This post is meant especially for newbies with multiple certifications, inexperienced teachers who can teach more than one subject. Please pass this post on if you know someone who might fit this particular glass slipper.

Hi, new teacher! If you have been teaching for a year or two, I hope you are having fun in the classroom. If you are enthusiastically preparing for next year, though, I want to pass on a cautionary note: Even if the district told you that you will be repeating your seventh grade language arts classes next year, sudden whims or emergencies can change that assignment. You may think you are headed to Australia only to find yourself landing in New Zealand.

I have had the ground shift on me more than once. One year, I even changed from high school to middle school mid-year to solve a district staffing problem. Expecting to teach science, I have ended up teaching social studies. A district will sometimes shuffle staffing at the start of a school year. Teachers move on in July and August, leaving vacancies that result in a dance across schools. I have helped friends move classrooms when they were abruptly shifted to elementary schools, even after the year started. Subject area shifts in middle school and high school often occur. If four people are certified to teach language arts, but you are the only one of the four who can teach science, you may suddenly find yourself looking at a set of astronomy books and software in September.

So don’t work too hard to get ready for that August opening day. You should be preparing and looking at your upcoming curriculum. You should be forming an overarching curricular plan. But don’t spend all the days of your summer designing specific lessons or making fun math Jeopardy games, activities that you may have to pass on to the person who takes your place while you start cramming on the American Revolution.

Just a tip from someone who has crammed in September more than once.