If we are being honest, most schools are pretty happy to get any qualified applicants at all. That doesn’t mean that they hand out jobs to the first person who comes around (if they can help it). It does mean that many districts are facing a significant shortage of teachers.
When they do receive applications, they naturally want them to be good. But the skills you develop to put on that resume are less about attracting a job and more about giving your students the best possible education available.
How do you teach successfully in the modern era? In this article, we explore a few skill— essentials for new educators.
Foundational Excellence
Naturally, you need to have a very strong grasp of the basics. That may sound like a given, but you would be surprised by how many teachers go into their first classroom without a sound understanding of what is expected of them. It isn’t entirely their fault. Education is complicated and there are so many metrics and touchstones— many of which are regionally specific— that no one could be expected to walk into their first year on the job knowing everything.
Still, you should have a strong grasp of the foundational skills. Are you a gen-ed teacher? You probably know the basics of classroom management, but how confident are you in your ability to work with the special ed department to make sure all of your kids with IEPs are getting their legally required accommodations?
You learn about things like that in the classroom, but when you are responsible for a room full of twenty kids, figuring out how to make it work can be easier said than done.
Tech-Skills
For better or for worse, the modern classroom has become decidedly tech-driven. Many aspects of a teacher’s job now take place largely in a digital capacity. These responsibilities include:
- Testing: Some, but certainly not all of modern testing happens online. For teachers, this can be a good thing, making it much easier to evaluate the work and store the information.
- Parent communication: It’s now easier than ever for parents to communicate with teachers. You’ll quickly find that you probably don’t want to give forty parents your personal cell phone number. But with digital technology, you can send and receive messages in real-time in much the same way as you would with a phone. This makes it easy to include parents without forfeiting your privacy.
- Data taking: This is a big one. Teachers have always taken data of course— that’s what testing is. But with the increasing prominence of digital technology, it is now significantly easier to take more data and process it in a wide variety of ways.
A strong familiarity with digital technology won’t necessarily be the difference between getting or not getting a job. After all, education is a field that is largely run by an old guard— teachers and administrators who have been at it for decades. Still, digital fluency is an important skill to have at your disposal, giving you more options for how to best address your students’ needs.
Social/Emotional Skills
First-year teachers will learn quickly that they are more than just educators. They are basically stand-in guardians for all of their students from the hours of 8-3 each day. This is particularly true of primary grade teachers, but it extends even to high school.
The school will have psychologists and social workers to intervene in cases where behaviors or feelings are interfering with education. But you can’t necessarily call them in any time a minor issue arises. Furthermore, there is a good chance that your school will be sharing these professionals among multiple buildings, which means real-time access may not even be possible.
Who does that leave to manage conflict resolution?
You. As a teacher, you need to be able to de-escalate conflict and help students learn even on days when they aren’t feeling one hundred percent.
A Willingness to Continue Your Education
In most states, teachers are required to receive ongoing training and classes to maintain their licenses. These sessions are often sponsored by the school and take place within working hours.
However, many teachers will also go on to get graduate degrees. Though this is not required, it can improve your job skills and equip you with new tools to apply in the classroom.
In most careers, getting a graduate degree is also a great way to improve your career mobility. In education— not so much. You can get a graduate degree in administration, which actually will boost your salary pretty significantly. However, if your goal is to stay in the classroom, don’t expect more than a minor pay bump for getting that graduate degree.
The good news? Many school districts will financially support teachers who want to continue their education. Speak with your administrators about what sort of support you can expect when it comes to getting an advanced degree.
Teaching is a Passion
It is. You become an educator not to get rich, but because you sincerely want to make a difference in kids’ lives. All of the skills described in this article are, for the most part, not required to land a job. Yes, you need to know the basics of teaching. Yes, you need to know how to take data and manage your room.
But the truth is that if you get your degree you will probably be able to find a job that lets you phone the rest in. Schools need teachers badly enough to not look too much passed your basic credentials.
Everything extra you bring to the job is a choice you make, not to get rich, but to make a difference in your students’ lives. So keep learning. Keep working hard. Your students deserve it.
