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This August, many fresh college graduates are stepping into their classrooms for the first time. They knew what they were signing up for when they decided to be a teacher—but did they, really? While education is still a career many choose to pursue, just as many are dropping out of teaching, creating a nationwide teacher shortage.
Will these new teachers just become another statistic?
Meet Miss Jenna MacNulty, a first-year teacher in a bustling third-grade classroom. This year, she’s putting all her education and training into practice, and it’s not easy.
This is Year One, a podcast from Carnegie Learning that dives into one teacher’s exhilarating, challenging, and eye-opening journey of teaching for the first time.
Jenna has never envisioned herself being anything else other than a teacher. But will her passion for education shine through despite the trials she faces? Will Jenna return to teach for a second year?
We’re here to capture every moment and find out.
Last time on year 1, things started to get real for Jenna when she met her 1st class of students and their parents at open house the day before the 1st day of school.
Jenna:I think it's important for parents to meet me because I was able to tell them that, like, hey. I'm a 1st year teacher. I'm gonna make mistakes, but, like, at the very base level of everything, we are gonna have fun in this room, and we are going to learn in this room, and we're gonna work as a team.
Kanika:On this episode, class is finally in session. Welcome to Jenna's 1st day as a teacher. This is year 1, brought to you by Carnegie Learning, a podcast that chronicles all the ups and downs of 1 teacher's 1st year in the classroom. I'm your host, Kanika Chaddag Gupta. As the 2024 school year is underway, teachers are already working under strained conditions brought on by a national teacher shortage.
Kanika:One symptom of this problem is that new educators like Jenna are starting their teaching careers with class sizes that are much larger on average than they were even a few years ago. More students per class can mean students get less individual attention from their teachers. At the open house, the day before her first day in the classroom, Jenna met all 26 of her 3rd grade students.
Jenna:So, like, that kind of was helped me transition a little bit because I'm like, even though I don't know these kids at all anymore, like, I've seen their faces. I don't know if I could kick them out in a crowd, but they've been in the room before. So that kinda was, like, one thing. But that morning, honestly, it didn't it didn't really feel real.
Kanika:Greeting the kids who would become her first class helped calm some of her anxieties about the first day while also introducing a few new ones.
Jenna:Obviously, I was so nervous for what was to come because I didn't know what to expect from a lot of my students. You know, kids behave completely differently with their teacher versus their parent. When I met them with my parents, I'm like, how they behave with their parent is not how they behave with me, whether it's in a positive way or a negative way. So even though I knew what faces were showing up to my classroom, I didn't know what attitudes and what behaviors were showing up to my classroom. And, also, I think one of my other biggest fears about behaviors, you never know how you're gonna be able to deal with your students until you know them on a personal level.
Jenna:And sometimes it takes a long time to get to know a student and their quirks. Like, even during my student teaching last year during my senior year of college, I was there for, what, 5 months, and some of my students, I didn't even figure out their quirks or how to really reach them until the very end of the time that I was with them. So just knowing that it takes time and effort and consistency is kind of daunting. So, yeah, that's definitely one of my other fears is just, you know, getting a grasp on each student at the individual level and, you know, also as a whole group because, you know, managing 26 kids at a time, it's not easy.
Kanika:A day full of classroom prep followed by a big event full of first impressions left Jenna feeling drained.
Jenna:I was exhausted when I got home. So I was like super nervous, but I was too tired to think about it. So as soon as I got home, I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna get there super super early in the morning, and I will feel more prepared then. But right now, I need to go to sleep.
Jenna:In the morning, I woke up so early. I set 12 alarms because I was like, I have to get up and get ready. I got there literally, like, an hour and 15 minutes early because I'm a psychopath. The kids can walk in the door at 8 o'clock, and I'm pretty sure I rolled up to the school at, like, 6:45. And I was like, well, here we go.
Jenna:And it didn't really hit me until it was, like, 2 minutes before the kids were walking in. And the other 1st year teacher across the hall and I were standing there, and we were like, this is real. Like, we're really doing this. Like, we have 2 more minutes until this is real, and we just have to figure everything out as we go.
Kanika:Now that moment finally arrived. This was her classroom. These were her students. At long last, Jenna is a teacher.
Jenna:On the first day of school, there really is no, like, routine or expectation, so I had to, like, tell each student as they walked in what they were expected to do even though it was on the board. But, you know, they don't like to read the board. They're like, what are we supposed to do this morning? I'm like, read the board. Once all the students were there, one of the things that was on my brain literally the whole morning was I was like, I have to take attendance.
Jenna:I have to take attendance. I cannot forget to take attendance. So I, like, wrote out a Post it note. I put it on my little attendance sheet. I was like, put attendance in PowerSchool.
Jenna:Put attendance in PowerSchool. I did it as soon as as soon as all the kids were in my room. So that was a that was another win for the day. The first thing I did was introduce myself. Like, on my little slides that I had prepared, I had a bunch of pictures of me and my family and things that I like.
Jenna:And I went through all of them and I let them ask a few questions about me. And by that point, I was like, I have 15 more minutes until specials and I had like 3 more things that I had to do. And at that point, I had only introduced me. Like, the kids had to introduce themselves to each other. So I was like, hey.
Jenna:We're gonna sit in a circle and introduce ourselves. That was one thing. After that, I was like, man, we've sped through introducing ourselves and we really should have taken more time to do that because that is so important. By the end of the first day, every kid should know everybody's name.
