Identifying New
Teacher Needs:
Give-One-Get-One
TIME
OUTCOME
SETTING
MATERIALS
15 min.
· To use personal experience
and professional knowledge
to identify and anticipate
areas of new teacher needs
· Whole Group
Transparencies
* Instructions for Activity
* Give-One-Get-One Worksheet
Participant’s Manual
* Instructions for Activity
* Give-One-Get-One Worksheet
This activity serves to direct the support provider’s focus to the
beginning teacher and the context in which that new teacher
will be working. The activity also provides an important
opportunity for support providers to make connections to their
own personal experiences as beginning teachers and discuss
some of the challenges first year teachers face.
RATIONALE
Introduce the activity by inviting participants to recall their own
experiences as new teachers. One of the trainers may wish to
share his/her personal experience. The personal anecdote
should serve to illustrate some characteristic aspect of a typical
beginning teacher’s first year experience — isolation,
frustration, disillusionment, etc.
INTRODUCTION
NOTE TO TRAINER
When I received my teaching credential, jobs were hard to come Sample Anecdote
by. Enrollments were declining and the teachers hired in the
If trainer does not have their own
50's to accommodate the “baby boomers” were not yet at
anecdote to share they can read
retirement age. As a result, I was happy just to get a job,
this example.
regardless of what the assignment entailed. And so, as a first
year high school foreign language teacher with degrees in
German and Spanish, I accepted a job to teach four levels of
German and two English classes although the entire extent of
my preparation for the latter consisted of one undergraduate
English composition class and the one graduate level course
required by my teaching credential program here in California.
Luckily, one of the English courses was the standard American
Literature course for high school juniors, using the same text I
had used in high school just six years before. AND, as luck
would have it, I still had most of my high school notes and
coursework squirreled away in a box at my parents’ home. The
Identifying New Teacher Needs
BTSA Orientation & Principles
Page 1 of 5
other English course had been envisioned the spring before by a
teacher who had since moved on, leaving behind nothing more
than a course title, “Mass Media and Communications,” and a
paragraph description of what the content might be. Needless
to say, my six preps totally consumed every waking hour. Late
nights combined with a 45 minute commute, the gas crisis of the
early 1970's, and my naive, well-intentioned agreement to
advise two extracurricular clubs on campus almost drove me to
despair. In fact, the racket I made pounding on a portable
typewriter at 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. as I desperately tried to
prepare for the next day’s courses, led our apartment manager
to request we find another place to live, so miserable was the
lady living below us. But how miserable I was, how out on a
limb, .......... NOBODY EVER KNEW!
NOTE TO TRAINER
Each one of us has a first year story, and it is more than likely
that there are pieces of our stories that NO ONE knew. Think
for a moment about your first year story. What challenges did
you face? What were your needs that maybe went unmet?
The first partner activity done in
Module A had participants reflect
on their first year.
Allow a few quiet moments for participants to recall their
experiences as first year teachers.
ACTIVITY, Step 1
Individual Write
Introduce the activity by explaining that we are going to take a
few minutes to think about the needs of the beginning teachers
entering our schools. Allow approximately 2 minutes for this
portion of the activity.
Participant’s Manual
Review the instructions for the “Give-One-Get-One” activity on
the overhead transparency.
1. Ask participants to turn to the worksheet in their
manuals and ask them to fill in any three of the squares,
each with a different beginning teacher need.
2. Get up and find someone from another table.
3. GIVE ONE need from your list to your partner.
GET ONE need for your list from your partner.
4. Move to a new partner and repeat the process.
5. If your list and your partner’s lists are identical, you
must brainstorm together a need that can be
added to both of your lists.
Be sure to point out that participants must move on to a new
partner once they have exchanged one new need. If a
connection with another participant does not yield a new need
ACTIVITY, Step 2
Transparency
Participant’s Manual
Give-One-Get-One
for each person’s list, then the two participants must take a
moment and come up with a new need by brainstorming
together. The goal is to get one new need every time you
partner up with another participant.
Allow approximately 5 minutes for participants to circulate and
to gather needs. As they finish, participants are to return to their
tables.
NOTE TO TRAINER
It is not necessary for everyone to finish filling in all 12 boxes
on the worksheet. This activity should not take long. When you
notice that one or two have finished, announce this to the rest of
the participants and encourage those who are not yet done to
get a few more needs during the remaining minute or two.
Once participants have resumed their seats, bring the activity to
a close by pointing out they already know a great deal about new CLOSURE
teachers needs which challenge our new colleagues. Our own
personal experience and our first-hand knowledge of the
contexts in which new teachers work are very important sources
of information.
Remind participants that many of the teaching strategies used in
the training are based on ideas from classroom practice. For
instance, the Give One – Get One strategy can be used in
classrooms for science, literature, social studies, etc. to
brainstorm or review concepts or information.
Reference to Instuctional Strategy
for Classroom Practice
Instructions for
Give-One-Get-One
1. Jot down 3 ideas.
2. Get up and find someone from another table.
3. GIVE ONE need from your list to your partner.
GET ONE need for your list from your partner.
4. Move to a new partner and repeat the process.
5. If your list and your partner’s lists are identical,
you must brainstorm together a need that can be
added to both of your lists.
NOTE: Exchange no more than one need with any
given partner.
Give-One-Get-One Worksheet