My website shows teachers how to survive their first years of teaching. Here’s one good way to get your career off on the right foot: When we start our career, we want to make our bosses glad that they hired us! The old saying is true…you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Another truth is the “Halo Effect” that can materialize if you play your cards right. First year teachers that follow these tips will influence their supervisors in a positive way! Here are eleven ways to earn your halo:

1. Don’t be stingy with your time. Administrators notice which teachers are the last ones to make it to school each day, and the first ones to leave in the afternoon. Make it to school at least 30 minutes before school starts, and do not leave until at least 30 minutes after the final bell. Warning signals for administrators are phone calls from teachers who are “running late” and need someone to cover their first period class, or teachers that are able to wave at their students from their car as the buses leave at the end of the day. You probably are going to need to put together lesson plans or grade papers anyways…why not do it at school? The extra time you spend at school will be noticed.

2. Be organized. Do not be known as the teacher who submits her lesson plans or grade cards late, or has to run to the copy room in between classes to run off worksheets for the class that is meeting in four minutes. Subtle little signals that you give off every day give administrators, office staff, and other teachers an idea of what your classroom is like (even though they may never see you actually teach!) It’s unfair…..but it happens every year.

3. Ditch the clutter. Yes, this is another “be organized” tip. When you go into a teacher’s room and see stacks of ungraded papers and projects lying all over the place, you draw conclusions about a teacher’s effectiveness.

4. Display student work as much as possible. Try to mount it on the wall in an organized way instead of plastered here, there, and everywhere. While we are on the subject of displaying things in your room…please change your bulletin boards at regular intervals throughout the year! It is disheartening to see the same “I’ve Got a Hunch This Is a Bright Bunch” bulletin board still up in April when it was posted in August of the previous year. Your attention to these seemingly small matters gives the impression that you have your act together….even if you don’t!

5. Attend several extracurricular activities during the year. Administrators love to see teachers at the various football and volleyball games, speech tournaments, and ROTC drills. Not only do you score points with the administration, the kids get the impression that you really care about them! They know that you are giving up your valuable personal time to watch them compete, and they will show their appreciation in the classroom.

6. Be where you are supposed to be, when you are supposed to be there. If you have cafeteria duty on the third week of school, but you don’t show up because you “forgot”, it sends a message that you don’t think that performing your extra duties are important…..even if you really just forgot. When you receive your extra duty rosters at the beginning of the year, mark your duties on the calendar, program an alarm into your phone, do anything to make sure you remember.

7. Be positive. Administrators enjoy hearing how great their school is, how much fun you are having as a teacher, how happy you are that you know that you chose the right career, and other positive messages. New teachers who are already complaining about their plight raise a red flag. Almost any situation can be turned into a positive if you have the right attitude. For example, Mrs. Zimmerman was having trouble with “Dennis”, a student in her 1st period class. When asked how things were going, Mrs. Zimmerman chose not to focus on Dennis’ problems, but how she and Dennis’ mom are working together to help Dennis succeed. Even a mess-up on your part can have a happy face put on it: You have learned what NOT to do, and you will handle the situation differently next time!

8. Handle as much discipline as you can by using your own classroom discipline plan. If you are running to the administration with an overabundance of classroom discipline issues, you identify yourself as a “high maintenance” teacher. Important: This is not to advise you to let things get out of hand because you are afraid to ask for help…this is to advise you to use everything in your disciplinary arsenal before you involve the Assistant Principal.

9. Volunteer. Tell your Principal that you want to coordinate Red Ribbon Week. Coach a sport. Sponsor the National Honor Society or Student Council. Don’t ask how much the job pays. Believe me, it won’t be enough to fairly compensate you for your time, anyways. You are going for POINTS, not cash.

10. Be a picker-upper. If you are seen by others in the building as having pride in its appearance, it will earn you quite a few points. For example, if others see you walking down the hall, and you notice a piece of paper on the floor (or pop can, or candy wrapper) and you pick it up and throw it in the trash…BONUS! It seems like such a small thing, but it earns large amounts of points.

11. Dress professionally. You may be surprised at how some teachers dress…I know I was. When I think back on my school days, I picture my teachers in dresses (the women…not the men), and the men dressed in slacks, a dress shirt, and a tie. Some wore a sport coat or suit. In most schools today, teachers are dressed in everything from sweat pants, jeans (some with holes in them!), sweatshirts, flip flops, short skirts, tennis shoes, and T-shirts. It is also ironic that the teachers that dress the worst are also the teachers who complain about how the students dress, or complain about how teachers are not treated like professionals (or both). Be a teacher that dresses professionally! It may be difficult to do with your salary, but do the best you can.

Shannon Holden - To find many more survival tips, visit my free website, www.newteacherhelp.com.