That this job is easy, you don’t take it home with you, you get summers off, and your students will be “perfect”!

All of these things can happen—-to an extent IF you put time and effort into them.

Planning helps you think ahead and creating lists of things that need to be done to prep now or in the future can help your job be easier.

Planning ahead also helps you not take so much work home with you. Utilize the pockets of time you have and grade/score efficiently and use rubrics. I pick one night to stay until 5 and do all the extra things then and then I go home.

Summers are often filled with PD and meetings, so pick and choose what you want to focus on and attend (if you’re able), and go to those and let the rest go. You also have to recharge!!

You can have a smoothly running classroom if you pour time and effort into setting up specific routines and procedures that your students can follow easily and without room for deviation from them. Model and practice the routines over and over again so students know what you expect. Setting this up at the beginning of the year is like paying yourself forward the rest of the year!

That you will actually have a time that is not uninterrupted, not students but phone calls, other teachers, fire drills (and others), students being pulled for services and the like. Another misconception is that you will be able to plan and execute an all inclusive unit with minimal liability. Be realistic and flexible.

I’m not sure about a misconception, but definitely something I didn’t know as a new teacher. But I thought I would walk into my perfectly beautiful classroom and be ready to go day 1! Well reality is, you are in fact the one that has to label everything with student names and create all of those beautiful spaces.
Also, teaching procedures!! So you have a process for sharpening pencils, turning in work, going to the bathroom? Everything must be taught!

As a first year teacher, I thought that you taught it and kids would just learn it. I realized very quickly that that was not the case. I can laugh about my optimism now! It requires really analyzing what you are going to teach in order to be able to figure out where the misconceptions will be and how to plan for those. Multiple strategies are always necessary. And sometimes, the other students will be the best 'teachers' when you aren't getting through so be sure to give students a time to share their responses to questions. Other students will benefit greatly from that!

*Believing that classroom management will be easy: Many new teachers underestimate the complexity of managing a classroom and maintaining student engagement.

*Underestimating the time required for lesson planning and grading: They might not anticipate the extensive preparation and feedback time needed outside of class hours.

*Expecting immediate results:New teachers might expect quick changes in student behavior and academic performance, not realizing that building relationships and seeing progress takes time.