7 Questions That Will Save Your Teaching Career

My priorities as a first year teacher were a little bit off. It wasn’t until the end of my second year before I began to really “get it.” I still don’t get it, but I have begun to. What I learned in later school years was that I needed to ask questions, but not just any questions. Over time, I have learned that a lot of the questions I asked were unfruitful or misguided. However, I did do some things right. Below are some of the best questions that you can ask more experienced teachers, along with my answers to them.

1. How Do I Keep My Students Quiet?

2. How Do I Keep My Students Engaged?

3. How Do I Keep My Students Interested?

4. How Do I Keep My Students Learning?

5. How Do I Keep My Students Away From Me?

6. How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy?

7. How Do I Keep My Sanity?

1. How Do I Keep My Students Quiet?

I am convinced that classroom management is the key to success in teaching. It is something about which I have become passionate. Why? Because poorly managed classrooms waste the time and the lives of everyone involved. As a teacher, I hate it when I allow my students to be out of control. As a student, I don’t learn as much as I should. Either way, it is a no-win situation.

So what are some things I do to keep them quiet?

1. Accept responsibility

Everything that goes on in my classroom is my fault. Good things happen because I set up the expectations. Bad things that happen are because I allowed them to happen. While this is not entirely true — sometimes kids do dumb things and act like kids because they ARE kids — accepting responsibility will revolutionize everything that you do. Our culture likes to deny responsibility much of the time. Do not allow students to deny responsibility, and do not allow yourself to do so either.

2. Establish procedures

These must begin to be set up from the very beginning. How do you want the students to enter the classroom? How do you want them to ask to use the restroom? When is acceptable to leave the seat? What happens when the fire alarm goes off? Does the bell dismiss the class? When do we sharpen pencils? How is homework to be turned in? When do we get our instruments out and begin playing? How do we go about asking a question?

3. Identify authority

Every group of people will have a leader. Is it going to be you or is it going to be a twelve year old? Figure out who the leader is. What if you’re not there? Who is the leader? I personally like the idea of finding out who the oldest three students are, and making sure that everyone knows that when I am not there, the oldest person in the room is in charge. Usually, that is a substitute. Occasionally, I may need to go into my office to get something. In that case, the oldest student is the one who is in charge. Even if it’s the kids who has failed two times, the responsibility will usually make them step up.

4. Avoid arguing at all costsThis applies to life. Arguments never win friends. Arguments never prove your point. Arguments are what make Jerry Springer fun to watch. Don’t have them in your class, and especially not with a child.

5. Over Explain

While I do not like the idea of talking too much, I also like the idea of giving complete information. I plan to spend this year economizing my words and yet increasing their effectiveness. Over explain expectations, but at the same time don’t say too much. “That’s not good enough” is usually good enough to get better results!

6. Over Prepare

Do not get to class without a plan. Know where you are aiming to be by the end of the year. Know where you are aiming to be by the end of the six weeks. Know where you are aiming to be by the end of the week. Know where you will be by the end of the class. Do not let anything keep you from accomplishing your most important task for the day.

7. Raise Expectations

People will give you the results you expect them to give you. Low expectations are bad. High expectations are good. Good enough simply isn’t good enough.

8. Communicate

It’s amazing how one parent phone call can make a student work much better. This policy works wonders. if a child shows an inability to function correctly with the rest of the group, perhaps their parents want to know. It’s not always the case, but often is.

2. How Do I Keep My Students Engaged?

Once we are able to keep students quiet, then the real work begins. I found in my first two years that the REAL work for me was keeping the students quiet. I fought them all the time. After I began to learn how to keep them quiet more, I was faced with the challenge of having them actually be interested in what I had to say. Since I over explain most things, they tend to not like hearing me talk.

1. Talk less

The less I talk, the more work the students do. The more they work, the more they tend to learn. While I personally learn just as well from hearing or reading as I do from doing, most people do not. And even so, the overwhelming majority of people actually do not learn more from listening than they do from doing. As a result, the more doing that they do, the more learning will be accomplished. The more they learn, the more they will stay focused and engaged in the learning process. Make sense? Sure it does!

2. Economize words

When I do talk, I try to keep what I say to a minimum. Many students have been trained from an early age that when teachers talk, it’s acceptable for them to zone out. We train students to do that exact thing by talking too much. This is not something I have mastered or even begun to master, but it works. I’m trying.

