On the first day of school, I cried. I was overwhelmed, underprepared, and questioning if becoming a teacher was the right decision. Fast-forward 10 months later, on the last day of school I cried. Through all the trial and error, administrator observations, pedagogical jargon, professional development, and nuances of a school year - I completed my first year with a resounding assurance that teaching is what I was born to do. 


My name is Eneah Fite, a high-school English teacher in Baltimore City, Maryland entering my second year of teaching. No, that isn't a typo, this is year two for me. While I wholeheartedly respect, cherish, and honor the place of the sage wisdom from veteran teachers in education, I believe my voice as an early career teacher offers a necessary perspective as well. Primarily because I have a very fresh recall of the fears, struggles, and imminent circumstances plaguing a new teacher that someone whose first year was decades ago might be removed from. 


Your veteran teachers can provide time-tested strategies for instruction and classroom management- there tends to be a dissonance in the application learning curve for a new educator. In other words, I've found vet teachers have a Nike mindset. They give you advice and expect you to “just do it” or implement it with a level of confidence their competence (you don't yet possess) breeds. For example, you might ask a vet how to handle a disruptive student and their well-sanctioned advice is “kick them out” and for some they might just “kick the student out.” 


If you're like me though I have a million and two questions. Like at what point of disruption do I kick them out? After 2 warnings or 3? How do I know that the behavior warrants a kick-out? Like phone usage is disruptive but am I kicking out for phones? How exactly do I kick out? Do I make a demonstration quiet the whole class and flex my muscle? What if other students are involved - do I kick them all out? Who am I kicking them out to? Where do they go? When will I be able to reteach what they missed? How do I kick out in a way that doesn't go against the norms and cultures and vibe I create in the classroom and so on and so on? 


The confusion on how to authentically implement the sage wisdom I received exacerbated the stress of navigating year one of teaching until I leaned into SEL.