc. There is a key to all this.

You will hear preacher after preacher share this story, but read carefully anyway.

A professor once got in front his class. He had a jar, larger rocks, smaller rocks, pebbles, and sand. He told the class that he wanted to fit it all into the jar. A couple students snickered. He asked which one he should put in first. One student said start small and work your way up. He was successful until he got to the larger rocks which wouldn't all fit. He dumped it out and had a couple students sort it out for him. Next, he asked why it didn't work. Students came up with answers like there was too much mass (hoping to come across real smart-like). The jar was too shaped, and it didn't allow one to think outside the box (hoping to score points for being philosophical). However, the professor then said. Watch as I make it happen. The class got silent and watched as he put the larger rocks in first. He then put the smaller rocks in which fit in and around the larger rocks. He then poured the pebbles in which slid in around the other rocks. He finished by pouring in the sand which of course did the same.

The point is prioritize. Prioritize your needs.

Here is an example of a list of needs not prioritized:water, electric, cell phone, rent, Internet, car payments, car insurance, a relationship with God, church, town hall meetings, dates, Bible study, create pacing guide, classroom management plan, create lesson plans for the first couple weeks of school.

Here is that same list prioritized: a relationship with God, church, rent, car payments, car insurance, water, electric, cell phone, pacing guide, classroom management plan, lesson plans, Bible study, dates, town hall meetings.

If you take your priority list and work from the first to the last, the stress will disappear very quickly. If you come to one that you cannot work on because it is a weekend, or it will take a couple days, move on to the next priority. Reevaluate your list of priorities at the start of each new day starting at the beginning.

Now, this same concept works during the school year also. However, you have different needs that must be met. For me, the biggest issue is remembering. I hate planners. I do not work well with them at all. How do I get by? I but a pack of index card to leave at home and a pack to leave at school. If I am at school, I create a To Do List. Then, anytime a something comes up, I write it down anywhere from doing a self-assessment required by the county to calling the dentist to set up an appointment.

Let me make it clear that as a teacher, you will have about 5-10 different NEW requirements stacked on your plate each day, and you are expected to do it ALL!!! However, it does no good complaining. It will not solve the situation. You cannot break the jar, and leave the rocks all over the counter. You want to prove that you are successful even when it seems impossible. PRIORTIZE.

Now, I am not perfect by any means, and I find myself violating the rule of Priorities every so often, but I just have to get back on track. The key is to get better at it over time.

There are people who argue that their personal life and their job put too much stress on them. However for the past 3 weeks/first 3 weeks of school, I have been dealing with getting my classes set up, establishing structure in my classroom, creating pacing guides, management plans, self-assessments for school, creating bellringers from scratch, creating DOLs from scrach, differentiating my classroom, doing lesson plans, a dying grandmother, a funeral, a dying grandfather, a mother moving into her new house, moving all of my grandmother's furniture out of her house into my mother's house and my own apartment, two divorced parents who are constantly at odds with one another and whether they want me in the middle or not both put me there, a father and brother who both push the rest of the family away because of a twisted value system, getting a cell phone plan, getting car insurance/renter's insurance/ring insurance, and planning a wedding with my fiancee who is absolutely beautiful might I add.

I have done all of this, and I have done it successfully. Do not tell me it is not possible. Giving God the steering wheel and letting go of control while still prioritizing and doing your part is absolutely key.

Next, stress relief is neccessary. Find something you enjoy that requires little work, and do it for at least an hour or 2 a day--pray, read, veg out, watch TV, play video games, etc. Do not go and vent to other. It just solidifies in your mind how bad things are. The key is to change your own mindset by programming it with positives.

1. Get your heart right.

2. Get your mind right.

Next to last conecpt--BUDGET your money wisely, and learn to stick to it.

Last major key--set your mind to work and faithfulness.

Living Life as a new teacher is by no means easy especially if you come in in the middle of the school year as I did being told that you are teaching the next day leaving you no time to plan. It may seem as though you are without a life for a few weeks. If you have a life beyond a few hours of chill time and church on Sundays, be warned now that you may want to take another look at how your classroom is running.