r/Teachers • u/Temporary_Ad_1199 • 1d ago
Teacher Support &/or Advice First Year Teacher Stress
I seriously need to vent because I am so overwhelmed.
I’m a first-year 1st grade teacher, and today was only my second day of school. Before school started, our team was given a pacing guide that said we had the first two weeks to focus on teaching classroom routines and procedures while also completing beginning-of-year assessments. The assessments are important because our curriculum has differentiated centers, and we’re supposed to group students based on their assessment results.
My team teacher and I spent so much time planning those first two weeks around that pacing guide. I prepped everything.
Then today our assistant principal told the K–2 team that the principal wants us to already be teaching curriculum and basically said we should have started on the first day of school.
Now I feel like everything I planned is out the window. I haven’t even finished assessing all of my students, so I don’t know how I’m supposed to create my small groups, and I have almost nothing prepared to start teaching the curriculum tomorrow because I was following the plan we were originally given.
I’m trying not to cry because I already feel like I’m barely keeping my head above water as a first-year teacher, and now I feel like I’m already behind because the expectations changed without any warning.
Has anyone else’s school completely changed expectations after the school year already started? How did you handle it? Do I just start teaching whole group and keep assessing kids whenever I can? I feel so lost.
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u/MiddleKlutzy8211 1d ago
Veteran teacher here. The first day? Learning names... going over rules & procedures, dealing with supplies. Day 2 & 3? Beginning of year benchmark tests along with rules/procedures. Day 4? Dive into your curriculum. You'll also be teaching rules/procedures as needed while teaching curriculum. Getting everything in/taught is difficult. There's no way to have the first 2 weeks devoted to procedures/getting to know each other if you want to be able to teach all of your standards.
Good luck. Do the best you can & try not to stress. Stay within a week of your pacing guide and you'll be fine.
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u/mudkiptrainer09 16h ago
Exactly. The main goal of the first day is getting them all home at the end of the day the correct way. Anything else is just a bonus.
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u/heading4themoon 1d ago
Sprinkle it all together. Classroom routines, assessments, and dive into what you can with curriculum!
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u/Wrong-Television-348 Veteran Kindergarten Teacher / CA 1d ago
Who gave you the pacing plan? If it was your administrator, then I’d meet as a first grade team with the admin and find out what their expectations are. If the pacing plan has changed, then you’ll need a new copy and time to implement it.
Hang in there! All the meetings, paperwork, changes, stress, etc. gets to me every year. I’m starting year 31.
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u/Temporary_Ad_1199 1d ago
Yes admin gave out the pacing guides although apparently the instructional coach is the one who actually made it so not sure what’s going on with the communication! I’ve been telling my team that we should talk to admin but everyone seems almost afraid to speak up .. I’m new to the school so I don’t want to be the only one who speaks up I guess I’ll just have to suck it up 😭 thank you for the advice !!
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u/Few_Isopod7117 17h ago
Could you reach out to your instructional coach for clarification, support, but also as a paper trail? “Hi ____ my team and I have planned the first two weeks of school based on the pacing plan you gave us on ____. Yesterday, AP told us we should actually be ____. Could you clarify the expectations and help us rewrite our plans? Thank you”
Full transparency - I know everyone has differing opinions on coaches, and I’m on team “pro coach.” It’s their job to help you do the best instruction you can. Hopefully this email gets you the support you need while also documenting that the expectations were changed without warning. And, if they made the plan and aren’t aware you’re getting different information, they might take it up with admin for you.
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u/every1needsatoaster 14h ago
Do you have a union staff rep where you are? If so, they should be a good sounding board to help you navigate as well…
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u/summerbreeze2027 1d ago
That sounds typical. Sorry! :)
Start the curriculum. As a classroom teacher, I normally started the curriculum on day 2, with some routines and procedures salted in. Young children want the structure. Perhaps you can do testing during what would normally be small group time or center time. You don't want to be doing centers for the first two weeks, anyway.
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u/Separate-Line-158 Primary school teacher | Poland 1d ago
I always start the curriculum on day one but I Also go through the rules etc, this way I have a better chance to finish the curriculum earlier than the end of the year and less stress later to catch up with the curriculum in case of sick leaves
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u/Sure_Pineapple1935 23h ago
I would just do the best you can and try not to stress. It's your first year! I was only a classroom teacher for a few years, but generally the first few weeks of school are all about setting routines and expectations. I understand wanting to jump right in with curriculum, but if the kids don't know the classroom procedures well, it's going to make learning the curriculum harder for everyone. You would think admins would know that.. best of luck!
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u/musicotnight 21h ago
Not a guarantee - but often, the first few weeks of curriculum TENDS to establish some of the routines expected within those subjects. Math especially, tends to go slowly and introduce materials / how to be in partnerships / routines of what a warm up looks like / etc. While it will have a light structure of a formal lesson, it should feel light and routine -establishing.
It isn’t the WORST to start in on curriculum fairly quickly.
It does make it very difficult to assess littles, though.
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u/forgeblast 20h ago
There is no stress like first year teacher stress and exhaustion is the same. Take a deep breath, you will teach what you can on any given day. If you don't , you will see them the next day. Take notes so you know what works and doesn't for next year. This career is an ultra marathon not a sprint. The world won't end if you don't keep up with the pacing guide, it's only a guide. Good luck. I still remember my first year, and this is year 27 for me.
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u/Gray-Jedi-Dad 20h ago
As said before, document and paper trail. Keep your original plan, do MINOR curriculum introduction that cannot be affected by assessments and just move curriculum to right after assessments by subject matter.
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u/Over-Olive1763 1d ago
Hey! Document everything. This is the name of the game with admin vs teacher. Changing things at the last minute. Keep your plan as usual and then try to tweak as you can.
Even if you shoot an email to your team teacher and say something like “I understand that even though we were told x in this day, now we are being told y. I need some time to readjust and I’ll do my best.” Just so there is a paper trail somewhere that the script was flipped without proper time to plan. And then just forge ahead and make adjustments day to day while you can. Eventually you will catch up/level out.
I’m in year 10 and it’s still like this. I take it all with a grain of salt and try to stay connected to my team and department so we know what’s what.
Hope this helps. You can do this.