Veteran teacher shares hilarious tips to survive first years of teaching: 'Grade smart not hard'

Being a teacher or educator is possibly considered one of our society's most respected professions. A teacher can leave a significant impact on the lives of their pupils by serving as a role model to them and helping them grow and learn in a safe and supportive environment. However, being a teacher is not only limited to passing on your knowledge about a subject to your students. The teaching profession comes with its own set of hardships and stress.

u/teachtoreason on Reddit, who claims to be a veteran teacher, has some hilarious advice for brand new educators to survive in this demanding profession. Seeing as how the role could potentially make one question their career choices by the end of their first year as a teacher, these deceptively simple tips could make things a lot easier. The popular Reddit post full of tips was titled: "How to survive your first years of teaching (from a veteran teacher)."

The person on Reddit listed down ten pointers on how one can breeze through their first year as a teacher. "Dress Code. If gym teachers can wear Nike shorts and a T-shirt then best believe it's jeans and a polo every day for me. Get creative. Blue jeans. Black jeans. Gray jeans. I call it professional comfort," the first point stated. The teacher then referred to a certain "Nod and Smile" technique which supposedly works flawlessly whether you are meeting with a parent or the principal.

The veteran teacher also joked about how they would not take on any unpaid responsibilities. "Duties? Ha! If it's not paid I'm not there," they wrote. When it comes to emails, this person knows exactly how to deal with them. "Emails? Number one, whenever an email states, 'We would like to invite,' you are off the hook. Number two, whenever you get an email from Human Resources I highly recommend you don't reply until after a few days have passed. I call it a calculated email delay," the post shares.

It is also advised in the post that a new teacher must stick to the contract hours of the job and bolt out as soon as the school hours are over. "School day ends at 2:45? I'm in my car by 2:50. 2:49 if I'm strategic. I'm home by 3:10. The old, 'I have to pick up my daughter from preschool' works all the time," they shared. "PD time is lesson planning time. That is all. Embrace ChatGPT essay grading. It is a time saver. Grade smart not hard." The person also recommends that all teachers invest in a mini cooler or desk fan. "Phone policy. This a hill I won't only die on but I'd wage a worldwide war for," the last two tips read. "Take it easy. In all seriousness, this job can be stressful but learn where to take it easy."

Fellow Reddit users seemed to find the tips both humorous and useful. u/Dizzy_Instance8781 added a few other tips to the list for fun and wrote: "Here, I'll add a few. Don't volunteer or allow yourself to be volunteered for any extra work until you are seasoned. Find out who the toxic staff are and avoid them like the plague. Don't worry about curriculum or standards too much. Just focused on creating simple routine assignments that can be applied to any topic."

u/Sondergame expressed a bit of disagreement and commented: "Agree with all of this except Chatgpt. Do not use Chat GPT. First of all, it’s extremely shameful to ask students to write and then to not even bother reading their work. Secondly, part of our job is literally to evaluate student ability and plan accordingly." u/cirdanlunae shared: "Advice I got my first year from my mentor, 'If you were to die today, Central Office would have your job posted before you got to the morgue. Don't give more than you can. Don't overdo it. Take care of yourself. Your District/County/School doesn't deserve more than your contracted hours." We sincerely hope these tips actually turn out to be useful for people who are new to the teaching profession.