You completed your student teaching. Did classroom management come easily? Did teaching feel natural? Was it fun? Did you get through your critical objectives? As you seek your teaching position, reader, I recommend you reflect on these questions.

There’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma where teaching’s concerned. Why can one person step into a classroom and own that room, while another wrestles with seating chart after seating chart? Two older men making career changes ended up in my teaching cohort, both big, physically imposing guys with thick, gray hair. Both went on to find positions. I’ll call them “Hal” and John.” John ended up struggling, forced to move on from his first position to another district as he tried to figure out how to be the teacher he had planned to be.  I discussed this fact with Hal.

“John’s not doing well?” I said, or something like that.

“I hear he’s having trouble controlling his classes,” Hal said, lowering his voice as if saying something shameful.

Hal had taken full hold of the reins in one of the toughest districts in Illinois. He was succeeding in a school that chewed many, other new teachers to shreds. A natural himself, he assumed the average teacher would be able to manage classroom behaviors.

As the Gershwin song says, it ‘ain’t necessarily so. I believe almost everyone can learn to manage classroom behavior, but some people require professional development to get to a place of ease and comfort, while others simply exude control from the day they first walk into their room. I remain fascinated by this fact. Consistency helps, establishing and reinforcing norms helps, practicing transitions helps, providing brain breaks helps, etc. etc. etc. through many PD recommendations. But in the end, I swear that sometimes Mary just has the magic before she ever sees Hogwarts, while Inez has to crack those potions books night after night to get the same effects.

Why am I writing this meandering post? Because as you seek your new teaching position, whether you are Mary or Inez matters. Why were these two erudite, physically-similar men who had taken the same classes to get their master’s degrees in education having such different experiences in the field? Because classroom management magic, while it can be taught, is not parceled out in equal quantities.

Frankly, I was too nice and understanding when I started, and that fact bit me more than once. I lost too much time to fostering a democracy at first. I gave too many bathroom breaks to too many students, students who I would later discover were taking breaks with every single teacher they had throughout the day. I reexplained too many concepts. I’d squandered a regrettable number of student minutes by the time I pulled myself together with the help of various mentors.

While you are trying to decide if you are Mary, Inez or some Mary-Inez hybrid, let me ask a few more questions:

1) Did you work with a motivated or less-motivated population? If you worked in a district where over 90% of students go on to college, be careful. You may think you have great management skills, but the skills required to keep students on-task in a district where an eventual university education has become the norm are not the same skills required to manage in a drop-out factory. If you worked in one of America’s top schools, you may not be able to judge the degree of your natural knack for classroom management. Kids in these schools often manage themselves as they keep their eyes on that Ivy League option, long before they take the spring tour of Williams, Brown and Yale.

2) If you worked in an inner-city, urban school and most students were doing your assignments, while listening to you explain new concepts, despite the fact you were a new teacher, you probably have all the magic you need to take any position anywhere.

3) Did you have to keep changing those seats, making new charts, and working on the behavior piece during your last teaching experience? You might want to try to find an easier position to start. Some positions are best left alone. Thirty-five kids in a drop-out factory can sink even the best-intentioned educator, especially in that first year or two — although if you make it through those first two years, you should be able to handle just about anything.

In my previous post, I recommended kissing the frog. I’ll stand by that advice with one caveat: If classroom management felt like a struggle during student teaching or your first year, you might be better off ducking larger classrooms and classrooms in districts with exceptionally low test scores or a history of disorder.

I’d suggest going for low class size rather than an easier commute or higher salary. I’d also suggest skipping districts with exceptionally low test scores. Low test scores imply lower levels of motivation, among other problematic factors, and less-motivated students tend to offer tougher behavioral challenges.

You will get better at classroom management year by year, but if that management piece felt like hard work during student teaching or in your last teaching position, simplify for now. In practical terms, drive an extra 15 miles to get 20 kids in your classroom instead of 30. Look for a district with a strong mentoring program, too — and don’t take the principals word when he or she enthuses about the mentoring program. Talk to first and second year teachers about the program. How often did they meet with mentors? Did the mentors sit in their classes? How often do new teachers get to observe other teachers? What sort of professional development does the district provide?

Eduhonesty: To summarize, if you are “John” or Inez, pick your toads carefully. If you are “Hal” or Mary, kiss any toad you want.

More later and good luck in your search!

P.S. Another teacher commented on my previous post, suggesting that applicants consider part-time positions. Yes! If you can afford to take that part-time position, you will have less overall work, giving you more time to perfect your classroom management skills, lesson planning, and data management. You will be able to give more time to individual students, too, a win for everyone.