What I Wish I Had Known As A New Teacher

DISTRICT PERSPECTIVE

What I wish I had known as a new teacher

By Nader Twal

Categories: Equity, Mentoring & induction

I remember my first year of teaching high school English language arts in northern California in fall 1997. I was hired three months before I finished my teaching credential program and only two months into student teaching. The school where I was hired had suddenly found itself with a large increase in enrollment and a need for more sections to balance class sizes. More sections meant more teachers, and that meant my first full year of teaching started sooner than I expected. Not only was I underprepared, but my course load was incredibly difficult. To address the overflow situation, teachers who had too many students were asked to select a few students from their classes to build out my roster. That process resulted in me

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