New Teachers Offer These Tips for Successful First Lessons

As part of their preparation to enter the teaching profession, Rutgers Alternate Route candidates must complete a pre-professional experience. In the Rutgers Alternate Route program, this experience involves planning and teaching guest lessons under a host teacher's guidance in an appropriate content area or grade level. 

After teaching the lesson, candidates write a reflection on the planning and instructional processes, evaluating what it was like to transform a lesson plan from conception into classroom practice. This requirement is essential because it gives candidates valuable hands-on experience developing and delivering engaging instruction while also fostering the professional practice of reflecting on their teaching for continuous growth. Candidates gain valuable insights from the experience and share them for the benefit of other new teachers.
 

Get Organized

Candidates discovered the significance of maintaining structure within the classroom.

“I learned the importance of truly preparing a lesson plan and how beneficial it is to go into each lesson with a solid plan. I also learned that you must be flexible to an extent with your lesson plans, as each class responds differently, and something that worked well for one class is not guaranteed to be effective for another. I think it was also extremely helpful to use the Madeline Hunter Lesson Plan and really map out every aspect of each lesson. This helped me smoothly transition throughout each step of my lesson without any hiccups or setbacks.”
– Grant Alexander, Social Studies

“I learned that it is important to plan your lessons and take time to anticipate, prepare, and utilize the necessary equipment and tools to assist you with the lesson. It is also important to set expectations and the tone of the classroom early on. You should approach students with respect, sincerity, genuineness, a readiness to listen, and a willingness to change and adapt. It's also important to show strength and confidence, but in a warm and gentle manner. The teachers' toolkits are important, and I will be utilizing them very frequently.” 
– Ottavio Mattia, Business Accounting

Remember Every Student Learns Differently

Several candidates cemented their understanding of equity in the classroom to support individual students’ needs.

“The students taught me a lot about how to guide the lesson based on how it best suits them. I learned how to go with the flow and adjust my lesson based on the discussion. A big thing is that not everything is going to go as planned or in order of how you planned it. Sometimes students reach that AHA moment before you need to, and as their teacher, I need to be quick on my toes to help further than I thought and be ready to explain what they are talking about.

For example, I adjusted my lesson to meet where one of my students was thought-wise. Even though this topic was further away on the slides, I decided to go with the flow and talk about what he was doing rather than following a strict lesson guideline.”
– Madison D'Orazio, Art

“I learned that it’s helpful and beneficial to continue to find ways for my students to connect previous content to current content by bringing them together in a document as a visual when I teach. I also learned how important it is to continue to walk around the classroom during individual practice. Students who usually shy away from whole class participation need teachers the most when they walk around for that one-on-one support.” 
– Jennifer Edouard, Mathematics

Pace Yourself & Keep Track of Time

These candidates developed their time management skills to ensure engaging, timely lessons for their students:

“One thing I learned from this experience is to always be okay with the fact that things may not go according to plan. I knew that, when it comes to teaching, your lessons may be delayed (either because class discussions took longer than anticipated, or students needed extra time learning a lesson), but I never anticipated I would have to abandon part of my lesson plan altogether. And I know that there is no time to panic; so in the future, I will know that I should always be prepared, but it is fine if my plans need to change.”
– Georgette Delos Santos, Elementary

“I learned from this lesson delivery experience that teachers should be careful not to be too ambitious about how much they can do in one lesson. I tend to make the lesson challenging rather than too straightforward and easy, but I should shift my focus from how much/how far students can go to how well students are able to solidify their newly learned knowledge. It is important to save some time for formative assessment activities as well, and I wish I could incorporate a short writing activity like an exit ticket or one-minute note at the end of my lesson, which I believe will help me check for student understanding in the future.” 
– Mariko Alexander, ESL

Make Your Lesson Fun and Engaging

Many candidates grasped the importance of exciting lessons to create a more positive classroom experience.  Here are some of their observations:

“After reviewing the recording of my science lesson today, I realized I had planned too much work. My intention was to present the material, have time to review it, and ensure the students fully understood it. However, at the end of the lesson, one student struggled to focus and complete the work, likely because the lesson felt “too long.” While I accomplished everything I had planned, I believe I could have reduced the amount of “paperwork” to keep the students more engaged. For future lessons, I plan to incorporate hands-on activities to make the lesson more engaging and enjoyable.”
– Olga Smith, Elementary

“I learned that using examples that reflect students’ lives not only made the material more relatable but also strengthened my connection with them. It is very important to connect content to students’ interests; this can help me increase engagement and motivation. In the future, I will continue tailoring lessons to reflect their hobbies, cultural backgrounds, and experiences in real life.”
– Ligia Covena, Spanish

Other Interesting Insight

One candidate emphasized the importance of keeping an open mind, while another stressed having clear intentions to be teachers who pour into their students.

“I learned that while the content may be easy or boring to me, it might be the first time the children are learning it, so it’s important to maintain my enthusiasm and meet learners where they are so that they can get the best out of the lesson.” 
– Haya Abdel Al-Jabbar, ESL

“Through this class, I have learned how much the idea of student responsibility thrives in my classroom, as the more I give students, the more they show me they can handle it and are grateful for it. Pushing them to be in charge of and responsible for more yielded our best lab results and our most intriguing discussions so far this year.” 
– Jack Kaeser, Science

If you’re considering following your dream of teaching, Rutgers Alternate Route can offer you the support and training you need to succeed. Be sure to follow Rutgers Alternate Route on Twitter and sign up for Alternate Route’s monthly newsletter for more information and stories from the field of education.