Here's how you can nurture your own learning and growth as a novice teacher throughout your career.

Reflection is important at any stage of a career. When new in a profession, reflection can help you understand WHY you are experiencing success, or maybe not so much in various aspects of your job. As you grown in the role, reflection can help you identify areas of growth and you can stretch beyond what is just in front of you. It can help you understand areas of dissatisfaction and where you'd like to be challenged. Reflection is also key to understand if it's time to move on and find a completely different challenge; be that a district role, admin, or a career pivot.

Cinco preguntas obligadas para reflexionar: 1. ?Estoy siendo el profesor que me hubiera gustado tener? 2. ?Soy profesor por vocación o por necesidad? ?Me apasiona lo que hago? 3. ?Estoy variando el estímulo en mi práctica docente? 4. ?Lo que hago en clase aporta valor a mis estudiantes? 5. ?Estoy apoyándome en la tecnología para mejorar la experiencia de mis estudiantes?

Mentorship should not just be tied to your day job. Yes, finding a more tenured teacher while in the classroom can be helpful with where you are immediately in need of guidance and support. But to be a well rounded person, make connections of different skill sets. If you want to grow, find mentors beyond your short term goals, perhaps even find a mentor in an adjacent career (higher ed, EdTech, etc.). This will keep you well rounded in your perspectives and not feel like you are operating in an echo chamber. It's especially helpful to have a network beyond other teachers should you want to make a career change. Teachers tend to only know other teachers. Find 1-2 mentors that can keep you well rounded.

The absolute best professional development hours I ever earned had 0 to do with the classroom. Teachers get stuck sitting in boring or lackluster PD experiences because we go to the same seminars, especially tenured teachers. CPD that is well rounded and of seemingly unrelated topics actually help you more in the classroom. It can tie your traditional skills elsewhere and help you make the content more relevant for students. You speak about more experiences and keep in mind more diverse options when teaching. My unrelated PD? I spent a week in San Diego at the Marine Corp depot learning exactly what a recruit would experience. Unbelievably humbling, eye opening, and it 100% made me a better teacher.

We are all constantly learning, and as teachers we are no exception. However, at least the first few years of teaching can be overwhelming, which is why I've found it useful to do CPD courses online, as it reduces commuting time and allows me to maintain a good work-life balance. Also, the more we know about our subject area, the easier it is to focus on other aspects of teaching, such as classroom management and dealing with SEN students.

The best part of collaboration is you can become a true leader. True leaders know when to take charge and also when to be a team player. Yes, collaboration is knowledge sharing but if you take point on organizing the content, collecting data about your content, and lead turning that data into information? You're truly acting as a leader. Yes we can all look at performance/grades of students. But to lead a group to look at patterns, change over time, and analyzing WHY and WHAT the data is telling you and then acting on it and making change? That is when collaboration and sharing can really make an impact.

When I volunteered to put the World Geography curriculum into the LMS for my team, I did it because I was a first year teacher, go-getter, pleaser. I had no idea what an impact it would make for me. Not only did it make the content accessible to students in juvenile detention centers, stay at home moms, students who didn't come to campus for health reasons...the list goes on...it also gave me a skill that 6 years later would allow me a career pivot. Technology is the future and no matter your career path or future desires, leaning into and embracing technology will never do you wrong. Students are more well versed in tech that the current generations will ever be. They are born with devices in hand.

Offering a different perspective here. Yes, mindset matters and recalling why you were passionate about the role in the first place can help. BUT if those nagging feelings wont' go away, that churn in your stomach on Sunday nights is there? Figure out where else you can live out your passion. Teachers can teach, they don't need a k12 classroom to do it. That's just the most common place. Do what you need to do to take care of you, your mental and physical health, and your family. There is no trophy at the end of live for staying in a profession where you sacrificed yourself for the potential to inspire students. No billionaire is handing out free money because you stayed. The government is paying your rent for sacrificing your health.

Teachers never stop learning, it's in our nature. A lot of things can be used for CPD - reading industry papers, free courses, sometimes Bluey and Alphablocks. Embrace it, it's part of life.

If your passion is teaching? If you get tingles coaching to a successful outcome? If you love helping and watching someone learn and progress learning a new skill? There are SO MANY avenues for teaching, mentoring, coaching. If you are constantly making deals with yourself and negotiating in your head or convincing yourself you can do it but you intuition says otherwise? Listen to it. Yes, we NEED good teachers. Education is critical. But its okay to not put that burden solely on your shoulders. If you are a teacher and your mental health, relationships, physical health are suffering? You have every right to reflect on what to do differently and yes, that can mean overcoming the stigma, judgement, and negativity of others.