14 Rules for First Year Teachers

I taught at an awful public school in rural Arizona with no teacher training or experience at 24 years old. I had a degree in Math and had worked the prior 2 years in the corporate world and was looking for something new.

I was able to get hired in AZ teaching 8th Grade Math on an emergency certification.

On my first day ever in the classroom, I had 43 8th Graders. Let’s just say … that day, and that year in general was a nightmare. If you had visited my classroom that year, here are some things you would have seen:

• Kids throwing food across the room
• Full on fist fights
• Curse words every class
• Kids sleeping on the floor in the back of the room
• Kids playing games on their computer for the whole class period
• Kids playing Fortnite on their phones

I would go on to teach 5 more years, and eventually I was able to learn the fundamentals of teaching challenging kids.

These are the things I wish I knew before I started teaching. It took me years to learn these things.

14 Rules for First Year Teachers

This advice is mainly for teachers working in tough environments. I taught for 6 years and 5 of those years were in absolutely awful environments teaching very tough kids.

In general, these rules apply to all classrooms – but especially classrooms with kids who have tough lives outside of school.

In my experience, kids who have tough lives outside of class will not inherently show you respect just because you are an “adult”.

Where I grew up, kids naturally behaved around adults – but in tough schools this is not the case. Do not expect kids to behave and be respectful just because you are the teacher and they are the students.

Usually when you’re a new teacher the school will have some generic advice that doesn’t really help along the lines of … “always put the objective on the board” or “take an interest in their home lives”.

This is your no BS advice from someone who’s learned the hard way.

Rule 1 – Structure your class to the minute

It’s very important to know exactly how you want your class to go by the minute.

For example, let’s say your Math class is from 9 – 10 AM.

9 – 9:05: Enter and completely warm up silently

9:05 – 9:10: Review warmup

9:10 – 9:30: Notes

9:30 – 9:40: Group Practice

9:40 – 9:50: Independent Practice

9:50 – 9:55: Exit Ticket

9:55: Collect Exit Ticket, pack up at seats

10:00: Kids leave in rows

Even better – put this on the board so the kids know exactly what to expect.

This kind of structure for your first year in the classroom will go a LONG way. When I first started I thought I didn’t need this kind of planning. In school when I grew up nothing ever got out of hand – the teacher said something, we did it. The teacher told kids to stop talking, we stopped talking.

This is different. These kids are probably very different from where you grew up.

Unless you are an absolute wizard in front of children, things will need to be planned out to the minute so that your classroom doesn’t get out of hand.

Rule 2 – Give them something to do right when they walk in

This is EXTREMELY important. Kids can do 2 things when they walk into your classroom.

1 – Start on some work you’ve given them

2 – Mess around with their classmates and wreak havoc

Which would you prefer?

As a general rule, if you let kids socialize/be free/get out of school mode – its very hard to bring them back into “school mode”. Set the tone early and give them something academic to do.

Even better, make them do it silently at their desks. This sets the tone for the class and shows them you mean business.

Rule 3 – Be very strict, but not emotional

When you set the expectation – follow through. This might be THE most important thing for a new teacher.

If you tell the kids to work silently at their desks … they better be doing that.

Then … You MUST use the first person that talks when they shouldn’t to set an example.

And don’t call them out directly by name. Say something like, “We’re working silently”, and look right at the kid who’s talking.

You want to avoid the whole “Bill stop talking!” “But I’m not talking!” back and forth at all costs.

Rule 4 – Always have something for the kids to do

What will the early finishers do when they complete their worksheet? If you don’t make it crystal clear – they’ll find something to do – and it probably won’t be something you’ll like.

You either need to have extra problems for them, have them start their homework, play games on their computer, or something else.

What you really want to make sure of is that they don’t bother their classmates while they’re still finishing.

Rule 5 – Walk around the classroom a lot

Your teachers growing up probably taught at the board, then retired to their desk for the rest of the class and ate their chicken salad lunch while you worked on your classwork/homework.

Don’t do this. This will not work with tough kids. You need to walk around the classroom constantly. Kids are much less likely to get into trouble if you’re near them. And if you sit at your desk in the front of the room, you’re only near a few students.

Rule 6 – Stand in the front corner to see everyone

Problem Number 1 – If you stand in the front middle of the classroom, by nature you’re blocking the board for some people.

Problem number 2 is you can’t see all the kids. Some kids are posted up behind others and they can get away with things they shouldn’t be doing. Stand in one of the front corners when you’re teaching or watching the kids do work so you can see all of the kids evenly.

This might seem weird but it works. Literally stand in the front corner of the room. You’ll see every kid.

Tip – put your desk in the front middle of the classroom. This is where your doc cam and projector are. By nature, if your desk is in the corner, you’re very far from the back corner of the room. Putting it in the center allows you to be close to as many students as possible.

Rule 7 – Time everything

Work “blocks” should be short to keep kids on task, and you should visibly time everything.

Example: “You have 2 mins to do these 2 problems” (start a timer on your phone and put it under the doc cam, OR start the timer on your computer and display on the projector)

Nothing makes a kid feel the urgency like visually seeing the time remaining tic away…

Tip – When the timer goes off, let it keep beeping until everyone stops talking. One kid will inevitably tell you to turn it off because the beeping is annoying them. Tell the kid you’re waiting for everyone to stop talking – then turn it off when every kid is silent. This is a good precedent to set.