3. Play more

As a band director, this has obvious applications. The less I talk, and the more the students play their instruments, the faster they learn the music. But that is not the only meaning. Have fun. Have a sense of humor. This comes from loving your work. The more you enjoy your work, the more fun you will have. The more fun you have at work, the more you enjoy it. It’s a positive spiral. It’s a beautiful thing. Make the choice to have fun at work each day. Let the kids have fun in your class. If you want them coming back for more each day, this is vital.

4. Ask questions

This is a great way to check for understanding. When I give instructions, I ask questions about the instructions. “We’re playing four measures; does that mean four measures and one note?” “Let me hear the trumpets play. Who should I hear playing?” “Open your book to page fourteen. What page?”

5. “Are there any questions?”

At the conclusion of giving a series of instructions, I ask if there are any questions. If there are none (and there usually are none), I summarize the instructions again, asking questions in the process.

I have found that these steps usually end up in keeping more of the students engaged more of the time. Part of the deal when working with people, especially children, is that there’s no guarantee that any desired outcome will result. But there is a greater chance of success if you follow these steps.

3. How Do I Keep My Students Interested?

Maintaining interest in the subject matter is clearly one of the best things you can do for your teaching. If you are asked to give a speech, you want the audience to be receptive to the content of the speech. As a teacher, you must have an audience who listens and is interested in what you do. If you don’t, then you are in for a very long and miserable year. Or two years. Or a long career. So we must come up with things that we can do that will help to encourage and actively promote a high level of interest from the children we teach. What are some of these specific things you can do to help them be more interested?

1. Relate the content to their lives

“Why do I have to learn this?” If you are ever asked that question and don’t have an answer for it, other than, “because I said so,” then you have lost credibility. Why do we need to know grammar? Because it will help you be successful in life. Why do we need to know math? So people don’t cheat us out of our money! Why do we need to learn about the arts? To gain a greater understanding of cultures and history. And on it goes.

2. Relate your life to the content

Learn to be a story-teller. Although I strive to minimize talking, I still believe that an appropriately timed story can work wonders in encouraging and increasing interest in your subject. I make it a point to share with my classes whenever my dogs do funny things. Sometimes I am able to relate music to it, but other times, it’s just me telling a story. One of the Language Arts teachers at my school came up to me at the end of the year and told me about how her students were all writing a few paragraphs about their electives and sharing them with her and with each other. She said that a lot of them wrote wonderful stuff about band and about me and my dogs.

3. Have fun

This will make you enjoy your job more. When you enjoy your job, interest levels will go up with the students. When you have fun, you’ll go home happier at the end of the day. That’s a great thing.

4. SmileSmiling is a result of having fun. I get too serious some of the times and don’t smile. I’ve had students ask me if I’m upset or tell me to smile more. It’s good for your health.

5. Laugh and get them laughing

Children love laughing. Adults love laughing. Laughing is good for your health too. Be funny. If you can handle it, make fun of yourself. Come up with nicknames for the students. Let them help you make up nicknames. One of the best ways to reduce tension in a stressful situation is to add levity. Because I don’t smile enough, I was told by a handful of students this year that they knew I wasn’t mad only after I would use one of their nicknames. It works.

So, some of these things will help to raise student interest. Some of them will also help to raise teacher interest. The more interested you are in doing the job, the more likely they will be interested. And the more you will enjoy going home at nights and looking back on the accomplishments of the day.

4. How Do I Keep My Students Learning?

We have come to the central part of why we entered into the educational field. Sometimes amidst the classroom management issues, paperwork, extracurricular assignments, professional development, and all sorts of other considerations, we can easily lose sight of this. No matter how good your discipline management plan is or how entertaining or engaging you are, if the students do not learn, you are wasting their time. So let’s look at some keys to keeping the actual learning happening in your classroom.

Know your subject matter

If you are teaching math, then you better know at least as much math as you expect the students to know. When I started teaching, I was assigned beginning flute, clarinet, and saxophone classes. I had played clarinet, but not flute or saxophone. I had to go home at night and figure out how to play the notes that I was going to be teaching the next day. The odds are pretty much in favor of you being able to pick the material up at least a little bit faster than the people in your class. So make sure you know what is supposed to be learned. The more thoroughly you know the information, the better.

