Lessons for new teachers

Advice from Ron Wingenbach and Rachel Dennis

FEATURE | December 2025

Ron Wingenbach | Football coach

How can new teachers build a foundation of respect from students?

The easiest way to earn respect from students early on is setting the parameters for your class, your non-negotiables, as well as identifying what students' expectations are. The earlier students know what is allowed and what isn't will make the transition into a productive school year so much easier.

What are some strategies you used to keep students engaged?

Methods to keep students engaged involve immediate feedback, collaborative studies with other classmates and the ability to relate your curriculum to life-long learning or careers that students may be interested in.

How should new teachers handle misbehaving students?

New teachers should handle disruptive or challenging students first of all with a lot of patience. Ask parents or guardians numerous questions regarding background or past history and inquire what other successful teachers have done or are currently doing to assist this individual. Often, there is an underlying issue that needs to be addressed in order for this behavior to improve.

What is the most effective way to build positive relationships with students?

The best way to build positive relationships with students is to care about them not only in class but outside of the classroom setting as well. This may involve learning their names as quickly as possible and becoming engaged or attending their extracurricular activities if they are so involved. Getting to know their background is a viable means of building positive relationships with your students.

How might a beginning teacher build respect among seasoned colleagues?

Teachers can earn the respect of more experienced colleagues by being professional in all facets of teaching. Preparation, punctuality, dress, voice and the ability and willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty will earn the respect of colleagues as well as administrators.

How can new teachers prevent burnout?

Teachers can avoid burnout by becoming engaged in activities that do not involve the daily rituals of the classroom. This may be coaching or supervising events of students or joining a health club to focus your mind on other areas of your life. Don't bring your daily work home with you on a consistent basis. Converse with colleagues and friends and deter from the usual discussions of students or job responsibilities.

What is something you wish every new teacher knew from the start?

What every new teacher should understand from day one is, despite your best efforts, not everyone wants to be helped. Make a difference where you can and be at peace with the rest. Enjoy the small victories over the course of a career as well as be a life-long learner.

Rachel Dennis | English teacher

What do you wish you had been told before your first day of teaching?

I wish someone would have told me (or maybe repeatedly told me) it was okay to use my new ideas for lessons and activities. While there is a list of standards and texts that all English teachers must teach every unit, we have the freedom to teach it the way that works for us and our students. However, I was so overwhelmed with the shared resources and advice I was getting from other teachers that I felt limited to those resources and strategies for my first unit because those things had always worked for them.

What was most shocking about your first few weeks in the classroom?

Throughout my time in college and also leading up to the first day of school, I was told classroom management was going to be the most difficult thing as a teacher. I was surprised that behavior management was not my worst struggle those first weeks. Setting expectations and establishing procedures early really helped me in this area. I am also an older sister, so some behavior management is something that just comes naturally to me.

What advice would you give to someone starting their first teaching job tomorrow?

A new teacher should give a lot of thought into how they want their classroom to run and all of the little procedures that most don’t think about, like bathroom or classroom sign out, sharing out in class, turning in work or what to do when a student is absent. If you can create structure for all of those little things, the routine will create a certain level of stability for you and your students, which can be a comfort in the midst of chaos.

What have you done to build relationships with your students?

At the beginning of the year, I have my students write a letter to me about themselves, how they learn best, what they are excited about in English, what they worry about in English, and activities they are involved in at CHS. These letters help me get to know my students, and I make an effort to reply to each and every letter.

I also try my best to make time for fun activities and review games. There is a lot of material teachers are required to get through each semester, but we all deserve to have a fun day every once in a while.

Finally, I just talk to my students; it’s that simple. When you make the effort to talk to people, you also get to know them and build rapport.

How have you handled mistakes or lessons that did not go as planned?

I’m human, so mistakes are going to happen. My students know by now that I type way too fast when I am lesson planning, so there is always at least one typo in my slides. We acknowledge it and move on.

When lessons don’t go as planned, it just creates a good opportunity for a “re-teach moment.” Some students even learn better during the reteach when they are correcting their own mistakes.

What have you already learned that has changed the way you teach?

When you’re getting your teaching degree, a lot of your lessons are written for imaginary classrooms with imaginary students. When you’re writing these lessons, you don’t get to consider the different personalities and abilities that you’ll have in your room.

Since I’ve started teaching, I have definitely learned to adapt and modify my lessons and assignments for all of the different students I teach. We’re also fortunate at CHS to have a multitude of resources and amazing people that are willing to meet with teachers and help them learn how to use those resources.

How do you manage stress or avoid burnout as a new teacher?

To an extent, stress and burnout are unavoidable in this profession, especially in the first year. The teachers that care about their job and their students are always going to have days where they bring work home, work hours after school, and stay up at night worrying about how the next day will go. Unfortunately, the more you care, and the more empathy you have, the more you are going to worry.

So if it is unavoidable, what matters most is how you cope with it. There are a few things I do. First, if I have work that can wait until the next day or wait until Monday, I leave it. I make sure to enjoy my evening and my weekend. Second, if I let work wait for the next day or week, I make myself do something that is unrelated to school. Third, I make sure to get out of the house. I’ll go out to dinner with friends, go to breakfast with my grandma, who is a retired teacher, or even just run to Costco. Even though sitting at home and doom-scrolling on TikTok can feel like rest, it is just as bad for a person’s mental health and burnout, so I do my best to avoid it- sometimes unsuccessfully.

The last thing that I had to learn about stress and burnout is to not fear getting a substitute teacher. Yes, it is a lot of planning ahead of time. Yes, you have to put an insane amount of trust in your students, but if you need to take a personal day, do it. They give teachers personal days for a reason, and you can’t even keep all of them for next year, so it would be crazy not to use them.

What should new teachers do when they are overwhelmed?

I think it is important to remember that asking for help as a first year teacher is not limited to your colleagues at your new school. I am very fortunate to have a village of people I can ask for help, and they all have the things they are best at.

If I need help drafting an email to a parent, I can ask my mom to read it because she has that parental perspective. I can email my professors about a text we read when I was in their class because I forgot the title and want to teach it. I can text a former classmate and ask her how she is navigating certain struggles as a first year teacher. There are so many different people that you can ask for help, and I think remembering that is sometimes the toughest part.

I have also learned, when you are asking a colleague for help, you should try to be as specific as you can. Usually, when you ask for generalized help or advice, you can receive such a range of answers, advice and shared resources that it actually adds to your stress and can make you more overwhelmed than you already are.

Before I ask for help, I usually talk through my problem with someone, like a fellow English teacher or my mentor teacher. This way they can understand the problem and also understand what help or advice I need from them.