Facing fractions for the first time, a third grader in Brandon Wyatt’s class at Ashford Park Elementary in DeKalb County was ready to give up. She just didn’t get it, the whole business of dividing objects into halves, quarters and eighths.
“I’m not good at math,” she told Wyatt. “I’m not smart.”
As a first-time teacher, Wyatt knew what it felt like to be discouraged. He used to walk into his classroom earlier in the school year and ask himself what he was doing there.
In many ways, Wyatt learned how to be a teacher the same way his students learned fractions: with some difficulty, but by trying his best every day.
He reminds himself that he’s not aiming for perfection, just growth. He looks for the same in his class.
All it took for that student to get more comfortable with numerators and denominators was a little extra support from him. She’s now the first one to raise her hand during lessons.
“She’s a completely different student,” Wyatt said. “She’s excited to be in class now — and I feel like I did that.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Like the thousands of teachers who started new jobs in metro Atlanta schools this year, Wyatt enters the classroom each day savvier than the last.
Though they no longer feel like rookies, Wyatt and other first-year teachers agreed academic demands, behavioral problems, expectations from district and state leaders and the emotional toll make this the most demanding job they’ve ever had.
Twenty miles away, Daniel Garcia, a seventh grade teacher at Gwinnett County’s Shiloh Middle School, came here from Idaho and experienced the culture shock of moving to the South. His students acted out more frequently and severely than he ever expected.
He questioned if he would ever learn to manage his classroom or get used to living here. Thoughts of returning home crept in quick. Small victories keep him coming back, but he still ends each day drained of energy.
For Ku Htaw, it was never a question of whether she’d stay on. The math teacher at DeKalb School of the Arts came into it thinking teaching is the greatest profession in the world — and she still believes that.
That passion for the profession helped her get her first job, said the school’s principal, Keith Jones.
“She had this glow on her (when we met) that said, ‘Listen, I cannot leave here today and not hire this teacher,’” he said. “New teachers come in wanting to change the world. And over time you can. You just have to have a plan of what that looks like.”
Htaw believes it’s about being consistent every day, connecting with students and making sure she remembers why she’s in the classroom.
“I care about the students and it’s just the joy of seeing them grow and progress throughout the year,” she said. “That’s the most rewarding thing.”
For others, the best parts of teaching can’t always outweigh the worst.
The districts are hoping to retain these and other first-year teachers, particularly in schools with more turnover. Most districts can expect more than 80% of teachers to return next year, based on typical trends. But still, a few percentage points can mean hundreds of teaching vacancies for some of the largest districts in the state.
As the academic year winds down, newcomers and veteran teachers alike are grappling with tough questions that will shape the next year: Will I stay at this school? Should I teach a different grade? Do I still want to be a teacher?
Hard lessons
At Shiloh Middle, students are dismissed at the end of the school day in waves over about a half-hour period. An often-fatigued Garcia is charged with making sure the 30 students in his last class leave when they’re supposed to.
“Why are we yelling?” he asks on this afternoon, over the din of chatter and metal chair legs knocking against each other as students prepare to head to school buses. Garcia carries on several one-on-one conversations with students competing for his attention.
“Mr. Garcia! Mr. Garcia!” rings out countless times until the last student bids farewell.
“And that’s it,” Garcia says with a sigh. He ends every day out of gas and wondering if he’ll ever have energy left over.
It’s a stark difference from the close of the day in Htaw’s advanced math class. Her students are much closer to graduation. “Go be great! Go be awesome,” she tells them as they depart.
While the two teachers have had varied classroom experiences this first year, they’ve taken away a similar lesson: You must have patience.
“There are outbursts in class that happen. There’s kids misbehaving,” Garcia said. Often that’s exacerbated by factors outside of school. “You have to really make sure you hear what’s going on before you just snap at the student.”
But where Garcia’s students might act out, Htaw’s students withdraw. She realized that students who put their heads down in class may be tired because they were at school rehearsing for a play or other performance until late into the evening. Or that students who are struggling may have missed important lessons in previous classes thanks to virtual learning during the pandemic.
Htaw’s learned tricks to helping students maintain focus. She created a cellphone “parking lot” — a basket where students put their phones during the lesson, to eliminate distractions. And at the beginning of the second semester, she rearranged some seats to help students stay attentive in class.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
The most helpful trick that Garcia has picked up is finding common ground with his students.
“In this school, the kids love shoes,” he said. So he started taking the time to compliment students sporting a new or flashy pair. Then he took it further: “I’ll step up my shoe game on Fridays when we’re a little bit (more casually dressed).”
Garcia admits that while he tries his best, cool shoes are not his thing.
“They’ll be like, ‘Oh! I like your shoes, Mr. Garcia. You got the Jordan Air Max,’” he said, confusing the styles. “I don’t know about shoes, but the kids notice, and they like it.”
Garcia said those connections help when it comes time to teach.
“The kids aren’t gonna want to learn if they don’t connect with you or if they don’t respect you,” he said.