Know how to teach

Thought I don’t advise spending all of your time studying teaching methodologies, it is important to be sure that you vary your teaching style a bit to ensure that more students are able to learn more comfortably and with greater ease. One of the easiest and most effective ways to do this is to ask your students. Ask individual students what you can do to help them learn better. They usually don’t know, but

occasionally you’ll hear an answer that you hadn’t considered, but that would work better. Do it and see what happens.

Know when not to teachWe have to have enough awareness of what is going on around us to know when our teaching is ineffective. Especially when dealing with elementary and middle school ages, there are just some times when nothing we can do will work to get them on task. If we are unaware of that or if we ignore that, we run the risk of training them that it is acceptable to tune us out. One that has been taught, there is a huge struggle unteaching it. My recommendation when that happens, and it does happen no matter how hard you try, is to simply change the activity. Let them talk about what just happened or what is going to happen. If immediate focus is not necessary (i.e. a looming performance, a major exam quickly approaching, etc.) then invest the time in getting to know the students better.

Know what to teach

This goes along with knowing your subject matter. Have a clear understanding of where you need to be heading and be sure that everything you try to teach directly applies to your goal. This doesn’t mean teaching to the test as much as it means preparing the students for success. Some concepts are clearly tested, but others are essential and yet remain untested. That doesn’t make them less necessary; it just means that perhaps they could be saved for a later time. Whatever you decide, know why it is that you do what it is that you do.

Know what not to teach

Some concepts that are contained in the book do not need to be taught. If it makes you feel better for the sake of completeness, you may briefly address the concept and mention that chapter 7 covers it. How many great classes have you had where the teachers guide you straight through the textbook in an orderly fashion, teaching from every single page? I know for me, it was not many at all. We skipped around all the time. Just because it is in the textbook does not mean it is essential. Just because it is in the curriculum does not mean that it is vital. You could also teach things informally. For instance, I use who and whom correctly in class all the time. I make it a point often to point out the differences. But I’ve never handed out a worksheet on it or given a formal lesson or anything. Similar to Timothy Ferris’ concept of a low information diet, the less we teach the more effective that material will be.

If all of these elements are in place, you will be well on your way to being the best teacher in the world.

5. How Do I Keep My Students Away from Me?

Where' my personal space?!

Help! My students like me too much!

Here is where things begin to get fun. When I first started teaching, I did so because I loved working with children. I tried so hard to make them like me. I wanted to be their favorite teacher. In so doing, I didn’t enforce enough discipline. I didn’t want to make them mad. That backfires when you try that. They may like you, but they won’t learn. And they won’t respect you enough to really think you’re great. So when you start teaching discipline, some of them will really start to respect and like you. A question sometimes comes up, “Why do we need to keep them away?” A couple of reasons. First of all, as a professional, there must be a professional relationship. More than anything else you do, this professionalism can save your career. If every interaction you have with students and parents is a professional one, then questions about inappropriate behavior are much less likely to come up, and they will more easily be refuted. The other reason is because you really don’t need 14-year old friends. Whatever grade you teach, the concept still carries. So how do we do it?

1. Set “office hours”

Clearly inform the students of when it is acceptable to come in and talk with you and when it is not. I am in my office every day by 7:30 and will stay after school until at least 3:45 every day. These are the times that I am available for the students to come and talk with me. We don’t, however, hang out. Again, I don’t have 14 year old friends.

2. Establish limits

I used to let them come in my office, sit, and chat. I don’t do that anymore, but I do make it clear that I am there if they need to talk to me. They may not rearrange my desk (though I keep it clear). They may not go through my inbox. If I ask them to help me with something, they have permission to do it. Otherwise, it’s pretty much not their job to do.

3. Invest in their livesYou have numerous opportunities to build positive relationships with the students in informal settings. Go to basketball games at school. Go to choir concerts. Support the students in their hard work. As a band director, I can count on one hand the number of teachers who have been at my concerts over the last three years. That says something to the students.

4. Always present yourself professionally

As I stated before, this will be the most important thing that you do. If they know they can talk to you openly, but also know that you are ethical, it will help you out all around. Of course, this requires that you are a genuinely ethical person. Parents love to see teachers who invest in the lives of their children.

6. How Do I Keep My School Administration Happy?

Under promise, but over deliver.

No matter how hard you try and no matter how much the students and parents love you, certain people can make your job more difficult. Principals, superintendents, counselors, and secretaries are key people to have on your side. But how do you get them on your team? We’ll look in-depth at some tactics that I have found to be fruitful.

