Ignite Your Teaching
Ignite Your Teaching
Dear New Teacher: Prepare For Back To School- An Interview with Dr. Lori Friesan
We’re excited to have Dr. Lori, the author of "Dear New Teacher: Here's Exactly What To Do," join us for an insightful discussion on preparing for your first teaching job. This episode is filled with essential tips for new teachers, from classroom setup to managing classroom dynamics. Dr. Lori’s expert advice will help you start the school year strong.
Discover the best practices for creating a welcoming and efficient classroom, establishing routines, and maintaining a positive learning environment. Dr. Lori’s extensive background in elementary education and teacher training provides a solid foundation for her practical advice.
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Show Notes: www.madlylearning.com/269
Key Concepts:
Preparing your classroom for success
Effective classroom management techniques
Establishing consistent routines
Building a positive classroom culture
Preventing teacher burnout
More About Lori
Book: Dear New Teacher Here's Exactly What To Do
Website: https://www.drlorifriesen.com/
Podcast: Beginning Teacher Talk
Membership: Classroom Management Club
Madly Learning Resources Mentioned
Kudos Club: A Classroom Management Program That Builds Community
Long Range Plans: Grades 3-6
Classroom Routine Planner
Check out Ignited Math and Ignited Literacy and learn how you can get your math and literacy lessons planned for the whole year to save yourself hours and hours of doing it all yourself at www.ignitedteaching.ca
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In today's video. We have a special guest joining us for this episode, and it is my good friend, dr Laurie. Now she has written a new book and she is an expert on what new teachers need to help get them ready and prepared for the school year. Whether you are a new teacher, a teacher with your very first contract, you've been teaching for five years, or you're a veteran teacher that's been teaching forever. In part one of our conversation, we talked all about getting back to school ready All of the things that you need to consider whether you're a new teacher or you're a veteran teacher that's simply just looking to add some new things or to perhaps stave off some burnout. I can't wait for you to learn more about all of the wonderful information that Dr Laurie shares. So let's get started.
Speaker 1:All right, everybody, we have a special guest with us today. This is my friend, dr Laurie, and she has just written a new book called Dear New Teacher, because she is a new teacher expert and she designs courses and support all four brand new teachers. So whether or not you are a brand new teacher, you're within your first five years of teaching. You have to follow this woman. She is so brilliant and so smart with all of the things that she does, and we have worked together. We've known each other for how long, lori? Like three years now.
Speaker 2:At least three years. I think At least three, but yeah, several years.
Speaker 1:And she is, even though she lives in the States now. She is a Canadian and has her training in University of Alberta, if I'm correct right.
Speaker 2:You got your doctorate. I did my master's at the university of Lethbridge, so I was in mostly Alberta for most of my teaching career, but university of Lethbridge for my master's and my PhD was university of Alberta, so taught both in Lethbridge. That's where my home was elementary Love it.
Speaker 1:So do you want to tell? I just gave a brief overview, but I'd love for you to tell my audience just a little bit more about who you are, what you do and what brilliant things you offer the teaching community.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for that very warm introduction, patty, I just adore you. I think you are so fabulous too. Those of you who know Patty already know how brilliant she is with curriculum. I remember the first time I met her she was like right in the middle of our meeting like like, oh my gosh, I have another idea for a resource. So I just love that about you so excited, genuinely excited, about what you do, and it's so fun to be alongside that kind of enthusiasm.
Speaker 2:So I've always been a teacher at heart, like elementary teaching is has my heart always has. I taught elementary school for about 10 years in Canada and overseas second, fourth and sixth grade, so I have a little bit of experience at each grade. And then I moved on and taught a pre-service education students, university students at the University of Alberta, so supervised a lot of hundreds of teachers in their practicums, which was really eye-opening for me to understand the challenges that a lot of new teachers have. And then I went on and did my PhD at the U of Alberta in Edmonton. But I saw so many teachers continuing to struggle and so I decided you know what, I'm going to come back to teaching new teachers. And I decided about five years ago, I started my podcast, actually Beginning Teacher Talk, which is geared towards all the things that we didn't learn in university but we need to know to be successful in teaching. And I know there's like literally I've been, I've 300 episodes now and that's we're still just scratching, scratching the surface of what we need to know.
