Latest / New Teacher Talk / Ep 142: The New Teacher Survival Guide: AI Tools, Classroom Management, and Beating Burnout with Lori Abbott

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Ep 142: The New Teacher Survival Guide: AI Tools, Classroom Management, and Beating Burnout with Lori Abbott · New Teacher Talk

Hello, and welcome to New Teacher Talk,
where we bring you essential conversations and tips to
support aspiring and early career teachers.
Whether you teach in a big city, a small town,
or anywhere in between,
we're here to help you succeed in your classroom.
Welcome to New Teacher Talk.
My name is Lori Abbott,
and I recently retired from District 214 in Arlington
Heights, Illinois.
During my tenure as an educator,
I taught high school science,
achieved National Board Certification,
facilitated professional learning,
and served as an instructional coach for non-tenured staff.
In today's podcast episode,
I will share my best advice regarding ways you can prepare
for the upcoming school year,
including strategies for promoting positive student
behavior,
how to utilize generative AI to maximize the time you have
for creating lesson plans and assessments,
the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance,
and what to do when things get tough.
As a new teacher,
you are probably still developing your classroom management
style.
Although I can't recall who said it,
something I heard early on in my career,
and that continued to resonate throughout the years,
was that all behavior is purposeful.
Meaning that if you can determine the purpose of student
misbehavior,
you will be able to respond to it in an effective manner
that actually results in positive change.
This also means that the behavior most likely has nothing
to do with you.
And once you realize that, you are able to remain rational,
as opposed to emotional, when you respond.
Getting to know your students as people,
as well as learners,
will help you to create positive and respectful
relationships with them that will serve you well throughout
the year,
especially when disruptions occur and you need to determine
the underlying cause of the behavior.
While we're on the topic of classroom management,
I would like to add that now is a good time to determine
your non-negotiables,
rules or procedures that you need in order to be your best
self in the classroom.
It's important to keep this list relatively short so that
you will be able to add to it to accommodate the needs and
preferences of your students as you develop the classroom
rules and procedures collaboratively with them.
Involving your students in this process will ensure their
buy-in and will foster an environment that supports a
culture for learning for everyone.
Although a well-planned lesson is one of the best ways to
prevent student misbehavior,
the time it takes to plan a thoughtful and engaging lesson
can be overwhelming,
especially in the first few years of teaching.
One tool that can drastically reduce the amount of time
that it takes to plan a lesson or create an assessment is G
enerative AI.
If you are not familiar with chat GPT,
Gemini or other AI tools,
the summer is the perfect time to practice with them so you
are able to write an effective prompt when you are in need
of a lesson or assessment idea during the school year.
To write an effective Generative AI prompt,
you should do the following.
First, reflect on the purpose of your lesson.
Before you use AI,
make sure you are invested in designing engaging,
challenging and effective lessons to meet the academic
needs of your students.
AI can make it tempting to just accept the first prompt
response and be done,
but that doesn't serve you or the students in your class.
Start with the standards and use AI to unpack them.
Task AI with extracting all necessary learning goals from
the standard.
Next, choose the goal or goals you want to teach.
Then write another prompt to ensure that the learning goals
incorporate the appropriate level of thinking based on what
you know about your students.
You might type revise the first learning goal to include
critical thinking.
Finally, use AI to provide options for assessment.
Your prompt might be, for each goal,
create three types of assessments.
In your prompt,
you should also include relevant information about your
class, such as student demographics,
reading proficiency levels,
student disabilities and languages spoken by your students.
You can either prompt it to ask you questions to consider.
Now that you have a solid learning goal and aligned
assessment,
you can use AI to further assist in planning your
instruction or do that on your own.
Although teaching is an extremely rewarding career,
it is also very challenging,
which can lead to burnout if you neglect your own well
-being and work-life balance.
Consider what your self-care needs are and start developing
habits right now that will support a positive well-being
and work-life balance.
In other words,
you will need to take care of yourself in order to be able
to take care of your students and foster positive
relationships every day.
You have to give yourself permission to take a break when
you need it.
This includes setting appropriate boundaries to ensure that
you are sustaining yourself throughout the school year.