Garcia’s always on the lookout for chances to get a little ahead. When he can, he takes a breather, during moments of sustained calm. He works hard to stave off burnout.
Districts are trying to help prevent exhaustion among both newcomers and veterans as they fight to keep their teachers. Recruiting has become more challenging as districts draw from an ever-shrinking national pool of potential employees. The districts compete each year to hire graduates from Georgia colleges and poach one another’s best and brightest.
There’s an arms race of bonuses and incentives. Perhaps the flashiest is Cobb’s new partnership with the University of West Georgia that allows employees to pursue advanced degrees tuition-free. The district originally intended to pay for 500 educators to obtain advanced degrees. So far, Cobb has received more than 3,700 applications of interest.
Academic progress
The spring semester brought what Wyatt called “the March rush.” It’s the lead-up to state testing, where students and teachers reviewed concepts at a breakneck pace.
His third graders have never before taken the Georgia Milestones — year-end evaluations that test students on everything they learned. On top of fractions, they had to learn the mechanics of taking tests, like how to pace themselves and what to do if they don’t know an answer.
In the beginning of the year, Wyatt often worried that he was failing students. Now there’s less room for self-doubt — although he can’t quell the feelings entirely.
“As my first time experiencing it, it’s a lot of pressure.”
Garcia, too, feels pressured to align his teaching to strict requirements. He’s not always a fan of district-created tests because some questions have confusing language. He enjoys it when his students have creative opportunities that break up the monotony of testing. He grinned when he revealed one controversial new tool he’s used to his advantage.
“I‘ve created assignments on ChatGPT,” he said. “A lot of us are using (ChatGPT) to help lessen the workload.”
He asked students to identify different economic systems. Rather than typing out characteristics of several fictional countries, he can ask ChatGPT to do it in a fraction of the time while he works on other tasks. Garcia assured that he checks the AI’s work and usually catches a mistake or two.
Htaw’s students don’t have any major end-of-year exams to take, but she said they’re doing well on their regular tests. She is already looking forward to next year, when she will be better prepared for everything the job requires. She has lesson plans, ways to manage students, a schedule worked out — all things she was missing when she was hired in August, two weeks before the year began.
“I can’t imagine seeing myself doing a different profession,” she said.
Walking away
While this year proved to Htaw that she was in the right career in the right place, Garcia and Wyatt came to a different conclusion. Less than a year into the job, they both turned in their resignations. They won’t be returning to their schools next year.
Garcia is seeking a new teaching opportunity closer to home in Idaho. He said the environment here just isn’t right for him. He still finds metro Atlanta jarring, and while he’s connected with his students, they’re at an age he finds difficult to teach.
“I don’t think I’m really cut out for middle school,” he said. “To be honest, I think for middle school, you have to be a certain type of teacher.”
Gwinnett doesn’t typically allow teachers to request transfers until they’ve taught at their first school for three years. Garcia didn’t feel he could make it another two years.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Gwinnett and DeKalb counties are trying to retain veteran teachers at high-need schools like Shiloh Middle, where 75% of students qualify for free- and reduced-price lunches. Gwinnett outpaces the national rate of turnover at these schools. Garcia said in his cohort of seventh grade social studies teachers at Shiloh, only one had teaching experience before this school year. In DeKalb, teachers qualify for higher bonuses if they agree to work at high-need schools for multiple years.
“A lot of people are leaving not just because of the pay, but the workload, the stress, the work-life balance. I think those are all contributing factors,” he said, noting that these challenges affect him as well.
It’s been far from an easy first year, but Garcia believes his time in Gwinnett will serve him well and pay off in the next place he teaches.
Wyatt never pictured himself teaching elementary students, let alone becoming a parental figure. That’s what made it such a difficult choice for him.
“One thing I did not expect to happen was how much I just absolutely adore my students,” he said.
If it was just about the students, he’d stay. But Wyatt didn’t go to school for teaching, and is working on a temporary license. He would need to invest more money and time into becoming fully certified, in between paying for a wedding and about $20,000 in student loan debt. Before he took his current job, he had imagined teaching German to older students.
“I knew it was probably not right for me because it’s a wonderful school, with an amazing cohort of teachers, a very supportive administration, a wonderful community of parents that helped provide a lot of resources. I had wonderful kids — very motivated kids. And I was still unhappy,” he said.
Wyatt plans to look for a teaching-adjacent job, maybe in curriculum writing or as some kind of trainer for a corporation.
“I’m very proud that I stuck out the year,” Wyatt said. “I don’t regret the experience. I don’t think anyone should ever regret doing something hard.”
About ‘The New Class’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is following three new teachers in their first year in the classroom. As metro Atlanta school districts continue struggling to fill open teaching positions, these teachers provide an in-depth look at what it takes to do the job. In this multipart series, we explore how they’re navigating learning challenges and try to stave off burnout — all while trying to keep sight of why they got into teaching. You can read the first installment here.
