Many students claim teachers will act too strict their first year of teaching, like assigning too much homework or writing a lot of referrals. But is there any proof behind the “First Year” phenomenon?

There  are a few facts to support this theory.

Many students do not understand the first year is hard on teachers.

English teacher Tim Anderson recalls his first year, “I tried to treat my freshmen like adults.  What I didn’t understand was that freshmen are like eight year olds in adult bodies.”

Not only is the stress of learning to teach a problem for first year teachers, but too much time spent working can be just as bad.

“People told me to slow down, or I was going to burn out,” says Anderson.

As is in any high school, the rumor mill never helps heal stress.  Students in his class at the time remember him throwing a marker at the intercom in his classroom.

“By the end of that day,” said Anderson, “rumors made it out to say that I was throwing file cabinets and drinking the blood of babies and that didn’t help with my stress level at all.”

Another teacher with a reputation for being strict is Coach Faris.

“When I first went in to teaching I always told myself that I was going to be better than this teacher I had, or this teacher I had, and I soon realized that they were good teachers for completely different reasons than I thought,” said Coach Faris.

Although he learned more about his old teachers through working in their job, Coach Faris learned how to teach before he even took a job.

“I had a rough student teaching experience.  I tried to treat the students in that class like adults and I quickly lost control of the class.  I spent the next year trying to recover from what had happened in the first two weeks of school.” 

While Anderson and Faris had very rough first years, other teachers had less typical first years. 

Math guru W.F. Sullivan coached tennis his first year, without knowing anything about the game. 

“I went in and told the 15 boys that I was coaching that I had no idea how to play the game.  Everyone on the team could beat me.  I must just be lucky because I was later told that I was coach of the year.” 

While every teacher has to encounter a first year to begin their teaching career, many students don’t know the problems that come along with teaching.  Whether it is exhaustion, rumor mills, or dumb luck, the first year for teachers is always memorable.