Speaker 1:There is definitely not enough information in Teachers College that prepares you for that actually walking in that first day of teaching and it doesn't matter whether it's your first year or you're like your fifth year, even your 15th year there is still things that surprise you every day.
Speaker 2:Well, and a lot of what we're going to talk about today. I have a course called ready for school, academy, which basically prepares you for the year, but then I have a membership called the Classroom Management Club, which teaches teachers how to sustain the momentum they start like they get in the beginning of school. But what I've noticed is so fascinating is I have teachers just beginning their first year and I have teachers who've taught for 27 years and they come in and they say why did I not get taught this? Because when you're changing grades, when you're changing schools, it feels like you're starting all over again. So, yeah, I think everybody will get some interesting information out of today's topic, because we're going to talk about all the things that I wish I had known to prepare.
Speaker 1:And it's so true because even in my programs of ignited literacy, we always warn people that that stage in like October November, there's like the grind stage. Like we start strong, we go, we're like, yes, everything's organized. And then we hit, like that October November and we go, oh, I don't have the stamina any longer for all those beautiful systems that I thought I could put in place because I saw them online, and it's like, yep, I can't maintain this going full year. And we talked about that slump, even when learning, where kids are like, yes, past that honeymoon stage, and I think that no one talks about that.
Speaker 2:No, one actually. It's called the disillusionment phase and we know so much about it because we've been studying it for new teachers. But everyone feels like when you're in that, that slump, like that feeling, and it usually starts in October because you've been working 60 hours a week, right or more, since the beginning of the year and then you, you just can't sustain it any longer. And then the behaviors start coming out and you're like what am I doing? You second guess yourself, you second guess your decision to go into teaching. And that's when we can really help, because it's normal I hate to say it, but it's normal it does get easier Once you get that break over the holidays. You can come back with a fresh lens and and it does get easier over time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. I want to tell us a little bit about your book.
Speaker 2:So it's called Dear New Teacher, here's exactly what to do your five-step ready for school roadmap for elementary. And when I say elementary, if you're teaching in an elementary school K through five, k through six this is for you. Basically, I've realized over 20 years of working with teachers that there are really five key areas and we're going to talk about those today that teachers really need to prepare for and we'll talk about when we think we're going to talk about this today that teachers really need to prepare for, and we'll talk about when we think we're done and when we're actually not done. So I wanted to write the book to give teachers a roadmap of okay, here's where you think you're done, but guess what? We have four more steps to go.
Speaker 2:And if you and this is why we struggle, this is why October and November is so hard is because we didn't realize there's this gap between what we learned in theoretically in college and what we actually need to know to teach and well, we say university in Canada, but in the States I'm so used to college, but yeah, between what you learned in university and what you actually need to know. And if we don't fill that gap, if we don't do all five steps before the school year starts, we will flounder. It's just when you hear about it today, you're going to be like, of course, but as new teachers, we didn't know this.
Speaker 1:No, absolutely we did not.
Speaker 1:I can tell you my first year teaching I already know, in talking to you about all of the things that I know, you and I have talked about this before Like my first year teaching was such a hot, hot mess and I thought I had worked in classrooms before as a child and youth worker and I was like, no problem, I got this.
Speaker 1:And I remember going into that first LTO and just like eyes open, like a deer, and I remember saying to our literacy like support teacher, going like I can't handle one more thing right now and feeling like I look back on that, I'm like, oh goodness. And feeling like I look back on that. I'm like, oh goodness. Like if I had, there were things I didn't know and I didn't know I didn't know them, like it didn't even know they were around. So what are those things? So, if you're looking at like a brand new teacher that's about to start, and even someone who's supply taught for a while, but now they've got their first classroom, their first LTO or their first permanent contract, what are the things that those teachers need to consider Before they ever step out in the classroom?
