Thing I Wish I Would Have Known

I am not sure I have enough time to list all of the things that I wish I would have known. So, I am glad you are only asking for 1 or 2. The first thing I wish I had known is having a detailed syllabus makes a difference. My first day of school was so much smoother walking the students through the syllabus I created in NTI. I had a syllabus my first year, but it was vague and I just used what the teacher before me had. The second thing has been daily grades. My first year I worked primarily off of group projects and tests. I had each group member evaluate themselves and the other members in their group. But, it was frustrating. I knew kids were skating by and were getting grades that they did not deserve. Going to a daily grade has changed the behavior in my class and the level of effort given by the students.