The 2025-26 school year is about to get started and teachers need to be ready for new students, new lesson plans, and new chances. Here are some effective teaching strategies that educators can try out to see what fits into their teaching types and help engage students in learning.
Let Students Help Establish Guidelines
In the first couple days when teachers go over rules and expectations with their new students, they should also ask the students to have an input, asking what they think is and isn’t acceptable behavior. Including students in this process makes them more involved and likely to follow the rules they set themselves.
Avoid Punishing the Class
Address isolated behavior issues individually or with all students that are included. Targeting the whole class can turn students away from their educator, thinking they act unfairly and become disinterested in what they are teaching.
Positive Reinforcement
Teachers should identify behaviors they want to reinforce and continuously encourage doing the right thing to give students a self of assurance and gratification. These can include academic achievements, positive social interactions, participation, effort, or other actions that contribute to a positive learning environment. Recognize and reinforce these positive behaviors with praise, small incentives, or a point system.
Consider Peer Teaching
Use peer teaching activities like group read-throughs, paired activities, study sessions, and more, using top class performers to help engage and educate disruptive or struggling students. Having someone students can trust to learn from with that student connection can help knowledge retention.
Offer Different Types of Free Study Time
By providing different activities and types of studying assets, such as worksheets, notes, study guides, and more, can help different student learning styles and help students who can’t process content in silence. Having both quiet and group studying on and off can help students digest material faster and easier.
Regular Check-ins
Schedule one-on-one or small group check-ins with students to address individual concerns, provide feedback, and strengthen the teacher-student relationship. This can also help teachers keep track of student progress, and address issues or problems fast, or even be able to get ahead of a problem.
What are some other ways you maintain your classroom? Let us know in the comments!
Resources
https://www.schoolsthatlead.org/blog/best-classroom-management-strategies https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/teaching-strategies#:~:text=Some%20active%20learning%20strategies%20include,use%20both%20to%20guide%20you.%E2%80%9D
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