Your student teaching experience will prepare you for the classroom with many methods and strategies; however the university classroom cannot prepare you for the challenges of the real-world classroom and the many social and cultural issues that will transpire during your first year of teaching. You will find that a lot of the knowledge and awareness you develop as a teacher will come from experience.

Perhaps in the future, university student teaching programs will shift the focus on helping the future teachers of America to better fill the many roles that are demanded of teachers. In the meantime here are a few insights outside of the standard methods and strategies that will help you prepare for your first year of teaching.

1. Customize You Classroom to Suit Your Students

Talk to other teachers in the district and learn as much as possible about your students as well as their background, then prepare a customized classroom management plan that will suit the needs of your students. Most importantly, be consistent with the plan and follow through with discipline. Your students will be looking for stability and consistency with classroom procedures.

2. Talk to Other Teachers in the District

Find out as much as you can about the school environment by talking to other teachers who work in the district. Perhaps there are also second year teachers that can offer you accounts of what their first year of teaching was like in that particular district and community. This will help to troubleshoot unexpected circumstances that normally transpire during your first year.

3. Request a Yearbook

Request to see the school yearbooks from the previous school year. This is a great way to learn names and faces as well as get a sense of the overall educational environment of the school district. Your students will be more inclined to relate to you if you call them by name on the very first day of school.

4. Administration, Board, and Parents

Ask other teachers that work in the district about the mission and educational goals that have been established by the administration and Board of Education. In addition, inquire about the degree of importance they place on supporting their staff as well as the emphasis they place on parent involvement the student's education. This will give you a clue as to whether or not stormy waters lie ahead for your first year and may help you head off some issues before they become a problem.

5. Prepare Lessons Infused with Technology

More often than not, you will be faced with a cultural diversity of students with a wide variety of backgrounds and social problems. The culmination of these factors affects the manner in which your students learn and as a result, you will face a diversity of learning styles. Teaching lessons that are infused with technology is a really great way to reach all of your students at once, as well as their individual learning styles. If your student teaching program did not provide you with this tool, take some workshops prior to assuming your first teaching position. The results you see in your classroom will be well worth the effort.

Theresa Xanger has over 25 years of experience as an educator and administrator at both the college and public school levels. She served as a Supervisor of Student Teachers for 8 years at the college level, and 6 years as a Cooperating Teacher, which involves mentoring student teachers in a classroom setting. For more information on teaching jobs and teacher's salary, visit http://www.texasteachers.org