Kanika:Anyone's first day on the job can be busy, but compared to wrangling 26 third graders, it can feel chaotic. And sometimes you have to focus on the small, necessary things and call it success.
Jenna:And then the morning went by so quickly because the late bell rings at 8:25, and my kids have specials at 9:30. My kids have music as their special. So it's really just an hour that I had with my kids before they had to go somewhere else. Like, with 8 year olds and 9 year olds, an hour is nothing. It takes them 15 minutes to get their right material and write their name at the top of the page.
Jenna:It went by so quickly. So, yeah, it was go go go. And then I met up with my team to do a little check-in of, like, how are we doing? How are we feeling? All the other teachers were like, 1st day of school, all you have to do is have them say their name, get them lunch, and get them on the bus.
Jenna:Like, if you do those three things, it was a win of a first day.
Kanika:To combat the craziness and help develop a rapport with her class, Jenna chose to be upfront with her students about her relative lack of experience.
Jenna:I told my kids. I was like, hey. I'm a 1st year teacher. Like, I'm new at this. I want you guys to show me what a classroom is supposed to look like to kind of put that responsibility on them.
Jenna:I think them knowing that I'm a 1st year teacher, hopefully, will give them a little grace toward me in those moments that I will need that support.
Kanika:Jenna needed the grace, particularly on the 1st day. She walked into her classroom with a list of things to get done. And you know what they say about best laid plans, they don't always go to plan. Things were a bit rough and tumble for Jenna on the 1st day. Plenty of things didn't go as well as she'd hoped.
Jenna:What did not go well was probably the timing of everything just because I underestimated how long everything was going to take. And the other teachers warned us about this. They were like, you are not going to get through everything you planned for your 1st day. Like, you just are not. You get through what you get through and that's it.
Jenna:And in my brain, I was like, yeah. That makes sense. I'm not gonna get through everything, but, like, they meant it. I got through 3 out of the 12 things that I planned. Like, I genuinely I didn't have my kids even, like, label their supplies until the afternoon when that was supposed to be the second thing that they did.
Jenna:That was one of the hard things was because then I was like, I'm behind. Like, I'm doing something wrong. At the end of the day, things just needed to get checked off the list. It didn't matter in what time frame. So that was something I had to learn.
Kanika:While the timing of everything was a bit sideways, there were aspects of the 1st day that did work out as Jenna had imagined and hoped they might.
Jenna:Something that went well was at the end of the day, I did, like, a little team building exercise where I've seen a lot of people do this. I even did it in high school, but it translates to any age, which is nice. I did an activity where each table group, they had 20 spaghetti pieces that weren't cooked and 20 marshmallows, and they had to see who could build the tallest tower. And they have 20 minutes to do it or something like that, and there really were no rules besides that. And by the end of it, I went around with a ruler and, you know, measured all of them.
Jenna:And were some of my kids super competitive when they didn't win? Absolutely. But it was a nice moment to be like, oh, no. These kids are going to be able to work together. You know what I mean?
Jenna:They're gonna be to think creatively and think outside the box, and I think it was just nice doing a fun activity.
Kanika:By the end of the day, Jenna had to come to accept that her ambitious 12 point plan was unrealistic, and she'd have to settle for a simple first day of getting to know her class. And yet, as the first day drew to a close, one final obstacle remained.
Jenna:That is the biggest challenge of the first day of school is making sure everybody goes to where they're supposed to go at the end of the day. Like, you have that information, but you're the one who has to create the list for your class of knowing if you want it all in one place. And if you look at the clock and you're like, oh my gosh. Dismissal is in 5 minutes and they're not packed up. You're not getting out of there in time.
Jenna:That happened to me on the 1st day. I was like I wasn't late by any means, but I remember literally, like, losing my cool for a second and being like, everybody move. Everybody pack up your stuff. Go. Go.
Jenna:Go. Go. Go. So, yeah, it was definitely one of those moments where I was like, you gotta be looking at the clock. Like, you have to it's just if you prepare and you pack up early, I think if I could redo it again, I would rather do that and end the day with, like, a simple activity or a simple, like, video or something while they're packed up at their seats waiting for the bell instead of panicking trying to race toward the bell.
Jenna:I think that would have made it a lot cooler instead of being like, we have to go.
Kanika:With her kids out the door and a quiet calm that had come over the classroom, Jenna took a beat to reflect on the whirlwind that she had experienced.
Jenna:So, like, the first day, it was chaotic. So I think my brain was just so on the track of, like, complete this task, complete this task, complete this task. Definitely wasn't living in the moment as much as I should have because of that, like, anxiety and that pressure to get everything done that I needed to get done. But, like, we could take a deep breath and be like, hey. I'm a teacher now.
Jenna:Like, I am an actual teacher. I have a class of students. They came in my room. We did everything we needed to do, and they walked out of my door. Definitely surreal.
Kanika:This is year 1, an exploration of 1 teacher's 1st year in the classroom brought to you by Carnegie Learning. Join us for the rest of the series as we follow Jenna through every moment, and be sure to follow miss.mcnulty on Instagram and TikTok to keep up with her. For additional exclusive content, free teaching resources, and more, visit yearonepodcast.com. Next time on year 1, Jenna learns the value of having clear rules and routines for her classroom, but it's a lot more work than she thought.
Jenna:The first day of school, I was expecting it to be chaotic. 2nd day of school, I was expecting it to be chaotic. But when it started to become a routine of chaos was when I was like, holy cow. I need to learn how to do this better.