Dear Newbie,

You've been lucky enough to land your first teaching job. Congratulations! Don't rub it in the face of the rest of your graduating class who are still waiting tables and folding skinny jeans at The Gap. I like to think that after almost ten years of teaching experience I have a little advice to offer you, so here goes:

Be yourself (unless your "self" is rude, obnoxious, spiteful, arrogant, or similarly unpleasant in which case you should rethink your chosen profession anyway). When I first started teaching I worked very hard at adopting my "teacher persona". I believe this was a result of some benign advice from a professor at a faculty of education. The thing is, it's exhausting and the kids see right through it. I tried to copy the teaching styles of teachers I respected and admired, and I suppose that's not a bad way to start. It actually helped me figure out the kind of teacher that I'm not. I am not a stern no-nonsense disciplinarian. I am silly, laid-back, and occasionally irreverent. That doesn't mean my students run amok, but I had to find my own way to "be a teacher."

Dress up. A little. But dress your age. If you, like me, barrelled on through your undergrad and straight into teacher's college and then were lucky enough to get a position the next school year, then you're... what... 23? Wow. You won't look much older than the grade 12 students. You're not going to fool anyone into thinking that you're an ancient 30 something like I am, but when you're 23, it's embarrassing and awkward to be mistaken for a student. When you're 33, it rocks. So, judge the vibe of your school. Some schools are more casual than others, but don't think you can get away with the board short and flip-flop look that the eccentric, close-to-retirement, history teacher is (questionably) "rocking". If you dress up a little bit, it sends a signal that you think this important enough to dress up for and that helps-but don't be afraid to put your own stamp on it that says, "Hey I'm not 33 yet."

Don't do stupid things. You've probably already been so scared by faculty of education lectures and gossipy horror stories that spread through your social foundations class about teachers who did foolish things on social media and were then fired. That's not what I'm here to do. I do not want you to decide to erase your web presence and ban technology from the classroom because you're afraid of all the horrible things that could happen to you. We are in an interesting place in our history right now, and I suspect 20 years from now we'll all laugh about the angst we were having in education over social media. Bottom line: never post anything online that you wouldn't say in front of the class or in front of your principal.

Cut yourself some slack. You won't be a perfect teacher in your first year. Actually you'll never be a perfect teacher. That's okay. Think of your goal for your first year as being one of harm reduction. Do as little harm as possible to yourself and your students, and you're off to a good start. If you're a good teacher, you're probably going to spend a lot of time agonizing over decisions you made, coming up with different ways you could have but didn't handle a situation, and generally berating yourself. Lighten up. Have a beer. Go for a night out with your non-teacher friends (Do you still have those?) and don't talk about school - they won't get it and it's not healthy for you to talk about it all the time.

Hang in there. Have some fun. Don't take yourself so seriously.

Sincerely,

Danika Barker