How to Be a Better Teacher: 10 Practical Strategies That Work
Learn 10 practical teaching strategies to boost student engagement, improve classroom management, and prevent burnout. Start with one strategy for lasting
E
Erika Wong
8 min read
Learn 10 practical teaching strategies to boost student engagement, improve classroom management, and prevent burnout. Start with one strategy for lasting
Erika Wong
Becoming a better teacher starts with one move, not ten. Pick the strategy that addresses your biggest frustration right now, whether that's student engagement, classroom chaos, or your own exhaustion, and commit to it for a full month before adding anything else. Small, consistent changes in how you connect with students, give feedback, and manage your energy will compound faster than any overhaul.
In my classroom, the single biggest predictor of a good year is whether students feel known. Not liked. Known. I greet every child by name at the door each morning. I ask follow-up questions: "Did your dog get better?" or "How was your cousin's birthday?" These cost me two minutes and buy hours of cooperation.
According to Lazarides (2025) 4, teacher motivation and the quality of teaching are deeply intertwined with relational dynamics in the classroom. When students sense you care about them as people, they take more risks academically. Share appropriate things about yourself too. My students know about Nora and Ollie, and that I'm terrible at cooking. Authenticity builds trust faster than authority ever will.
Routines are taught skills. I say this constantly because most classroom frustration comes from expecting children to know something nobody ever showed them. "Line up quietly" means nothing until you've demonstrated what quiet looks like, where hands go, and how feet move.
I teach routines the same way I teach reading: model, practise, give feedback, repeat. In the first two weeks of every school year, we rehearse transitions, notebook setups, and how to ask for help. We practise again after every holiday break. Visual schedules on the wall and consistent language ("Voices off, eyes on me") reduce the cognitive load for students, especially younger ones who are still building working memory. Consistency matters more than perfection. If you slip, reset without drama.
After you ask a question, count silently to five before accepting an answer. That pause feels unbearable at first. But according to Prashanti (2019) 1, wait time is one of the core maxims of effective formative assessment because it gives students processing space and signals that thoughtful answers matter more than fast ones.
I also wait after a student responds, before I comment or redirect. This invites other voices in. Think-pair-share is another tool I lean on heavily: students talk to a partner first, which lowers the anxiety of speaking to the whole group. In my experience, slower-processing students are not less capable. They just need three more seconds that most teachers never give them.
Move beyond test scores and behaviour labels. Watch how each child actually engages. Some talk to think. Others need silence. Some need to move their bodies before they can concentrate. This is not about rigid "learning styles" categories. It is about noticing.
Provide multiple ways to show understanding. Let a child draw a diagram, build a model, record a voice note, or write a paragraph. When I started offering choices for , participation jumped because students who hated worksheets could demonstrate knowledge through games and manipulatives instead. Celebrate different types of intelligence openly. The child who notices social dynamics in the playground is demonstrating a skill worth naming.
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"Good job" teaches nothing. With my daughter Nora, I learned this the hard way. She'd bring me a drawing, I'd say "beautiful!" and she'd shrug. When I switched to "You used four different colours in the sky, and I can see you drew the clouds in layers," she lit up and tried it again the next day.
In the classroom, I name what I see: "You checked your work before handing it in, and you caught two errors yourself." Then I give one next step, not five. Prashanti (2019) 1 emphasises that formative feedback should be specific enough to guide the learner's next action. Deliver corrections one-on-one whenever possible. Public correction breeds shame; private correction builds trust.
According to Zhang (2023) 3, teacher resilience and wellbeing directly affect teaching enjoyment, which in turn shapes student outcomes. You cannot separate how you feel from how you teach. Set a hard stop time for work. Mine is 5:30 pm. I leave things undone, and the world keeps turning.
Find stress relief that actually appeals to you. If meditation feels forced, try a walk, a podcast, or ten minutes of silence in your car before you go inside. Connect with colleagues who understand the job. And be honest with yourself: if your workload is unsustainable, that is a systems problem, not a personal failure. Advocate for change rather than absorbing what should not be yours alone.
Send one positive message home per student each week. It takes 30 seconds per child and transforms your relationship with families. When preschool communication with parents is proactive and positive, parents become allies rather than adversaries.
When concerns arise, frame them collaboratively: "I've noticed Maya is struggling with morning separations. What does drop-off look like from your end? Let's work on this together." This approach acknowledges that families hold essential information you don't have. Provide concrete suggestions for home support, like reading together for ten minutes or practising teaching letter recognition to young children through everyday signs and labels. Acknowledge each family's strengths and culture in your classroom materials and conversations.
Teaching improves through reflection, not repetition. Once a week, I spend five minutes answering three questions: Which lesson landed? Which student am I overlooking? What drained me most?
Jolles (2021) 2 argues that improving neuroscientific literacy helps educators understand why certain approaches work, which makes reflection more productive. When you notice a pattern (say, your afternoon lessons always fall flat), you can investigate rather than blame yourself. Ask a trusted colleague to observe you occasionally, with a specific focus: "Watch how I handle transitions" or "Tell me which students I call on most." Honest external feedback accelerates growth in ways private reflection cannot.
Children absorb how you handle mistakes, frustration, and uncertainty. When I lose my place during a read-aloud, I say, "Oops, I lost track. Let me find where I was." When I'm frustrated, I name it: "I'm feeling impatient right now, so I'm going to take a breath." This is the curriculum no textbook covers.
Show genuine curiosity about student ideas. Ask "How did you figure that out?" instead of just confirming right answers. Admit when you don't know something and model looking it up. Some teachers find that reading a personalized story about a beloved teacher to the class sparks conversation about what makes learning feel safe. Children mirror what they see.
You cannot create 25 separate lesson plans. Instead, design open-ended tasks where students enter at their own level. A prompt like "Show me everything you know about fractions" lets advanced learners go deep while emerging learners demonstrate foundational understanding.
Use flexible groupings that change based on current needs, not fixed ability. Stations or centres where tasks vary by complexity (not topic) allow you to circulate and support individuals. Differentiation is more often about how students access content than about providing entirely different content. Give choice in output: write, draw, present, or build. This flexibility takes less planning than you'd expect once you build the habit.
Start with one strategy. Expect a two-to-three-week adjustment period before you see results. Celebrate small wins: one student who finally participated, one smoother transition, one parent who responded warmly. These matter.
You are already doing demanding work. Improving is not about fixing something broken in you. It is about refining what you already do. Progress over perfection, always.
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