It's home-time at Bertha Kennedy Catholic Community School. Shepherd/teacher Julie Antoniolli tends to her flock.
"OK, line up! Quick, quick, quick!" She soon has the mob of pink, purple and blue-clad kindergarten munchkins muddling out the door toward the coat rack, giant backpacks in tow, where she directs them to put on their coats and outdoor shoes.
"I'm going outside to my mom!" says a girl with a Disney princess backpack.
"No, you need to wait for me," Antoniolli says.
Soon enough, she ushers them all through the front door to the buses and parents waiting outside before coming back in to prepare for the next day.
Antoniolli, 23, is one of about 23 new graduates hired as teachers this fall in St. Albert. She's been working closely with her mentor, six-year veteran teacher Kristie Brahim, 33, to get through her first few weeks on the job.
"I was nervous, obviously, but so excited to meet the kids," Antoniolli says. She's been prepping since June, and spent most of last week setting up her classroom.
"I was calling my mom to tell her all about my day."
You never get over those first-day jitters, Brahim says – she's talked to 15-year veterans who still get them.
"It's a new group of kids. You're nervous to see what the new group of kids is going to bring," she explains.
"I want them to like me!" exclaims Antoniolli.
Kindergarten is the foundation of school, Brahim says, one that includes the basics of reading, writing, and pattern recognition. Students who don't learn these skills now will struggle in later years.
Mentorship lets Brahim and Antoniolli bounce ideas off each other and give their classes the benefits of two teachers. Brahim says she gets a lot of great new ideas from Antoniolli, while Antoniolli says she can ask questions of Brahim instead of bugging the school's principal.
"It's nice having that collaboration and ensuring that the kids are getting the best learning they possibly can," Brahim says.
These first few days can be tough since you have to plan your lessons before you really know your students, Brahim says. Some won't know a thing about the alphabet, while others will come in already knowing how to read and write their names.
"This is their first real structured learning experience," she continues, so most of these early weeks are spent getting the students used to a routine.
Brahim says she spent most of her first day leading her students on a scavenger hunt for Pete the Cat, star of the book of the same name. Many thought there was an actual cat named Pete in the school, she notes, with amusement.
"That's why I love kindergarten so much: they're so eager to learn."
Job tough on new teachers
About 25 per cent of new teachers leave the profession within the first five years of teaching, notes the recent Task Force for Teaching Excellence report.
One oft-cited reason is burnout.
"There's lots of expectations on teachers to be able to do it all," Brahim says, which puts a lot of pressure on new ones.
Teaching is also a job that never really stops, she continues: you're working on the laptop at home while watching TV, and spending your summers thinking about lessons for the fall.
"Don't do more work than you have to do," Brahim says. "There's support around to help you with lesson plans, to help you with setting up your classroom."
The teaching excellence task force called for a province-wide mentorship and internship program to help new teachers stay on the job.
Brahim says she had about four other teachers helping her when she started out, and had another four prepping her room this week when she got too gung-ho cutting some paper and sliced her thumb. (She needed three stitches.)
"You're not alone. Ask for help," Brahim says. "It's a team effort and we're all in it to get these kids to learn."
