For new teachers, first day a challenge

She had visions of the dream class, one in which the students would come in and their only concern would be what they can learn first.
But as Scarlet Mendez's first day as a new teacher at George Nettels Elementary School progressed, her goals weren't quite so lofty.
"I just was hoping we could get through the day without me having to be constantly on the kids," she said.
For new teachers in Pittsburg, Friday marked their first day by themselves in front of a class full of anxious and sometimes restless students. Mendez, 23 and fresh out of the education program at Missouri Southern State University, said her first day on the job combined parts of the expected with the unexpected.
"I think it went pretty well, for the most part," she said. "It wasn't as hectic as I thought it could be, so that was a positive thing. I expected the kids to be a little rowdier and a lot more talkative."
To prepare for her first day, Mendez said she planned her day almost down to the minute. She had to be ready, she said, to keep the students busy at all times and to appear as if this wasn't her first rodeo.
"I had so much written down for the day," she said, "and I was glad I did. What I didn't plan for, though, was for my students to get ready to go home so fast. We got close to the end of the day and they were ready to go. But we had time left so I pulled out a book and started reading to them."
Down the hall on the opposite side of the school, Christa Weber was also experiencing the first day of her education career. A recent graduate of Pittsburg State University, Weber teaches elementary music at George Nettels.
Her job is a bit more complicated than most teachers, as she sees every student in the school enter her classroom. And if teaching more than 300 students is hard enough, memorizing all their names is just as difficult.
"There's no way," she said Friday after school. "I have every kid in the school."
It may take her a while, but she knows she'll get there.
"I got a good majority of them today," she said. "I think I'll be OK."
Weber, 23, said her first day started "kind of shaky," on account of nerves. But as the day went on and the kids settled into their songs, the butterflies subsided.
"Once I got into the flow of things and what I was going to say and what games we were going to play, things went well," she said.
Not everything went well, she said. While some classes went "beautifully," others started as a "mess."
"I even had to discipline a kid before I started a class," she said.
And for these first-year teachers, disciplining the students isn't the easiest of tasks.
"I grew up in a family of five kids, and I was the youngest," Weber said. "I had no experience with kids. I had never been a babysitter. But I tried to come in today and lay down the law, but it's difficult."
Mendez said it's not her first instinct to be stern or overly strict with students, but tried to go that route on her first day in charge.
"I had been thinking a lot about that all summer," she said. "I wanted to come off a little harsher than what I really am. I would really rather get them to know that I'm serious about things than to let them think I'm a pushover."
To assist new teachers such as Mendez and Weber, USD 250 offers mentoring programs and orientation procedures. Superintendent Destry Brown said they help the beginning teachers as they make the transition from student to teacher.
But all of the planning and orientation could not prepare new teachers enough for their first day as the head of the class.
"I just want to go home and take a nap," Weber said, just minutes after students were dismissed. "I'm glad the first day of school was a Friday. We have the weekend to recover."