Avoiding The Rut

Establishing yourself as a new teacher isn't the easiest thing to do.  Making sure that you do the little things to put yourself in a position to be successful is essential.  There's also the gaining of acceptance by both students and colleagues alike.  It's a mellow-drama and soap opera all rolled up into one!  But once an individual gains a certain comfort level, they tend to stick with what they are comfortable doing.   And it is because they tend to stick with those things that are comfortable, people seem to feel they are in a rut.

Being the new kid, at least for me, truly has not been a picnic.  And I have found myself "spinning wheels" at times.  However, I try to use a variety of tactics to break that monotany---- for me, and for them.  First of all, I try make things interesting.  I use current events, games, hypothetical situations and "what concerns do you have"  type days to ignite a change.  I also use groups and role-play to add a spark.  Unfortunately, these days it doesn't matter what you try to do, it seems that you always run into a kid in every class that just DON'T:  don't read, don't speak in front of others, don't act, don't try and most of all don't care!  To me that draws frustration and causes me to want to shut down as well.