Experiences and Problems of New Teachers at Touro College

Professional Growth and Development

Graduate programs in the Early Childhood Education are basically designed to help develop and train educators for work in the preschool, kindergarten and the primary school settings so that they grow professionally. As an ECE educator, going through graduate program impacted positively in my professional growth and development. Having previously graduated with bachelors in childhood education, the graduate program offered me the opportunity to put in real practice the knowledge and skills that I learned. The program offered the opportunity to understand both the practical and theoretical ways on how children develop. In addition, it offered an opportunity to study and understand the attributes and pedagogy that are specific to the teaching the young children. This provides the opportunity for the growth and development of my profession as an early childhood educator. Also, the program provided the opportunity for learning the strategies that are applied to optimize the learning of the children thus developing personally in my profession. The program also involves communicating with the parents, colleagues and other members of the school thus giving an opportunity to improve my interaction with the parents as well as my colleagues. 

Among other activities that are involved in the program include classroom instructions, curriculum development, administration as well as basics and ideas on the psychological, sociological and cultural development of the children. This skills and knowledge offered me the opportunity to broaden my understanding of how to handle children with diversified needs as well as those from different cultural backgrounds. The program exposed me to the latest evidence-based teaching methods and theories and granted me the opportunity to put what I had learned into teaching practice in the real classroom. Because the program involved going to class and having a practical lesson with the children, it allowed me to grow my knowledge in handling children from different cultural context, something that I had not experienced before. This was a development and growth of my profession because it broadens my scope as a teacher to handle children from across all cultures in America. 

While working under the supervision of my professor who was very supportive, the program offered me many professional development opportunities. After the class, I would sit with my professor and have a talk about the lesson. Here, we would discuss areas that require improvement so that in every next lesson, I would make improvements. This was a great experience working under the supervision of such a caring professor who was determined to help me grow professionally. After each lesson, I learned new strategies for teaching that were better suited for the children. With the help of my professor, I would get back to the classroom and make the necessary changes in my teaching style so that the children could grab every concept of the lesson. This allowed me to have a continuous learning and experience that made me develop professionally. I have now learned and understood many teaching strategies that are best suited for the children. As a result, I got to start enjoying every aspect of my profession. At the start of the program, the profession seemed challenging, having to handle children from various backgrounds and teach all of them to master. However, the whole lesson got interesting day after day as I gained more experience and knowledge about the various teaching methods for the early childhood education.

The program also helped me develop better organization and planning skills. Other than the hours I spent in the classroom, much of time was also spent on the evaluation, curriculum devilment as well as paperwork. However, after consultation with my professor, I developed a more and better way of organizing my time so that I could have enough time left to focus on the learners rather than the paperwork. This skill led to the development of my profession towards appropriate time management. 

The program also helped me develop my philosophy in education after I made new discoveries. I realize that all children are unique and therefore must be accorded a stimulating educational environment where they can all grow physically, emotionally and mentally. This has changed my view of early childhood education and I now have desires to create an atmosphere that will facilitate the children to meet their full learning potential. I now aim at providing an environment where the learners will be given an opportunity to share their ideas and experience. I also came to learn that all children are unique and special in some way concerning their education. I will always help my learners to express themselves and accept them as they are while at the same time embracing their differences in the education potentiality. I learned that each child has different learning abilities and therefore no one specific teaching method fits all students. This calls for the use of a combination of many teaching styles so that all the learners are incorporated. I learned that it is appropriate to incorporate different teaching styles that will make the content relevant. This will need the incorporation of hands-on learning, cooperative learning as well as projects. Through the graduate program and consultation with my professor, I also learned and developed a philosophy that classroom should be a safe and caring environment where the children are free to speak up their minds and grow. This will, therefore, call for the creation of a flourishing learning environment for the children. 

Practicum Observation Lessons

Observation 1: Professor truly enjoyed my lesson and was surprised how the Pre-K aged students were able to grasp the concept of space and categorizing and sorting the differences between earth, sun, and moon. She noted that the children in the class definitely were exposed to knowledge outside of the classroom.

My strength in this lesson was based on my philosophy in education which I learned that children are different and therefore require different teaching styles. I applied this philosophy by using a combination of different styles which actually yield a positive result that even the professor was surprised. However, my weakness was still on the issue of handling cultural diversity. This is because some of the children were not Native Americans and were only studying English as a second or even third language. Language barrier became a major challenge. The professor was however impressed with the lesson and encouraged me to continue with the same style. She, however, recommended some techniques that I could use to increase teacher-student relationship and enhance learning. Among the recommendations that she made include teaching with enthusiasm and passion. When the teacher teaches with excitement, the students are more likely to buy the idea and also get excited about the lesson. She also recommended for the incorporation of humor in the lesson so that the children can remain alert and love the lesson which makes them laugh as they learn. Furthermore, the professor recommended that I should show an interest in the lives of the children out of school. This involves talking to the students about their interests and extracurricular activities. This will promote a positive relationship between the teacher and the student and the end results will be increased learning. 

