1. Being Too Friendly Students in 4th grade come across as very grown up. Even though their height may deceive you (especially in the 2nd semester), 4th graders are oscillating back and fourth between tweens that are exerting their independence by rolling their eyes at you and babies that look up to you and cry on your shoulder. This was quite shocking for me to see the disparity in behaviors, but now that i've done it once this year I know the subtle balance of being a 10 year old. This year I am going to know the balance between joking around with students and when students are expected to exhibit a certain behavior. As a first year teacher, you will have to play around with this and learn the difference between building relationships and rapport with your class and letting them walk all over you or cause you to be inconsistent in your expectations because you're trying to be the nice guy. An example: "Do I have to come to the carpet?" 2. Not Having Behavior Systems