12 Common Mistakes That Many Teachers Make
Teaching is an amazingly rewarding profession and one that gets much easier with experience. I look back on my first two years of teaching, and I can’t believe how difficult they seemed. I made so many mistakes, which really isn’t surprising. It is easy to make mistakes when you are young and nervous. A student challenges you and you have to think on your feet while 30+ pairs of eyes are watching to see how you are going to handle yourself.
The mistakes that you make can break you or they can help you grow. Every time I made a mistake, in those early years, I went to see my Principal at the end of the day. I would tell her the details of the interaction, including; what I said, what the student did, how I reacted, etc. My Principal was patient and compassionate. She never seemed to judge or criticize me. She listened and then offered gentle advice on how I might try to handle myself the next time that a similar situation presented itself.
I was very fortunate to have a Principal who became a true mentor for me. Not all Principals have the time or patience to take every new teacher under their wing. If you are a new teacher, I do recommend that you find a good mentor in your school. I have seen teachers who quit after, or even in the middle of, their first year of teaching because they don’t know how to recover from their initial mistakes.
In this article, I am going to discuss 12 things that many teachers do that I consider to be mistakes. Depend on your teaching style, you might not agree with everything that I have to say, which is fine. I made most of these mistakes in my first two years of teaching. I still occasionally catch myself making one of these mistakes now, but at least I now recognize them as mistakes. Some veteran teachers continue to make some of these mistakes during their entire careers. So, they are not really mistakes that only new teachers make.
I believe that some mistakes are unavoidable, and how you learn and recover from them is the most important thing. However, I also believe that each time you make a serious mistake with a class, you potentially make the rest of the year with that class a little bit harder. So, the earlier you can learn to avoid making mistakes like these, and others, the easier your career will become.
Not Being Yourself. - When I first started teaching, I tried to model myself after teachers that I had when I was in school. I tried to act the way that I thought teachers should act. I tried to talk the way that I thought teachers should talk. I almost created a false persona that I brought out when I was teaching. I quickly learned that this didn’t feel authentic and it was difficult to sustain. Once I learned to just “be myself” in front of my students, teaching became much easier. I learned to relax and have fun with my classes. I don’t mean that you shouldn’t moderate your language, if you use “colorful” language with your friends. I just mean that you shouldn’t create a false “teacher identity”.
Trying to be their friend. - I once worked with a teacher who told his students that he wanted them to think of him as one of their friends and not just a teacher. He even told the students to call him by his first name, because that’s what friends do. In October, students were telling me, “Mike is much cooler than you are, Mr. Curran! He lets us call him by his first name.” In February, Mike quit his teaching position, because he felt that he couldn’t control his class anymore. The students had stopped listening to him. They enjoyed hanging out with Mike, but they weren’t as interested in listening to his lectures or doing his homework. Your students need a teacher, a role model, not another friend. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t treat them with compassion and respect. However, It does mean that you have to be able to be the authority figure in the room and be able to enforce boundaries.
Not enforcing expected behaviors in the classroom. - Testing other people’s boundaries is part of the adolescent’s journey of developing independence. They test their parents and they test their teachers, in order to see what they can get away with. For most adults, it takes a certain amount of; discipline, time and energy to respond appropriately to these tests. Every time that we fail one of these tests, often by not responding at all to it, it becomes harder and harder to enforce a boundary. For example, say that you are teaching class and a student puts his or her head down on the desk. Or, you are addressing the class and a student impulsively interrupts you with a question. You might not want to take the time to address it, or you might not feel like you have the energy to deal with the potential conflict. However, if you let it go today, you are declaring it to be acceptable behavior. Not only for today, but every day. Not only for one student, but for all. This becomes a slippery slope and leads to a loss of classroom management. One veteran teacher told me that a good teacher is “firm but fair”. Set fair expectations and be firm about maintaining them. When you see behavior that you don’t consider acceptable, take the time to address it right away.
Not making your expectations clear. - One of the most important proactive steps a teacher can take is making their expectations clear. What sorts of behavior do you expect from your students? What format do you want for their essays? What is your policy for late work? When do you expect them to make up exams that they are absent for? I recommend that you do your best to make your expectations very clear. Some teachers even create posters for their classrooms, clearly stating certain expectations. Most students will work very hard to meet your expectations, if they are made clear. It is also very frustrating for the students when your expectations aren’t clear. Try to set your students up for success.
Being under-prepared for class. - When you are a new teacher, or a veteran teacher who is teaching a new class, you are creating your lesson plans for the first time. Depending upon how much advance notice you had, you may find yourself in a situation where you are literally only one day or two ahead of the class. You finish a long day of teaching and then you go home and create your lesson plan(s) for the next day. A common rookie mistake is not preparing enough material for the full period. If you burn through your material and still have 15 minutes left in the class period, those may seem like the longest 15 minutes of your day! Always have more than enough material to cover the time that you have with the students.
