I was about a month into school when we had our Literacy First training. Literacy First is basically the model they want us to follow for all of our literacy stuff (and some of our math). It's a very complex program and I am not going to go into great detail about it here (partially because I don't know if I could get in trouble for it).
I had already figured out what I wanted my literacy centers to look like. It was modeled after the teacher that I did my student teaching with. I knew this system worked well and I had an idea of what I wanted to do at each station. When my friend and I arrived at the training and were guided through the GIANT book of information, we were totally flabbergasted. I hadn't necessarily been doing everything wrong, I just wasn't doing the centers that Literacy First suggests you do. I blocked most of the training day out (but throughout the day I had placed sticky notes on important pages). I spent the weekend in my classroom reworking my centers and I was in a total panic mode.
On Monday, my coach came in to talk to me and make sure that I was feeling okay after the training. I told her how I was feeling. She explained to me that we are new teachers. Not everything is going to be perfect the first time. Not only are we new teachers, we are new to the district and to the state. Their standards and models are totally alien to us (and by 'us' and 'we' I mean my friend that moved out from Colorado with me). She said that I should focus on one center at a time until I get it the way that I want it.
Lesson: You will get a lot of models/information about how to teach/run your classroom. Don't panic. You are a new teacher and you will not be expected to implement everything you learn the very next day after learning it. Your administrators know that you are new and will give you time and support to make sure you can get comfortable with new models.
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