How can teachers improve their day-to-day teaching, without really trying?
A list of 100 things I’ve done in the classroom to improve my teaching without really trying. I hope this list inspires your thinking and teaching…
- Get 8 hours sleep every night – and question like a boss!
- Have a refillable water bottle on your classroom desk
- Have a ‘keen’ pupil always ready to hand out worksheets
- Keep a pencil case full of chisel-tip whiteboard pens
- Store a permanent marker pen vertically, with the lid pointing down
- Stash a secret pile of glue sticks, and always keep the lids in a box when binning old ones
- When it’s morning break, take a break!
- If you’re on break duty, store ‘pastoral moments’ for classroom discussion
- Learn the power and safety of Cntrl, Alt, Delete
- Read every word in your school’s behaviour policy
- Wear comfortable shoes, expensive ones, that will carry you all academic year
- Always keep an eye on the local job market, the terminology used and salary scale
- Ask pupils to repeat key information back to you
- Read to your pupils, every lesson, every day
- Show pupils you care
- Have a teaching buddy who can rescue your class in an emergency E.g. toilet
- Teach pupils ‘how to learn’ in nosier circumstances E.g group discussions, debates
- Store your keys and ID badge on separate lanyards
- Get on good terms with your site staff, you may need a fan or a heater in your classroom
- Hold the door open for pupils
- Superglue a small pencil sharpener to the end of your teaching desk
- Laminate a large A3 5-minute lesson plan to your teaching desk
- Say ‘Hello’ to every stranger/visitor on the school corridors
- Wear a vest in the winter months
- Always carry hand gel
- Eat one small bag of Satsumas on your classroom desk, every week throughout the winter
- Get yourself a good quality visualiser
- Subscribe to your subject association and/or teaching union
- Attend one national teaching conference at least every two years
- Teach pupils how to work in silence for brief chunks of time, building up the timeframe toward examination
- Keep pupils attentive, working in 10-20 minute chunks before providing some time to retrieve or slow down
- Buy yourself an Acme Thunderer 58 whistle
- Have one motivational quote printed on your classroom wall
- At the start of each term, print off a ‘next holiday’ picture to keep your mood
- Talk to your head teacher when you are feeling low
- Call one pupil’s home with good news, every Friday night
- Always be polite and patient with your reprographics team
- Have a conversation with your classroom cleaner, weekly
- Make sure pupils stack chairs on the tables at the end of each day
- Never hand over your photocopying card to someone else
- Bring in two boxes of chocolates on your birthday – one for class, the other for the staff room
- Challenge all outdated marking policy ideas E.g. once a week
- Throw your verbal feedback stamp in the bin
- Keep a secret stash of blue/white tac
- Lead an all-staff professional development session
- Sometimes, teach from the back of the classroom
- Just once, take the ‘pupil’s’ bus journey home to understand their story
- Try teaching without your whiteboard and projector
- Teach pupils the etymology of keywords, always
- Have a ‘show me’ whiteboard culture in your classroom
- Place QR codes on all your handouts
- Observe an experienced teacher
- Make friends with the colleague who has worked at the school for the longest time
- Arrive at every class before the pupils
- Arrive at school before the pupils
- Where possible, leave school with the pupils
- Don’t wear coloured clothes that show off your sweaty armpits in the summer
- Don’t wear flip flops, ever
- Know where your nearest fire extinguisher is
- Know where the CCTV cameras are
- Create a feedback zone in your classroom for one-to-one meetings during class
- Create a classroom-based ‘Youtube Playlist’ you can use at any time
- If you ignore it, you condone it. Always call it out…
- Non-verbal signals are your pupil’s best friend E.g. ‘thumbs up’
- Spending a few hours creating screencasts or pre-recorded ‘how-to’ tutorials will help get your life back
- Teach pupils explicit study skills from the first day they meet you, not a few weeks before exams
- Video and/or voice recordings are more powerful than a written report
- Don’t get yourself into a triangle of messy relationships
- Design a marking code and spend hours teaching your pupils how to use it
- Don’t allow the classroom bully to bully you
- Always give pupils 2 or 3 minutes to ‘wind down’ after a wet and windy break
- Work hard to sustain your reputation on a daily basis – you can lose it at any time in a moment of madness. For example, being on time, supporting a colleague breaking up a fight, helping with the school production after school.
- Don’t let anyone use your pack of highlighter pens
- Know safeguarding law, inside out
- One foot on the classroom floor, one foot on the corridor – meet and greet, end and send – every lesson
- Read up on your subject knowledge once a month – be the person who knows the most about your subject
- Love literacy, physical exercise and all subjects matter across the school. Don’t fall foul of badmouthing other curriculum areas…
- Assemblies are central to school ethos and values. Always be on time, show pupils that you are also listening and be prepared to make announcements with a strong, loud voice
- Position your teacher desk to face the classroom door, but at the opposite side of the room
- When circulating the class and having one-to-one conversations, always face the class
- Keep an egg timer on your table
- A hole-punch too, but perhaps chain or glue the base to your desk if you have to
- End every lesson early, providing plenty of time to ‘go slow’ and pack away. Use any spare time to reflect, retrieve and plan ahead with pupils
- Make the first 3 or 4 minutes of every lesson, super exciting. This energy will ‘rub off’ on your pupils’ moods…
- Learn a poem off by heart and recite it to your class when they need ‘revision’ moments of inspiration
- Order your next teaching book using any discounts your school librarian has access to
- Walk the school corridors during one non-contact period. Observe closely what is happening…
- Learn how to make a cup of tea in less than 3 minutes
- Be on ‘good terms’ with your school’s cover supervisors and cover manager
- Don’t get bogged down in idle school gossip and rumours
- Have two clocks in your classroom. One for you, one for the pupils which is a couple of minutes slower
- Your teacher planner is your life. Protect this at all costs, but keep personal information out
- Develop a clear scrip for teacher instruction E.g. M.I.N.T.
- Don’t wear tight clothing
- Conduct a research project as part of your next appraisal
- Keep your social media profiles clean, safe and secure
- Wearing a tie doesn’t make you teach any better, but if you like wearing one, wear it with pride
- Take a day off sick if you’re thinking twice about going to work
- NO teacher has achieved great results by marking all of their books on a Sunday night. Mark two or three every day instead and spend time with your family and friends at the weekend. If we want to keep teaching a 9-5 career, we need to keep our working hours under control…
- If all else fails, resort to tip number one
Making small changes to the way you work on a daily basis can help you not only transform your working habits, mental health and productivity, but it’ll make you a better teacher in the end too!
Inspired by a lifestyle article in The Guadian,
Attend one national teaching conference at least every two years.
This is what I do all the time.
I would love to share this with my colleagues. Can I download to print?
Of course! Maybe email the link?
Brilliant… thanks. Will be trying more of these next term!
Great to hear!