Not getting enough rest. - I know that it is not always easy to get enough sleep. New teachers are often staying up late to complete lesson plans or to grade assignments. Teaching well is challenging enough when you are at your best. Teaching when you are exhausted is not very much fun. Depending upon your own deposition, being tired may make you especially irritable, and you don’t want to go to class irritable. You can’t take proper care of things if you don’t take proper care of yourself. Try to develop a sleep routine that leaves you with enough energy to be your best each day.
Taking things personally. - Teaching is your job and it is likely very important to you. That doesn’t mean that your class is going to feel very important to every student in your class. You are probably very interested in your subject and enjoy talking about it. That doesn’t mean that every student in your class will find it interesting. You will hopefully spend a good amount of time creating quality learning opportunities for your students. That doesn’t mean that every student in your class will appreciate them. You will assign homework and, sometimes, several students won’t complete it. You may be in the middle of your best lecture ever and notice a student who has fallen asleep in class. Don’t take any of these things personally. It isn’t always about you. In fact, it is almost never about you. Do the best that you can do, but don’t take it personally when the students don’t respond in a way that you expect. Each of your students is an individual, dealing with their own challenges inside and outside of your class.
Reacting instead of acting. - Students will challenge you. These challenges are part of the job. When you look very young, some students are even more likely to challenge you. These challenges come in many different forms. A student may talk back to you. A student may throw something when your back is turned. A student may say something terrible about another student. You may even have two students get up and start punching each other. Unless you are a very calm person, some of these challenges will trigger your “fight or flight” response. When this happens, blood rushes to your muscles so that your body is ready to react to a threat. This actually makes it harder to think clearly and you may be more likely to react inappropriately and make a mistake. If your response is very time-sensitive, as in the case of students fighting, you need to react very quickly for the sake of keeping your students safe. However, most challenges aren’t that serious. If a student talks back to you, for example, you shouldn’t react when your adrenaline is high. Simply, take your time to calm down and act when you are thinking clearly. A great way to buy time for yourself is to look at the student and calmly say, in a soft voice, “I will need to speak to you after class.” This will give you time to calm down and time to think about what you want to say.
Handling things publicly. - When a student misbehaves or does something that bothers you, avoid putting on a show for the students. Angry outbursts don’t make you look strong, they make you look weak. You don’t want to react and say something that embarrasses the student and hurts your reputation or relationship with your class. Watching you blow your stack is probably more exciting for your students than the lesson that you originally planned on teaching them. It might be worth it to a student to serve a day of detention if the class gets to see you acting out for ten minutes. Never put on a show for the students, unless it is an intentional performance. Often, the best way to handle a discipline issue is to walk over the student, lean in close, and say something like, “We need to talk about your behavior after class.” The student is likely to get quiet, because they won’t want to give you more ammunition to use against them at the end of class. The other students will be wondering what you said, and assume that it is worse than it is.
Punishing an entire class. - Suppose a student throws something when your back is turned or there is so much talking during class that you can’t separate out the culprits from the innocents. There are many possible scenarios where someone in your class misbehaves and you aren’t exactly sure who they are. A common mistake that teachers make in these situations is to punish the entire class. When you punish all of your students, including those who always treat you with respect, you risk turning all of them against you. So, what can you do? If a student throws something when you back is turned, pause long enough so that you can address it calmly. Then, say something like, “I think that you would all agree that I treat each of you with respect every. All (or most) of you treat me with respect to my face. However, someone threw something when my back was turned, and that seems like a very disrespectful act. I hope that whoever did that has the courage to talk to me at the end of class and offer me some sort of explanation and apology.” 9 times out of 10, the student will come to see you to offer an apology, if only to alleviate their sense of guilt. When they do, don’t punish them. Rather, help them learn from the mistake. What if nobody comes forward? Let it go. Don’t take things personally.
Not seeking help from others. - I consider myself very lucky to have had the Principal that I had at the start of my career. However, I have no doubt that each school has its share of helpful professionals who serve, formally or informally, as mentors for others. Talking to other teachers or administrators about the challenges that you are facing in the classroom has no downside that I can see.
Giving up early on. - As I wrote earlier, everyone makes mistakes. The truth is, I made so many in my first two years of teaching that I had two very difficult years. If I didn’t have faith that I would get better, with time, I might have changed careers. If you are a new teacher and you are having a difficult year, know that next year will probably be much easier. Please, don’t base your belief in your ability to teach on your performance during your first couple of years. You might ultimately decide that teaching is not for you, and that is fine, but try not to get too discouraged by your first experiences.
Now, it is your turn to join this Team of Teachers by joining the conversation. Do you disagree with any of the “mistakes” that I listed? Can you think of others that I should have included?
