Have you ever watched a toddler try and take their first steps?
Of course, they staggered to and fro, eventually falling. Despite the disappointment the child may have felt, the cheers from the onlooking adults were those of admiration and joy. The adult knew that the child was taking the first of millions of steps and that the steps would become easier with time, eventually coming to the point where the child would put one foot in front of the other and do so while talking, reading, and possibly even using those same legs to run races and go places far away…someday.
But for the child just learning to do that task that would eventually become second-nature to them, those first steps weren’t easy.
So, beginning teacher, don’t be too hard on yourself.
Your first steps won’t all be easy either.
You will fall. You will have bumps and bruises, though we hope more figuratively than literally. Your daily audience, in the form of your students, will see you make those mistakes. But just as children are resilient, they are also forgiving. They do not expect you to be perfect. Nor should you expect that of yourself.
Some days you will feel like you are running a race in which you are as light as air. Other days, your feet will feel as if filled with lead. Just when you think you have something figured out, you will falter and your near-confident steps will become uncertain and cautious again.
But each day you are learning and growing, just like your students. Each day you walk a bit further or do so with more grace. As the weeks go by, tasks that required lots of intentional work at the beginning of the school year will occur naturally. One day, relatively soon, you will be caught off guard by the fact that without thinking you had effortlessly completed a task that had required so much thought only a few weeks prior.
Your fans, including your family, friends, and co-workers will be in the sidelines cheering for you. They have the benefit of watching you and seeing the tremendous steps you are taking each day. So, when you share with them that you are struggling, and they tell you not to worry that you are doing a great job, don’t begrudge them. They knew you when you weren’t even walking in the teaching world yet. And though you may be troubled that you aren’t running yet, from their vantage point they can see how purposeful your walk has become without you even noticing the ease at which you now take those steps.
No one expects you to run a marathon at first. No one expects you to figure out walking with your first steps into the teaching world. However, your students expect you to get up after each fall, shake off the dust, and try again. When you fall down, in whatever task it is you are trying to achieve as a new teacher, get back up. Take that next step. Keep putting one foot in front of the other until it becomes automatic. Each day, each week, each month you will learn more and more. Your mistakes will become your best learning experiences.
Can you imagine if, as a toddler, you decided the whole “walking thing” was just too difficult to keep trying? Where would you be now? Certainly not where you are. The same applies to teaching. Those first steps won’t all be easy but once you start walking, you will be amazed how, in no time at all, you will be running. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Best of luck,
[…] Taking Your First Steps as a Teacher […]