W. Michael Kelley

Without a doubt, brand new teachers worry more about classroom discipline and management skills than they worry about anything else. Deep down, you know that if you can’t maintain discipline, you have little hope of getting rehired and eventually receiving tenure. ©Cartoonresource / Adobe StockAt its very heart, effective classroom discipline boils down to three basic skills: motivating your students, confronting inappropriate behavior, and maintaining class discipline after you’ve established it.

Your first week with students is a lot like a first date. In both cases, you don’t know each other very well, so conversation is awkward and forced. Therefore, you need to have a full agenda planned so that none of those awkward lulls in conversation cause the chemistry between you to fizzle. Other than learning names and assigning seats, what should you try to accomplish during the first week?

I didn’t sleep much the night before my first day of school. I was nervous, anxious, scared, and more afraid of riding the bus than anything else, but that’s mostly because I was 5 years old and terrified to start kindergarten. ©Wavebreak3 / Adobe StockFlash forward 17 years, and the mood was much the same my first week as a first-year teacher.

This Cheat Sheet summarizes how to handle some of the tricky parts of being a first-year teacher, including planning for a substitute teacher, keys to a successful teaching observation, what you should get done during the first week of school, and how to deal with minor behavior problems.Planning for a substitute teacherDon’t leave your substitute teacher in the lurch!