First Year Flip

Scrolling TikTok one day, I realized that there were a lot of first year teachers who were crying, quitting, or talking about finding a new career. As a Special Education major who wants to do this long term, it was sad to see all these teachers who were struggling. After doing some research, I found that approximately 40% to 50% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years. That is because teachers today have lack of support, are underpaid, face overwhelming workloads, and are held to unrealistic expectations, etc. I can’t directly fix all of these problems, but I wanted to create something to help support new teachers throughout their first years of teaching.

I decided to create a card game with advice and tips that I gathered from experienced teachers and first-year teachers. It is a memory game that you can play on your own, or with a partner. You flip two cards over, and if they match, you keep them! If they don’t match, you flip them back over and try again. If you play with a partner, take turns flipping 2 cards over, and whoever makes the most matches wins. I distributed the game to a few of my classmates, and a few others have the PDF as a reference. It’s a good resource for first-year teachers to use! The PDF is included below for any other first-year teachers who want to play the game or share it with their cohort!

Playing the Game!

Below is a video of Emma and I playing the card game. Definitely laminate the cards if you have a working laminator! That would make gameplay better!