Another issue you may face is being asked to participate in extracurricular activities. This can be very hard for new teachers who are just trying to find their own teaching rhythm. Realize that you will probably be “required” to participate in some fashion. However, be careful to limit the number of activities you volunteer for based on all your other involvements and obligations.

Sponsoring a Student Club

Most schools have a large number of student clubs. Each year, new clubs arise and established clubs lose their adult sponsors. Therefore, you can expect that you will be approached at some point to become involved with a school club. Some clubs are much more time-intensive than others.

For example, if you sponsor the school's chess club, all you may need to do is set up the chessboards and then enjoy the time with the students without a lot of effort on your part. However, service organizations like the National Honor Society and Interact often take a large amount of time and effort on the part of the adult sponsor.

Coaching a Sports Team

You might be asked to take part in your school's sports program. Your participation might be as simple as coming to the games to provide extra adult supervision, or it might be something more complicated like actually coaching a team.

Being a coach of a team is often very time-consuming, although this depends on what sport you coach and the level of school participation. Certain sports have shorter seasons or less student participation or both.

However, coaching usually involves a supplement to your pay. With the relatively low salaries of teachers in most places, this extra income can be very nice. If your goal is to someday be a coach of a major sport, you will definitely want to volunteer and become involved.

Getting Involved with Other Activities

From time to time, your school will probably get involved in short-term initiatives or projects, and you may be asked to participate. For example, your school might have a history fair or a literacy week. You will probably be asked to help coordinate or assist in setting up these activities.

Each activity that you participate in has a certain time commitment. Therefore, try to limit the number of activities that you become involved with. Because these are extra activities, it will probably be easier to decline the opportunity to participate.

However, this may not be the case for “pet” projects specific to your school or community. For example, a rural school might be very involved with the state fair or have a week-long festival that students consider a tradition. In these instances, you will probably be required to participate in some fashion as part of the faculty.