Speaker 2:Well, the first thing that most new teachers are worried about at least I was was how do I set up my classroom, like, how do I do it? What do I need to know? And it stresses us out because it feels like the biggest thing. In fact, when I first started teaching, I spent way too much time and focus decorating my classroom and not enough time on the things we're going to talk about today. Not enough time on the things we're going to talk about today. But when you are setting up your classroom beyond decor, I want to encourage teachers to think about other things outside of just decor, in terms of student safety and efficiency. So, for example, three things I want to just highlight right now is can you see every student, no matter where you are in the classroom? Are there any blind spots? Because I remember when I first started teaching, I didn't realize no one had really talked me through how to set up a space for efficiency and for safety and I created this cute reading nook and effectively created the perfect blind spot in my classroom. And to my little boys I'm working at the back with a small group. To my little boys get in a fistfight and I don't get over there and even know about it, until someone has a bloody nose right. I didn't even see it. So it's those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:The second thing I didn't realize I made this huge mistake. Can you access all of your electrical outlets? These are not things, though, anybody talks about. I put right, I put bookshelves against one of the main outlets of my classroom and I went to go and plug in. At that time we had an overhead right, so that's how old I was. But to plug it in and it's like oh my gosh, I have nowhere to plug things in. And the kids are laughing. They're like seriously, mrs Raisin? Well, I had never even thought about it, right, like until I'm up there teaching.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's what you have to consider, right, it's like those outlets, and I find a lot, especially if you're in an old school. We have been in classrooms where you it's like a 50 to 80 year old school. You've got maybe two outlets and you have to plug in projectors and ipads and pencil sharpeners and and then everything shorts out right if you get one of the extensions.
Speaker 1:Only you can only have so many power bars in the room. So I think it's like those and even like the space planning around where those outlets are um, and like the travel space, and I'm sure yes that like the idea no bottlenecks, yeah, yes. How are they going to move around? Your classroom, like Instagram, has beautiful classroom nooks that we all fall in love with. But I love, can you see them? Cause I've done that. I put bookshelves in the middle of a wall, like out from the wall, I couldn't see them.
Speaker 2:Right and you effectively create this blind spot like the little teepees in the wall I couldn't see them Right and you effectively create this blind spot like the little teepees in the tents, I mean. And Instagram is great, but they there are a lot of. I've noticed especially this trend and this is a third point I want to really talk to new teachers about is when they're choosing a classroom theme like there's so many cute ones out there. If you choose a theme and I know themes are really popular there If you choose a theme and I know themes are really popular make sure that the lettering on any of your decor is easy for kids to read and is not in cursive. I mean, it's crazy, because I was hired to teach fourth grade and so I had like really cute signs and cursive all around my room and at the very last minute, what happened? I got switched to second grade.
Speaker 2:At the very last minute, what happened? I got switched to second grade at the very last minute and I remember going in and my principal was like, um, the kids can't read any of this. What are you doing? And I'm like what do you mean? I can't read cursive Right. So just be very careful when you're choosing a theme that it can be easily transitioned from any for any grade, because you might get switched around. Mid year you might get switched the mid-year, you might get switched the first three years. You might be teaching a different grade every year, so don't get so caught up in. I'm teaching first grade, so it's going to be all I don't know unicorns or whatever it is Like. Some teachers do these really like Disney theme and then they end up teaching fifth grade and they're like what we don't want Dumbo, you know like, or whatever it is.
Speaker 1:Circus theme doesn't translate to grade six. Yeah, it doesn't work as well. I mean, now, granted, grade six is a circus, but it doesn't translate quite so right, it could work, yeah, yeah, if you want to like, if you want to put some cursive there because you love. But just be like, look where you're putting it, like, is it going to be something like educational or is it just decor, and how much if it's just for you, if it's for the teacher, if it's for your resources, go on like, have fun because it's you that reads it.