Rule 8 – Contact parents immediately

When you have a kid who won’t do what you ask and is being defiant, tell them you’re going to call his parents after class, and actually do it. Once he realizes you will call his mom during school, he is much more likely to change his behavior.

If he is being particularly bad, call his mom during class on speaker in front of the kids. Everyone will get the message once you show you’re willing to do this.

Story – I once called a kid’s mom on speaker in front of the whole class. I introduced myself and told her what was going on. I then handed the phone to the kid to speak with his mom outside of the room. He came back in tears and apologized. I never had a problem with this kid again.

Lesson – Do it once, so you don’t have to adjust the behavior 50 times during the school year.

Rule 9 – Never speak while kids are speaking

You need to set the precedent that while you’re speaking, no one else is. Period. This is easily one of the most important things for new teachers to understand. It can feel very uncomfortable to get upset over every little thing in the classroom, but it NEEDS to be done.

The way to do this is as soon as you hear a kid whispering while you’re talking, pause mid-word.

Example: “I was thin- STOP!, LOOK RIGHT AT THE PERSON WHO WAS TALKING, WAIT FOR THEM TO STOP TALKING, THANK THEM FOR SHUTTING UP – “thinking we do problems 1-5 today together.”

You stop mid-word to emphasize you’re not willing to talk while kids are talking. Can’t over-emphasize how important this is.

Rule 10 – Teach with the door open so kids don’t know when the principal could walk by

Kids in the back of the room tend to misbehave. Assuming the door is in the back, leave it open. Once kids start getting sniped by the principal when she walks by – they’ll start to be on guard.

I used to have bad kids who I’d put right in front of the door and they HATED it! They never knew when an Administrator would walk by so they couldn’t play games on their computer without risking getting caught.

This one can be hard as a first-year teacher because often times you’re insecure/embarrassed about what is going on in your classroom, or how you are teaching. No matter. Leave the door open. Show the kids you want the other adults in the building to look in when they walk by.

The exception to this rule is if the door is in the front of the room such that all kids look at other kids as they walk by. This could be a major distraction. Adjust accordingly.

Rule 11 – Stand behind the kids when they’re working so they don’t know where you are

Especially when you’re giving a test or quiz, sit in the back of the classroom. Kids are much less likely to do things when they don’t know where you are. And they’ll have to turn around 180 degrees to find out where you are, which will make it 100% obvious they’re doing it.

Rule 12 – Don’t directly call kids out

“Marco, STOP talking!” – Don’t do this.

Especially in tough areas, kids do NOT like feeling attacked. Even if they were talking, many kids will respond defensively if they feel called out in front of their peers.

Instead, do this – “I’m waiting for 2 people to stop talking”

Wait until they stop talking. If 1 person is still talking – “Just waiting on one more”

Anonymous narrating is infinitely better than calling people out. Kids won’t get defensive because you didn’t call anyone out by name, and if someone does get defensive … they definitely know they were talking.

After all … If you weren’t talking, then why would you assume I’m referencing you?

Rule 13 – You pick where the kids sit

Major key.

First day kids will sit with their friends. I recommend you have a seating chart on the board from day 1. Since you don’t know the kids, either randomize it, or do boy girl boy girl alternating.

Don’t put two boys next to each other if you can avoid it.

Once you assign seats, kids will try to pull fast ones on you. They’ll switch without telling you and hope you don’t notice. You NEED to make sure everyone is in their assigned seats at the beginning of class.

Literally – put the seating chart up on the board – and say “ok let’s just check to make sure everyone’s in their assigned seats” – and go up and down the rows.

Once they know you’re checking every day – they’ll stop doing that.

Rule 14 – Do not argue with kids

NEVER get into a back and forth with a kid. This is not a debate. You are the teacher, they are the students.

“I wasn’t talking!” “Yes you were I saw you” “No I wasn’t” “Yes I was” …

Every new teacher makes this mistake.

Do not establish the precedent that kids can argue with you.

How do you do this??

Let’s say a kid is talking in the back and won’t stop. Here’s what you do.

Step 1 – “Mark can you move to this desk in the front please?” Keep teaching. Even if he doesn’t go. Come back around in 30 seconds.

Step 2 – “Mark I need you to move up front” “But why???” Don’t engage – keep teaching.

Step 3 – “Last chance Mark. I need you sit up here now. If you don’t move, I’m gonna have to call the principal/your mom/dad” (depending on school dynamics)

Key: Never engage in back and forths. You give directions. Student is supposed to follow. You don’t negotiate in front of the class. Every student sees you expect your directions to be followed.

Oh ya, and a bonus … never tell a kid what to do. Ask him if he can do it. You’ll get way better results this way.

Summary

If I had to summarize these rules I would say the following.

• Be strict from Day 1 – make them think you’re mean. Your future self will thank you immensely. You do not want to be seen as the cool teacher – especially in your first year. You can always ease up if you need to. But its very hard to tighten the leash once its too loose.
• Do what you say you’re going to do. Check assigned seats every day. Call parents if kids won’t stop talking. Never speak over kids. Follow through will earn you an infinite amount of respect with kids.
• Your directions apply to everyone in the class. When you’re moving on to page 2 in the packet, you wait for everyone to get on page 2. When you speak, you wait for everyone to be silent. When you want pencils down, you wait for everyone to do it. No exceptions.

Sticking to these things will save you HOURS of headache and time in your first year of teaching. If you’re a teacher and want some advice, I’m here for you.

What did I miss?

Sam