4 Keys to a Successful Start at a New School

Congratulations! You’ve made the leap to a new school. As you embark on an exciting new adventure, regardless of the number of years you’ve been teaching, you will face a steep learning curve in the beginning days of the school year. In the first few days you will be introduced to new policies and procedures, new routines, new people, and, more urgently, “Where are the restrooms?”

Consider these tips to help your transition to a new school go as smoothly as possible.

4 Ways to Ease Your Transition to a New School

1. Listen, take notes, and ask. “IP will attend FCD in the PAAC for either P1 or P2 unless they’re in IB AA SL.“ This is a type of sentence that is not uncommon to hear at my school. I am sure your school has similarly complicated acronyms for programs, documents, and locations. Imagine being a newly hired teacher and seeing this sentence in an email or announced at a meeting. Who goes where and when?

Take notes when you hear unfamiliar terms like these, especially school-specific acronyms. When you get a moment with a colleague or supervisor, be sure to refer to your notes to ask about what you observed. For example, when your department head pops in to ask how you’re doing, refer to your notes and ask, “I heard something about a pep rally next week. Can you tell me more about that?” (“The Ultimate Guide to Starting a Teaching Job Mid-Year,“ Cult of Pedagogy, December 2014). Keep your notes with you for every meeting and when you read emails for several weeks. You never know when a new term or acronym will crop up in the school year.

2. Seek out a variety of support colleagues. I am the type of new employee who apologizes for “bothering” a colleague by asking too many questions, so I have learned to spread out my questions to several colleagues. By distributing your questions to various coworkers, you can find specific people who are more expert in certain domains. And you will feel less bothersome by not asking too many questions of one person.

If you’re new to the area, find a colleague who is the most helpful with life logistics, such as finding a dentist, a grocery store, or child care. Seek out the right coworker to ask about curriculum and planning. This will most likely be a teacher on your teaching team. Designate another person from whom you will seek out help with administrative logistics such as “Where do I get a parking permit?” or “Am I allowed to staple posters on the walls?”

Lastly, and maybe the most important at the beginning of the year, find a tech expert. No matter how tech-savvy you are, you need this person to guide you through the hiccups you’ll encounter in a new school’s technology platforms.

For general moral support as a new employee, seek out the “marigolds” (“Find Your Marigold: The One Essential Rule for New Teachers,“ Cult of Pedagogy, August 2013). Marigolds are the fellow teachers who will support your growth with their optimism. Avoid toxic people who will mentally drag you down.

3. Be yourself, and also be open to new experiences at the same time. When you bring yourself to a new role at a new school, you’re bringing along your previous experiences, too. You were hired to bring your expertise, but there is a fine balance with bringing your old ways to a new culture.

Resist the mindset of “That’s not how my old school did things.” Instead, listen and wait for the right time to make suggestions (“How to Ace Your New Job in the First 90 Days,” Forbes interview with Michael Watkins, 2014).

Catch yourself each time you start a sentence with “Well, at my last school, we…” Replace this sentence with “Can you tell me more about how _____ is done here?” Of course, there will be opportunities to be yourself, especially in the classroom with your students, but don’t try to influence school culture or traditions straight away.

4. Give yourself grace to make mistakes. If you haven’t changed schools in many years, you probably are quite used to the policies and routines at your last school, which can make uncertainty more daunting at a new school. Accept that you will make mistakes. You will be late to a meeting, you will forget paperwork, you will send your class to PE at the wrong time of day—these “oops” times are to be expected. Learn from these experiences while also giving yourself grace.

During my first year at my current school, I completely missed a student review meeting. I did not realize it until I got an email from the assistant principal the next day. I felt embarrassed because I was an experienced teacher—how could I have let this slip? The best I could do was apologize for my oversight. I learned from this experience that that assistant principal didn’t send calendar invitations—rather, I was responsible for adding events to my own calendar. (Note: Years later, when I became an administrator, I made sending calendar invitations a priority. I didn’t want another teacher to go through the same embarrassment I had gone through.)

As you start with a new year at a new school, keep your eyes and ears open. Take notes, ask questions, and be open to learning (and open to making mistakes). It’s exciting to embark on a new adventure, to grow as a professional, and to make new friends. Embrace the adventure, knowing that you bring valuable skills and knowledge to your new environment. Wishing you a fantastic year ahead!