There is no doubt that the feeling of more should be done
will live in the back of your mind throughout the year,
but it is important to recognize that you need to set up
and maintain healthy boundaries between yourself and your
work.
My first year teaching,
I thought I had to grade assignments or assessments as soon
as they were turned in.
I would either bring them home and stay up way too late
grading them, or bring them home,
never take them out of my bag and feel guilty about
bringing them back ungraded the next day.
I unnecessarily created pressure on myself when in reality,
the students didn't care if I handed them back the next
day.
The teaching profession never stops, however.
The expectations in this role are high and the time you
have to meet those expectations is limited.
Inevitably,
you won't be able to complete everything during work hours.
If you do have to bring work home with you,
here are a few tips to consider. Number one, be realistic.
Can you actually get through three piles of grading,
create a new seating plan,
and plan for coaching your school's basketball team?
Maybe?
Is it necessary?
Probably not.
Be realistic in how much you can accomplish and still
maintain a healthy balance. Number two,
only bring home what is manageable.
Consider the after-school commitments that you already
have.
Eating dinner, exercise, downtime, connecting with others.
Then ask yourself what is manageable for the time that
remains. Number three, set a timer.
When you do sit down to work at home,
take into consideration how much time you'd like to spend
on what you brought home.
When the timer rings, your time is up.
nd this is the most important one.
Don't sacrifice sleep.
It is vitally important to be well rested when embarking on
a new school day.
Teaching is hard,
and teaching when you are tired is really hard.
Another important thing to understand is that there may be
times when you question your skills and abilities as a new
teacher.
I am here to tell you that this is a completely normal
feeling and one that is a natural part of your development
as an educator.
You may experience something called imposter syndrome,
where you feel like you are not cut out for this work.
You deny your own competence, doubt your abilities,
stop trusting yourself,
and may even overcompensate with excessive planning,
disrupting your work-life balance.
If you experience this phenomenon, try to own it,
and even lean into it.
When you acknowledge that you are not always right,
that there are things you do not know,
that you are not perfect,
you are humanized in the eyes of your students,
and that makes you a better teacher.
When teaching gets tough, and trust me, it will get tough,
I recommend that you revisit your why.
Determining your why as an educator requires honesty and
introspection.
You will need to reflect on several factors,
such as your motivations, your core values,
and the impact you want to have on your students.
To begin the process of developing your why,
you might try to recall the following.
Educators who inspired you made you feel valued or sparked
your passion for learning,
turning points on your journey to becoming an educator,
moments that solidified your desire to teach.
What initially drew you to a career in education?
Was it a love for a particular subject,
a desire to make a difference,
or a passion for working with young people?
To identify your core values, start by asking yourself,
what principles are most important to me as a person and as
an educator?
How do my values translate into my teaching practice?
What kind of impact do I want to have on my students that
aligns with my values?
When defining the impact you want to have on students,
it's important to consider your ideal outcome.
What kind of positive change do you want to see in your
students?
What role will you play in facilitating that positive
change?
Think about the lasting impact you want to have on your
students' lives, beyond the classroom.
Once you have given thoughtful consideration to all of
these factors, craft a written statement.
Try to articulate your why in a clear and concise statement
that reflects your core values and desired impact.
Make sure you share your why with others,
communicated to your students,
as well as your mentor or other trusted colleague,
to help you stay connected to your purpose.
Regularly reflect on your statement and adapt it as needed
to make sure that it still resonates with you.
Your why will likely evolve over time as you grow as an
educator, so be open to refining it.
Finally,
keep it close at hand and revisit it often throughout the
school year,
especially when you encounter a challenge or feel like you
are struggling.
As someone who recently retired after 33 years as an
educator,
I can honestly say that it was the most fulfilling career I
could have ever hoped for.
There were good days and not so good days,
but it was never boring.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to New Teacher T
alk.
I hope you feel excited about the upcoming school year and
the potential you have for making a difference in the lives
of your students.
It will be here before you know it,
so enjoy what is left of summer break and get ready for an
amazing school year.
Thanks for spending part of your day with us on New Teacher
Talk.
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