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Teaching Secrets: Hallway Hints

By John Norton

It’s the first week of school. Buses arrive early tomorrow morning and hundreds of chattering students will disembark, signaling the true end of summer. You’re a veteran teacher who’s rushing toward your classroom with the last armload of materials from your car. You spy an impossibly young adult, apparently frozen in place in the hallway. Your quick diagnosis: NTSS (new teacher shock syndrome). Your stomach remembers the anxiety of that day so many years ago. Your heart reaches out. But your head says you can spare only two minutes right now. What’s your best advice?

We recently put this scenario before members of the Teacher Leaders Network. Here’s a sample of what we heard.

Someone once said, “Your goal as a first-year teacher is to be a second year teacher." The surest route to Year Two...