Speaker 2:But if you're teaching children how to read and you have cursive everywhere, nobody's going to be able to read the room right. They won't be able to read the supply labels, they won't be able to read anything where they need to find things right.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you are the cursive. There's different types of cursive. That hand lettered cursive that is super popular right now is difficult. Even for students that are that can read cursive, that's a difficult choice. So, yeah, but there's better things out there, there's better choices and it's great even for your ELLs the differentiation.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:English might not be their first language and kids are dyslexic and can't read those letters. So I think just you know to make sure that your classroom is a welcoming environment. That's a really good point to remember. It's cute but not functional and student centered.
Speaker 2:So yep, and that's the point right. It's not just about us, it's about our kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Now I know you talked about classroom management planning. You're big on that management. So when we're planning, I am a big proponent of all things should be planned. We shouldn't just go to classroom management and approach that as a we'll fly by the seat of our pants, Like we should be very intentional with how we do that. So how do you recommend for new teachers? They probably have zero classroom management, and I'm speaking of myself first year teacher going. I had no clue what I was doing, Neither did I.
Speaker 1:So how do you help them develop a classroom management system?
Speaker 2:Well, I love what you said about planning and preparing, because this is literally the number one thing that new teachers can do to help prevent stress all year long is to think through in advance, and you can do this, by the way, I'll tell you the four things I really recommend that they think through. This is thinking work, this is preparatory, like thought work you need to do in terms of how you're going to run your classroom. In terms of how you're going to run your classroom, you could do this poolside. You can do this at the lake, in your journal. You can do this in lots of places.
Speaker 2:You do not need to be in your school, but you need to think through four things. Number one what class rules or classroom agreements do you want to have in your classroom? Now, people are always saying, yeah, but I want to co-create them with my students. Okay, I get that. That kids help support what they help create. So I get that. I always encourage teachers to encourage or to include their kids as they're in their classroom explaining the class rules.
Speaker 2:But you need to, in advance, decide what your non-negotiables are. So you need to think about what the non-negotiables are. Do we need to always have respect. In our classroom Is there always no running, and can we state that positively? Can we do only walking aloud? So, thinking through rules that are positive, that are always going to be true, showing respect, showing kindness, however you want to word these things I want you to think through what are the pillars of character you really want to have in your classroom, what are the non-negotiables? No matter what, and the clearer you get on this at the beginning of the year, before you even meet your students, then you can say one of our class rules is, or our class agreements is we are always, we show kindness to each other. Now you involve your students. What, what does that look like?
Speaker 2:What does that mean? How can we do that? How can we? And they brainstorm and they write and they work in groups and they they create what it is to mean, what it means to show kindness in your classroom. But once we let them choose, like they're going to say, I want to write in purple crayon every day, or I want to, we should always get to write in marker. And we waste a lot of time because if you go anywhere else in society, if you go into McDonald's or the McDonald's playhouse I don't even know if those still exist after COVID but kids don't get to make the rules. There's rules there for their safety and then we just talk about what does that mean? Right, it's for their safety.
Speaker 2:So once we've decided in advance, that's when we can involve our students. So that's the first thing. The second thing is to think through routines and procedures. Now, we hear this all the time. But why, if there's going to be something that 25 children or more have to do on a regular basis in your classroom, there needs to be a routine for it? Why? Because if you don't, then every single day you're going to get what do we do next? How do I do this? What do I a hundred times and we wonder why we're exhausted at the end of the day. We don't need to discuss this every day. We need to teach it at the beginning of the year and then teach it to our students as clearly as we would any other content that we teach our students. This is the most important content. We get so worried about teaching all of our standards, but this is the most important content to teach at the beginning of the year, or you're going to have, you're going to be teaching it all year long.
Speaker 1:And you'll have to sit in fatigue, because if you are constantly explaining it or constantly trying to, you know, change things up, um, or do something different and every day is different then it becomes where you're constantly, even sitting at home, planning as a teacher, you're playing, you're making decisions about what's happening, and this is something we talked to, not something that's super foreign to my audience of get yourself into an instructional routine as well as you know movement routines and really think. For me, my language block is so predictable I don't have to think about what it looks like every day. It's exactly the same, not eight, 40 to nine o'clock is a center. We do independent work. They know what four activities they're doing, then we do some teaching, then we're back to the center, then we're back to teaching and then we flip to social studies. It's so every single day. I no longer have to even think, nor do my students have to think well, what's today going to look like? They know exactly. They've been doing it since September.
