For New Teachers: 3 Ways to Fight Feelings of Inadequacy

“I feel like I’m doing everything wrong.”

“I wonder if I’ve made the wrong career choice.”

“I don’t think I’m cut out for this.”

“I cry every day.”

“I always feel like a failure.”

Do you hear your own voice echoed in any of these? I often hear new teachers in their first few years express an extreme lack of confidence. They are intensely vulnerable to imposter syndrome.

I’ve talked before about decreasing your stress by releasing yourself from the pressure of perfection. As a recovering perfectionist myself, I can tell you that this is not a fast or easy process (at least it hasn’t been for me). 

But I can also tell you that, like anything else, the longer and more often you do it, and the more intentional you are about it, the easier and more natural it gets. I don’t know where you are in your journey today, but I do know that you have the ability to take just one more step forward. Here are 3 ways to fight off those feelings of inadequacy and forge ahead.

Be Gentle with yourself: You are doing a Hard Thing!

You, teacher, are doing an INCREDIBLY difficult job, one that has far more demands than college prepared you for. One that the general public really does not fully comprehend.

You are a specialist in your content area (or multiple content areas, for elementary!)

You are a person who deeply cares about other human beings and has chosen a life of service to help them. You are a person who is innately selfless, who instinctually puts themselves second to the needs of others.

You are a person who places the personal fulfillment of helping others above worldly success (because no one goes into teaching to get rich).

Yes, you teach content, but you also teach emotional regulation, social skills, and appropriate behavior. You sometimes spend more hours in the day with someone else’s child than their own parents do.

You are sometimes a safer space for children than their own homes. You are a confidante and counselor.

You do this all while meeting state benchmarks, district policy, and ensuring the safety and well-being of a room full of children, every day. And you’re making it fun for the kids. You are doing a Hard Thing.

And while your job requirements seem to call for someone who is superhuman, you are only human. Be gentle with yourself.

Don’t compare yourself to others

You are doing the BEST you can with the resources and knowledge you have available to you NOW. And yes, you will make some mistakes, but you will learn from them, adjust, and try again, and again, and again.

Just like your students, you are continually learning and refining your skills. Just like a junior mechanic works for years to earn the title of “master,” so too, a beginning teacher starts at the beginning…just like everyone else.

I had a conversation with a colleague this morning that caused me to reflect on this idea of confidence and how it impacts teachers...teaching gets easier over the years in part due to the confidence that you gain in your own skills of improvisation. Really, this requires time spent in a classroom. Just like you can’t expect a middle schooler to match your level of knowledge and confidence as a college graduate, you shouldn’t expect yourself to already have “arrived” at the same level as a teacher who’s been at it for 10+ years. Don’t compare!

Here’s a little secret to give you new teachers hope: those of us who have been at it for awhile still don’t have it all together! For example, lesson design, arc, and scaffolding are really important to me: I always try to plan each step of a lesson so that it flows logically from one thing to another, builds upon prior knowledge and steps, is engaging, appropriately timed, and meets varying levels of learners’ needs. I spend time every day before school, during each class, after each class, and at the end of the day carefully evaluating each step for each class, envisioning it, reflecting, and tweaking as needed to try to get it just right. 

However, because I sometimes change things last minute if I think it can be done a better way, this can sometimes leave me a little unprepared or scrambling for materials at the last minute. But I never really worry about it; I know it will work out and I can just be flexible to go with it. And in time, you will too. In the meantime, be gentle with yourself. Allow yourself time and opportunity to try, make mistakes, learn, and grow. 

Ask for Help

Precisely because no one knows it all… we all need help! We all have different strengths and needs for improvement. Instead of being discouraged by how much further along someone else seems to be than you, reach out to them for help! Don’t compare; collaborate. This might take the form of:

• an official mentor teacher who you’ve been paired with (as a brand new teacher, my mentor was a veteran English teacher who I shared a room with. She was incredible, and was more than willing to let me copy any file or lesson, and tirelessly answer any questions I had).
• an administrator (I’ve had the good fortune to work with some really excellent admins; I know that’s not the case everywhere. But I have reached out periodically for help and found their insight very valuable. (Here’s a story about a time when a conversation with my principal completely changed the way I thought about homework and grading).
• a colleague who you know has expertise in some area that you lack (recently, I was given the opportunity to write a conference session proposal; something I’ve never done before. There’s a teacher down the hall from me who’s been presenting at conferences for years and has published her own books…a perfect resource. I reached out to her and she happily made time in her schedule to meet with me).

Final thoughts

Teaching really isn’t a profession that has an “end”; I don’t think we ever truly “arrive.” We are really forever students of our craft. Self-reflection as a teacher will drive you to improve your lessons from week to week and year to year. This process will get easier over time as you learn how to be more efficient, but you’ll probably still be doing it until the day you retire.

On those days that are the hardest, when you feel the most inept, remind yourself: every teacher you admire and look up to, the ones who seem to “have it all together,” started exactly where you are. Refuse to let temporary insecurities hold you back from growing into everything you have the potential to do and become. Like so many inspiring figures from history have shown us in the face of tough obstacles:

Do it anyway. Persevere.