Observation 2: Professor observed in a Kindergarten classroom and also enjoyed the lesson on the lifecycle of a plant. However, the lesson was a bit too long and we spoke about where I could have shortened the lesson (shortening the text). During that lesson, the kids began to become a bit uneasy and anxious. The professor enjoyed when I used the children and had them use their bodies to represent the different parts of a plant. 

My weakness on this lesson was on the issue of shortening the text so that the lesson does not get too long that makes the students lose concentration and bored. We, however, talked with the professor about the issue and she told me how to shorten the text so that the children do not feel exhausted. These were very good lessons and experiences that helped develop my profession as a teacher. My key motivator in the whole graduate program was my professor who always took her time to talk to me and encourage me. She always enquired to know more about my personal life as well as my professional development. She gave me pieces of advice on areas that I need to address so that I can make a great improvement. She made me grow professionally as I enjoyed working under her supervisions. 

Problems Facing New Teachers

A number of studies have noted that new teachers face many problems which hinder their ability to provide effective teaching to the problems. Since the increase in the number of problems with new teachers, there has been growing concern over the need to study this area and address these issues in modern education. Knowing these problems will be the starting ground for devising solutions. Teachers both in general and special education continue to face various problems which have over time affected their effective teaching. While the beginning teachers enter classrooms with a lot of expectations, the first year of teaching is usually a period of learning and gaining experience. However, studies reveal that during this first year, teachers experience a decreased strength of belief in their own efficacy as well as the learning potential of their children. Many studies on the retention of the teachers have shown that the first two years of teaching is usually the riskiest and the period a teacher is more likely to quit the profession. New teachers undergo a range of problems which can include unfamiliarity with the practical and administrative issues, classroom adaptation, and management, teaching techniques, lack of confidence and self-esteem as well as poor lesson planning and workload. 

New teachers may not be familiar with the practical and administrative issues. As they start their profession, teachers are always not trained on such issues and therefore they lack experience. As a teacher, one is an administrator who is required to take part in the management of administrative issues as well practical management. Generally, lack of experience is the major challenge that the teachers face as they start their career. This can lead to some teachers disliking the profession which can even result in the career change. My studies have shown that teachers are more likely to develop a negative attitude towards teaching due to lack of experience on the practical and administrative issues. 

New teachers also experience difficulty in the adaptation and management of the classroom. Classroom requires proper management skills and experience so that an environment effective for learning can be created. The kind of the classroom environment that the teacher creates has a direct impact on the learning outcome of the students. A conducive learning environment should be created by the teacher to enhance learning. A good classroom management is, therefore, necessary to help the students grasp more contents from the teacher. The teacher must always have control of the classroom by maintaining discipline and order while at the same time enhancing a positive relationship with the students. However, new teachers do not have the classroom management skills that will ensure they have control of the class. Studies have shown that some new teachers lack even the skills to have control of the class and as a result leading to a learning environment that does not have any order. This is because most of the new teachers experience classroom management for the first time making them lack the skills and experience to manage the class. This can then lead to a poor learning environment which will then negatively affect the overall learning outcome of the students. As most children are getting accustomed to the new technologies and always eager to learn new skills and discover fun activities, educators have to task themselves with new educational apps and ideas that will make learning interesting to the students. New teachers face a hard task to adapt to these new demands from the learners and this may affect their teaching abilities. 

Another central problem that the new teachers face is lack of confidence on the face of the demands and the requirements of the modern teaching environment. While they get into the profession, most teachers are aware that they play a key role in the future life of the students. As stated by Henry Adams, a teacher has effects on eternity. A teacher can never know where his influence stops. This is normally the major challenge for the new teachers who had not have experience in the past. Lack of confidence can always lead to loss of self-esteem among the teachers and this will negatively affect their teaching delivery. Loss of self-esteem is associated with loss of passion and enthusiasm. In the end, the teacher will feel a sense of despair and inadequacy. Talking in front of the students for which the teacher feels no confidence can be one of the most devastating things in a teacher’s a career. Confidence levels and self-esteem also affects the communication between the teacher and the students. A reduced communication will definitely affect the content delivery by the teacher. Therefore, it is necessary that confidence levels among the teachers be boosted if teaching and learning are to be enhanced. 

Unfamiliarity with the teaching styles and techniques has also been identified as another key problem that the new teachers face as they start their profession. Despite the fact that they are taught the various teaching styles and techniques while in colleges, these teachers fail to practically apply the theories learned in class into action. While it is recommended that teachers use a combination of various teaching techniques while delivering a concept, most young teachers are unfamiliar with most of these teaching techniques and this hinders them from using many methods as recommended. After failing to apply the right teaching methods and techniques in class, there will be a very low rate of grasping by the students which could further demoralize the teacher. Many reports have indicated that many new teachers who fail to effectively deliver a concept to students are more likely to develop low self-efficacy as well as low self-esteem in their work. This further result in more inability to deliver appropriately to the students thereby affecting learning. 

