5 Misconceptions Most People Have When Starting In Teaching

Being successful oftentimes isn't about being "the best."

It's actually far more about being reliable - and people being able to trust that you won't make little mistakes.

For anyone working in education, these are the 5 small (but easily fixable) mistakes most people make especially in their first few years - and why, if you can avoid these, your career and your student's progress are going to accelerate exponentially:

I cannot be "strict" if I want students to like me

Firstly strict does not have to mean mean unkind or mean, it should just mean you are consistent in enforcing rules. A strict teacher does not have to be a teacher who shouts all the time, a strict teacher can be kind and compassionate.

We all want to be liked and it's not nice to be disliked. But students want to learn, even the ones who say they don't. It is tempting to be lenient and avoid being thought of as a "strict" teacher, but this is the wrong approach. You can be firm with rules while still being warm and giving plenty of praise.

You will win more students over by providing a calm and consistent learning environment than you will be trying to be their friend. Students are generally happy to follow rules that are fair and consistently applied.

This means if you have a rule of no talking then those really high-achieving students who are whispering while working also need to be asked to stop. They may be able to get work done and talk but other students who cannot will notice if you treat these students differently.

Sometimes you need to be a little more lenient, a student may be late in the morning but you know they have to drop their younger siblings off first. In this instance, it would be unfair to provide the same sanction as you would a student who was late due to loitering in the corridor. Other students do not need to know any of this, and if you have a policy of dealing with such things in private i.e. at the end of the lesson they won't.

This approach worked for class A so it will work for class B

No 2 classes are exactly the same, though over time you will learn there are some common archetypes.

Be ready to throw out approaches that worked last year if they are not working with your new classes. You need to adapt to each class's needs, prior knowledge, and personalities. It can be beneficial to speak to a teacher who had the class the previous year if this is possible and find out what worked and did not work for them.

Over time you will build up a bank of approaches for behavior, scaffolding, and challenging students that you can pull from to create a bespoke strategy for each class. This is what separates experienced teachers from new teachers. Experienced teachers notice similarities to previous classes and can try many different strategies to find the right ones for each class/student.

Even in the same year with the same year group, some classes may need a different approach to do their best. Some need lots of praise, some need a challenge and competition, and some need to take things a little slower.

My students cannot access this topic

I am not sure if there is a phrase I hate more than this one.

All students deserve access to all parts of the curriculum. With some classes, this may require significant scaffolding and moving at a slower pace but we should never cut out core parts of our curriculum.

I hear this a lot in my subject when it comes to programming, yet I personally have never met a student who cannot learn at least the basics of programming. If we tell students they cannot do something because it is too hard for them many will be demoralized and that belief becomes their truth. If you tell them they can do it, promote an environment where mistakes are learning opportunities, and give them the tools to succeed they will.

As corny as it sounds students often need us to believe in them before they can believe in themselves when it comes to learning something completely new.

With this in mind, we also need to be careful to avoid over-scaffolding. Just because a student has completed a task does not mean they understand it if we provide too much help.

For a task-focused lesson, scaffolds should be removed over time so that students are working increasingly independently.

This usually stems from the same belief that the student cannot access this topic independently. At first, this may be true but the end goal needs to be independent work by the student.

I can't let students see me make mistakes

Students should absolutely see you make mistakes.

You are a human being, and students should see you as one not as some sort of teaching automaton. We want our students to have the resilience to overcome mistakes but resilience is not an inherent trait.

Resilience is learned behavior.

If students see you make a mistake, you can demonstrate how to fix it. If you get stuck you can show students how you will find a solution. Show your students how to be resilient in your subject. Show them that mistakes are not only okay but are in fact an opportunity, and not a barrier.

I often plan mistakes in my programming demonstrations, this allows me to show my process of finding errors and debugging in a natural way.

I plan questions around the error such as

What is a syntax error?

Why will this code not run?

The code ran this time but I got X as my output, what output were we expecting?

Why did I get x output when I expected y output?

When they come across a similar problem in their own code they can ask themselves these questions to find and fix the problem.

I need to be a super teacher

No, you need to be a consistent teacher.

Burnout is one of the biggest issues in teaching right now. We are often asked to do too much and 78% of education staff report that they are stressed (95% of principals).

If you try to do everything full steam, volunteer every evening after school, and go the extra mile for every single aspect of the job you will burn out. When you are burnt out you will do every aspect worse and you will not be providing a consistent experience for students.

You need to take time to rest and enjoy hobbies or interests. Set boundaries about when you can be contacted (no emails in the late evening or on weekends should be standard). Don't stay late every night and try to avoid taking home any more work than you need to.

Long term the best teachers are those who focus on the core parts of their job first, and make sure they know their limits before accepting extra work. If you feel like you are getting to a point where you are burnt out speak to your colleagues and ask for help.