Anxiety about new job/new routine

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Madfrog
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Joined: 21 Apr 2011
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24 Aug 2017, 8:24 pm

I have a new job as a math teacher. It's exactly what I've been hoping for, but now that I have it set up, I'm anxious. I don't know what the daily routine is and I'm afraid I'll mess up. It'll be my first time as a classroom teacher; so far I've only tutored or run after-school programs with other people. School starts in less than two weeks and I don't even know which classes I'll be teaching or how much set curriculum the school has.

How have you adjusted to new routines and uncertainty-based anxiety? Any advice people have for coping would be great.



ailuzhin
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26 Aug 2017, 3:59 am

I am a teacher, too, and I know the feeling. I once thought confidence via experience would eliminate these problems, but it hasn't.

In any case, I tend to do the following:

1) attend inductions if they are available
2) ask about the possibility of sitting in on a couple of classes to observe
3) pester my contact with various questions

Information, of course, doesn't eliminate anxiety entirely, but it does help (in my experience at least).



Fireblossom
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27 Aug 2017, 6:34 am

Well of course it's different for everyone, but in my case whenever I have started a new job my imagination has been worse than reality most of the time. Of course, it's always been challenging to start at a new place, but when I do I usually learn the new things and routines rather easily.

I mean that for me, not knowing what the routines in the new place are like and imagining everything that could go wrong is the problem. When I actually start, the basic routines become clear rather quickly. In other words, I worry too much.

It can be different for you of course, but my point is: try not to worry too much. If you know a way to find out some things that trouble you then do it, but if there are things you can't know or learn in advance then try not to think of them.