Three Things All New Teachers Need to Know to Be Successful

There is no shortage of advice for people starting this wonderful profession.  It’s both challenging and rewarding to be a teacher. It’s humbling and motivating. And each day can be filled with joy and sadness. We touch lives. No, we shape lives. It’s a huge responsibly and one that should not be taken lightly.   Unfortunately, more than half the people who join our profession will not last 5 years despite heroic efforts to support them. Imagine if we could change that trajectory and ensure that the vast majority of people who were called to serve as educators reaped the moral rewards of their work. What a difference we could make in the lives of students and the colleagues who would be lucky enough to have stable peers with whom to collaborate. 

It’s common to focus on classroom management as one of the stressors for new teachers who are finding their way in the routines and procedures of the classroom. But we want to dig beneath that and think about things that teachers can do to create a classroom where students want to come and learn. Yes, classroom management is important and there are students who will challenge the rules and push buttons. But generally speaking, students come to school expecting to be treated fairly and experience success. If we could offer three recommendations for new teachers, they would be these: 

1. Develop Healthy, Growth Producing Relationships with Students. 

The foundation of classroom management is relationships. It’s harder to be disrespectful when you appreciate your teacher. But relationships serve more than classroom management. When students trust and value their teacher, a concept called teacher credibility, they learn more in part because the environment is safe to make mistakes and grow. When students believe that they can learn from a teacher, they do. But the opposite is also true. When students believe that they cannot learn from someone, it’s nearly impossible for them to do so.   

So, make sure that teachers know students’ names, how to pronounce them, and something about each student. Greet students at the door each day. Be reliable and trustworthy and let your students know that you care about them and their learning. And enjoy the company of the students who are lucky enough to call you teacher.   

2. Make Content Relevant. 

When students find value in their learning, they are much more likely to self-regulate their behavior.  When the learning is interesting or useful, students push aside distractions and focus on the lesson at hand.Teachers should regularly discuss why students are learning the things they are learning. As Stuart (2023) suggests, teachers should micro-sermonize on the value of the content.   

In fact, there are at least nine different ways that teachers can share the value of learning with students and questions you can ask yourself to help you design the talking points necessary to ensure that your classroom is a dynamic place in which students want to learn.  

Utility	How is what you teach useful?  How does what you teach allow students to do what they previously would not have been able to do?  When will students use what you teach?
Relevance	How does what you teach connect specifically to the real-world interests of at least one of your students?  What’s an interest you know at least some of your students have?  How does that link with today’s lesson?
Social Status	How could what your students are learning in your class make the class cooler?  How could what they’re learning redefine “cool”?  How could what they are learning help them relate to others in new and profound ways?
Autonomy	How does what you teach give students power either now or later in life?  How is what you teach powerful?
Justice	How can the work you do in your discipline or art make the word a better, fairer, more just place?  How can mastery of your discipline or art make it easier to help others?
Novelty	What do most folks not realize about what you teach that if they did realize it would give them a whole different view about why your discipline or art is so good?
Enjoyment	What’s fun about what you teach?  What enjoyment or pleasure do you get from our discipline?
Purpose	How does what your students are learning connect with what it means to be a human being?  How does what they’re learning tap into their deepest desires for their lives–desires to make a difference, to be independent, to be understood?
Beauty	What is beautiful about what you teach?  How is what you teach beautiful?

 Source: Stuart, D. (2023). The will to learn: Cultivating student motivation without losing your own. Corwin.  

3. Know What Students Need to Learn. 

Students need to know that they are learning, every day. When teachers are clear about the learning expectations, or learning intentions as we call them, and what successful learning looks like (we call these success criteria), students can monitor their progress and consider the new learning and feedback they receive from teachers.

Simply said, students are more likely to learn something if they know what they are supposed to learn and what successful learning looks like (Fisher et al., 2024).

Share success criteria with students and do not expect them to infer what you want them to learn. Also, know what your students already know so that you don’t spend time on that.  It’s boring to be in a lesson when you already know the content. Focus on what students still need to learn, which may require that you consider different grouping patterns or assigning different tasks based on the next learning that students need from you. When you ensure that students know what they need to learn, and it’s not redundant, they are more likely to accept the challenge of learning. 

Conclusion 

Learning is a complex endeavor and a joy to observe in action. When teachers maintain strong, healthy relationships with students, make content relevant, and ensure students know what they are learning, great things happen. First of all, students learn more. And in the process, their teachers reap the moral rewards of teaching which is why we all got into this profession: watching others learning and knowing that we had something to do with it. 

References 

Fisher, D., Frey, N., Almarode, J., Barbee, K., Amador, O., & Assof, J. (2024).  The teacher clarity playbook: A hands-on guide to creating learning intentions and success criteria for organized, effective instruction (2nd ed.).  Corwin. 

Stuart, D. (2023). The will to learn: Cultivating student motivation without losing your own. Corwin.