Speaker 2:And you have a lot less management problems because of it. Right, there's no discussion, this is just how we do it, right? So if you do the same thing for every morning, when the kids come in, no matter what you're teaching every morning, they know exactly what to do. You have a morning routine. Every time they come in after recess, every time they come after lunch, every time they go get ready for home. It's a routine. We know how to do all this. There's no questions. Yeah, and it just takes so much stress off of you because you're not having to reteach this every single like day and every single week. So that's, and class jobs are a big part of this. So routines are a big part of class jobs.
Speaker 2:The third thing I really recommend teachers have is some kind of a whole class positive motivator, because at the beginning of the year especially when I know rewards in general have been controversial in education which drives me crazy, but that's a whole other conversation what I love about a big whole class reward is that it builds community at the beginning of the year and it's an easy way for you to constantly be reinforcing all the things you're seeing right. So if, for example, you have a big poster on the wall covered with sticky notes and they get whatever's on the poster. Then every time they they follow, they line up properly or they get, they do it in two minutes or less, or that. Whatever it is that you have them working towards, you're constantly saying, oh my gosh, I'm so proud of you, I'm so proud I have the best class in the school. You're building that positive reinforcement. You're constantly letting them know how proud you are of them for doing the things that they need to learn at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 2:So that's the third part, and then the fourth part is natural consequences. So I really encourage teachers to always tie a consequence to any behavior and needs to be immediate. So and it doesn't have to be punitive, this does not need to be a negative thing, it doesn't have to be like a horrible thing. It's not punishment, it's a consequence. So the kid runs to line up when we've just practiced learning that we never run when we're lining up, the natural consequence is just to have them go sit down again and wait until everyone else is lined up.
Speaker 2:I mean it's not punitive, it's not mean. You just say, oh, we just learned this. Oh, hey, go sit down watch how we do this, and then you'll. Now he's lost the privilege of getting to line up first, or she? So that's the big, the natural consequence. And the next time they're going to think about it oh wait a minute. Last time I had to go sit down again. So it's not, it's not about punishing kids, but it's about thinking through in advance. What kind of natural consequence can you tie, as natural as possible, to every behavior that happens in the classroom?
Speaker 1:So, and it also because we are in an artificial environment, yeah, and it helps to reinforce, like doing that in that example, it also helps to reinforce those rules and routines. So if you're kind of it all sort of fits together where you know that natural consequence, if you are going to take a long time to transition between activities, I will wait and I will time you, and the timer is this is my instructional time. You've now wasted two minutes of my time. I'm going to waste two minutes of your time and I know take recess away is controversial but it's also.
Speaker 2:But it doesn't have to be recess, it can. It can be anything fun, anything that they I mean I, we start the year with five minutes of a class game at the end of the day, every day. They can earn it or they can not earn it. And if we have to take time away from other things because we didn't get our instructional time in, well, guess what? We've lost the game. Now we have to do our work. So that's, you know, it's just a natural consequence again. Uh-oh, we wasted that time, so we. So there always has to be. I always talk about the light and the dark. There has to be a positive and negative. There has to be a reward and a consequence, which is why I think you can't take away rewards. If you're going to give consequences, you kind of have to build in both. Yeah, they need something positive to work towards as well and to know that they're being acknowledged and celebrated for all this hard work they're doing. You know.
Speaker 1:Now I don't know if you agree, but one of the things that I love that you said like a whole class positive reward, yes, there is a lot going on there and this is what I failed to remember my first year of teaching and I used the color coded cards where everyone started on green and then they went to red, and I know there's other systems like class, dojo or individual points. And what I learned through my experience, and something I'm really strong at advocating for, is not the individual rewards where students are competing against one another and especially when you're building relationship at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 2:It doesn't. Yes, I'm totally on the page with you.
