In this article, the author offers suggestions, based on the insightful article "The Three Rs of Professionalism" by Patricia H. Phelps ("Record" Winter 2006), for beginning teachers as they prepare for successful secondary classroom careers. As a professor of general secondary methods, the author emphasizes and has modeled the importance of six crucial components, namely, (1) planning; (2) content; (3) strategies; (4) caring; (5) flexibility; and (6) assessment, to successful teaching. These six factors incorporate responsibility, respect, and risk-taking, which Phelps so ably emphasized.