It is undoubtedly clear that teachers require proper planning for their time and lessons if they are to have much time spent with the students. However, most new teachers due to lack of experience on how to effectively manage and plan for their time and lessons may face various difficulties ( Unal & Unal, 2012 ). While teaching, some teachers tend to focus much on paperwork and student evaluation leaving them with very little time to focus on t students themselves and encourage learning. Inability to plan effectively can also lead to the feeling of much workload, which may make the teachers start developing a negative attitude towards their profession. Unless they develop experience in better planning and management of their time and lessons, it would be difficult for the new teachers to enjoy teaching as a profession. Effective time management requires a new teacher to have a clear schedule of activities earlier enough, make lesson plans in advance, think through projects while at the same time own a personal calendar. New teachers find a challenge while trying to plan appropriately for their time. 

Support for the New Teachers

A number of strategies have been suggested by scholars to help solve the problems that are faced by new teachers as they get into their profession. Due to the issue of lack of self-confidence among the new teachers, solutions have been suggested to help teacher boost their confidence levels when faced with class for the first time. Teachers are expected to improve their communication skills so that they can effectively talk to the students during lessons. They should develop enthusiasm towards their work and have a positive thinking about it. In fact, developing a positive thinking towards teaching as a profession is the initial point for overcoming the issue of lack of confidence. Without developing a positive attitude, teachers may not get motivated by their work and this will affect their confidence levels. 

Providing good support for the new teachers has also been mentioned as a significant method to help improve the likelihood that new teachers will like their profession and not consider quitting the profession. Beginning teacher support programs known as induction programs have been identified to play a significant role in promoting teacher satisfaction with their job while at the same time boosting the moral of the new teachers. A well-designed and properly implemented teacher induction programs can help new educators apply theoretical knowledge learned in class into real-life teaching ( Kane & Francis , 2013). A more recent study has revealed that new teachers struggle to deal with issues such as classroom management, student motivation, assessing the work of students and relations with the parents. However, an induction program for new educators offers the new teachers with an opportunity to deal with these issues practically. Under the new teacher support programs, various types of support are offered to the new teachers which can include personal and emotional support and task-program support. These will offer the teachers get equipped with skills to face teaching in the real-life classroom. Data has shown that induction programs are essential in promoting professional development of teachers and improving their experience ( Ingersoll , 2012)

There are various teacher mentoring programs that are aimed at helping the new teachers grow and develop professionally so that they are well equipped to handle all challenges that they may face ( Roeser et al., 2012). Mentoring programs help build positive attitude in teachers while at the same time adding on their experience in the profession. Other programs such as graduate programs have also been documented as crucial to the development of new teachers. Such programs allow the new teachers to experience and practice real-life classroom teaching while they are under the supervision of their lecturer who guide them on various issues. This provides important growth opportunity for the new teachers. 

On the issue of classroom management, new teachers have been encouraged to maintain control of the classroom and develop a positive rapport with the students ( Darling-Hammond , 2012). This can be done by getting to know students, engage them in a free talk that is aimed at making them feel open and free. Teachers can also plan properly in advance for their time and lessons so that they know their schedule in advance. Planning in advance will avoid time wastes on less important activities and provide more time for the teacher-student relationship which as a result will lead to better learning. The new teachers should follow the useful guidelines that enable them to understand how to reduce the lesson into the most significant and interesting element. While many teachers tend to add much scope to a single lesson, education experts are of the view that too much content at once may confuse the students. New teachers should thus use the appropriate teaching techniques that have been documented so that they improve the outcome of the children. Increased students outcome and satisfaction will help new teachers get motivated and develop self-esteem while at the same time enjoying the profession. 

References

Darling-Hammond, L. (2012).  Powerful teacher education: Lessons from exemplary programs . John Wiley & Sons.

Ingersoll, R. M. (2012). Beginning teacher induction what the data tell us.  Phi Delta Kappan ,  93 (8), 47-51.

Kane, R. G., & Francis, A. (2013). Preparing teachers for professional learning: is there a future for teacher education in new teacher induction.  Teacher Development ,  17 (3), 362-379.

Roeser, R. W., Skinner, E., Beers, J., & Jennings, P. A. (2012). Mindfulness training and teachers' professional development: An emerging area of research and practice.  Child Development Perspectives ,  6 (2), 167-173.

Unal, Z., & Unal, A. (2012). The Impact of Years of Teaching Experience on the Classroom Management Approaches of Elementary School Teachers.  Online Submission ,  5 (2), 41-60.