Speaker 1:And in my class we use Madly Learning's Kudos Club and it's a whole class reward. We get points, we have an evil villain that we compete against, so like it's a whole game of our classroom. But that was spawned on by the idea that I totally failed. I totally failed by rewarding my students individually and having some students not succeed and what ended up happening is the students who really were the reason you need that behavior reward system in the first place were the ones that just kept getting worse and worse because they gave up.
Speaker 2:They didn't feel like they hated you. They felt like they could, couldn't succeed Right. They felt like they were constantly failing.
Speaker 1:And then because they started getting attention for the negative behavior. Because what you pay attention to is what gets repeated, so you're paying attention to more negative behavior and it just breeds more negative behavior. So some for some teachers I know they're like oh, I've used it and it's been fine. And I would say I see even too, as a flip side, as a parent, my kids are typical teachers, children very well behaved at school. But they get very frustrated with individual rewards on the flip side, because they aren't the ones that are getting the rewards, even though they're always the ones following the rules. So they feel disheartened in those circumstances too, because they see one kid who struggles with their behavior gets rewarded for doing, for opening a door for somebody. And then I remember my daughter said I open the door for people all the time. I don't get special prizes for doing the bare minimum, so then she doesn't. So I think that's something to really consider.
Speaker 2:So I yeah, it's, it's so tricky because we put kids into a system where we are grading them individually, like that is literally its own risk and reward or punishment and reward system giving them grades. So we are grading them individually, like that is literally its own risk and reward or punishment and reward system giving them grades. So we are already doing that. But what you're talking about, and I totally agree with, is the relationship Like it's. It's really breaking relationship with kids. I mean, I I do agree in some circumstances because everybody struggles with different things and some kids struggle especially with behavior and other kids struggle with academics, some they just struggle with different things. So we do need to put in individualized programs for some kids because that is what they struggle in. But I also would give special reading attention to the child who has dyslexia or you know, special attention to them. So as long as we talk to kids about it and say you know what this is their challenge, your gift happens to be you know whatever it is, you can. You can follow directions really easily. This child really has a hard time. This is a. This is their challenge. You're a gifted reader, they're not. So this is their challenge. So um it, I think there's a place for it.
Speaker 2:And I think, like anything, the moment we put our all of our eggs in one basket and say this is all wrong and this is all good, that's when we come into problems. But at the beginning of the year, like you, I'm very strongly against individual rewards. Now I do love to incorporate them throughout the year for fun moments, like, for example, I love desk pets around October, so my kids can all create a little creature and build a habitat and earn, like it's just fun, but it's for a month and it's only for a few weeks, and then they take them home but it's not a whole. And I've built that relationship. They know they can trust me, I. They know I deeply care about them. And that is the point is acknowledging all of their gifts and talents and then building that community right. That is what we're doing in the beginning.
Speaker 1:Right, it's differentiating, for there will be kids that will need individual reward programs, and that's totally different than putting the whole class right. It's just because for one doesn't mean you need to do it for everybody. There will be kids you need to put on individual reward systems. That's great, but not everyone needs to necessarily be on that, because it's not really going to be motivating for those students Awesome. So, lori, how can people find more about you, your book and how to work with you?
Speaker 2:So my book is on Amazon, on Kindle and on audible. So, um, if they want to go to drlorifriesencom or on Amazon, you can just search for the title dear new teacher, here's exactly what to do, um, and then you can find me on the title Dear New Teacher, here's exactly what to do. And then you can find me on Instagram at beginningteachertalk, or on Facebook at beginningteachertalk. I'm also sort of on TikTok. Apparently. I have 30,000 followers. I never do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, we're all sort of on TikTok, absolutely, and we'll put all of those links to you in our show notes, both on the YouTube video as well as in our podcast, so you can check out. Lori Lori, thank you so much for joining us. It has been such an amazing conversation. We are so lucky to have had you join us and we just cannot wait for people to tune into the second half of our conversation because there is more teacher goodness coming your way. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you in the next episode from Ignite your Teaching.