1. under promise, over deliver

The typical routine is to over promise and under deliver. To say I’ll be there are 7, and show up at 7:05. That immediately lowers the opinion people hold about you. If I say that I am going to do something, the very minimum that I must do is exactly what I said. I aim to meet expectations when I tell someone what I will do, and to exceed those expectations when I actually do it. Perhaps it is a competitive thing for me, but I want to be better than everyone else. Seth Godin would call it being the best in the world. Always be certain to at least do what you say you will do.

2. Always present your students in a positive light

Nobody important likes hearing you complain about the children you have to teach. They love hearing you brag about the children you get to teach. Gossip and complaining will merely turn into a downward spiral. If you are the best in the world, then your students must be the greatest students ever. Choose your attitude.

3. Offer solutionsEverybody can point out problems. Most people do. Those who change the world offer solutions instead of merely pointing out problems. Problems with no offered solution lead to complaining. Complaining does not make people like you more. People who complain generally don’t get the help with budget items.

Whenever you talk with your counselors about scheduling, no matter how bad it is, don’t complain. Have a solution or two or three ready and ask if there is ways they can make one of them happen. Sometimes, they are not even in control of that. Complaining to someone about something they cannot fix is definitely not going to give them a higher view of you.

4. Smile when you talk with them

This works for everyone. It gives the impression that you love your job and that you love your students. People who love their jobs are more productive at work. When you’re talking about those solutions, be sure that you laugh about the problem rather than getting upset about it. As I mentioned before, it is not always their fault. Also keep in mind that principals want to help you out, but they also want to help out all of the other teachers in their school. They generally try, so at least give them the benefit of the doubt.

7. How Do I Keep My Sanity?

We come to the final and most personally rewarding part of the whole deal. This has to do with the things that happen outside of the classroom. How do you teach and teach well, and yet not spend your entire life teaching?

1. Eliminate clutter

I have previously mentioned my clean desk. Get rid of superfluous crap. The way to do it is to throw stuff away. If it hurts you to throw away all of those Christmas gifts you’ve received from students, take a picture of them and then chunk them. You don’t need desk decorations. I have one inbox and one outbox. They are on top of a filing cabinet; not on my desk. The only things that live on my desk are my computer and my phone. I am trying to find a computer cart so I can clear it. In my desk drawer; I try to maintain no more than three pens, two pencils, a highlighter, and a pad of paper. Use a filing system and use your free time (conference period, lunch period, etc.) to file.

2. Eliminate distractions

Timothy Ferriss calls it selective ignorance. This is time when you cannot be contacted about work stuff. He runs a multinational corporation and checks his email once a week. I am trying to severely reduce my personal email monitoring as a result of this. I plan to check my school emails and voicemails once a day, during my lunch period, after I eat. This will require me to prioritize and defer some emails until later.

Parent communication becomes priority, and the delete button becomes my friend. I don’t need to read “funny emails” the coworkers send along to me. That wastes my time and the school district’s money.

3. Set office hours

I will be at work from 7:30 until 4:00 every day. That does not mean that I will be doing office work during those times. My office hours will be before school, conference and after I eat lunch. I will clean up right before I leave work in the afternoon. I want to reduce the amount of time that I am at the school. That is not to say that I won’t be investing a lot of time or effort into the kids. I do. There will probably be days that I stay later than most other teachers. But I still aim to be finished earlier than I have been in the past. My first year in this district, I would stay at school until 6:00 most evenings, and sometimes be there until after 10:00pm.

4. Find something else that you enjoy, and do itThis is a great way to get out of the school. Schedule yourself away. Learn a new hobby. Challenge yourself to read a book a month this school year. Volunteer. Don’t volunteer to be the student council sponsor unless that is your real desire. Don’t volunteer for school stuff unless you really want to do them! Join a softball league. Write a blog. Write a book. Start a business.

5. Make friends outside of education

I do this through church and volunteering. Even friends who teach at another campus will get you away from “work” more. Spend the summer traveling, even if it’s not far. Get out of town a little bit. Use spring break, Christmas, summer, and whatever other holidays they give you. Life for most people isn’t divided up into semesters with long breaks. Take advantage of it and LIVE.

6. Give

One of the most profound ways to fight greed is to give. When we give, we take the focus off of our own wants and place it on the needs of others. Volunteering is a great way to give. Find a worthwhile cause and donate to it regularly.