What Experienced Educators Wish They Knew: 10 Tips for New Teachers

[MarisaBluestone]

When you’re a new instructor, it can feel like everyone else got the manual, and you’re just trying to remember your LMS password.

The syllabus is hot off the printer. The students just called you “professor” for the first time. And somewhere between uploading the first quiz and responding to an email about extra credit, you’re already wondering: Am I doing this right?

In this episode of The What and Who of EDU, we asked 10 experienced educators to share the advice they wish they’d gotten when they started. From course chaos and impostor syndrome to feedback that stings, here are 10 tips for new teachers delivered with real talk, humor, and just enough pedagogical duct tape to hold it all together.

Be sure to check out the full podcast episode "Advice New Teachers Actually Need: 10 Tips From Educators Who’ve Been There" on Apple or Spotify to hear all the tips straight from the instructors themselves. Here's a preview of what they shared:

1. Be One Day Smarter

Betsy Langness started teaching full time after a career in counseling, and had to learn on the fly. But there was a mantra that stuck out to her, and that's to be one day smarter than your students. 

“Don't stress about it. It's going to be okay. Show your personality through little tidbits while you're explaining some of the content and start really small with technology. Just try one thing, and when you get that down you can add more to your plate.”

Why it works: Perfection is paralyzing. Progress is possible. This mindset gives instructors permission to grow alongside their students and builds a classroom culture of continuous learning.

2. Don't Take It Personally

Student feedback can hit hard, especially when you're giving it everything you've got. Dr. Ryan Herzog reminds new instructors that frustration is part of the learning process and not always about you.

“You're doing the best you can. You're experimenting. You're trying things out. And things are gonna fail. Students are gonna have frustration. But that's okay. Learn from what you're doing. Reflect on it and make modifications and changes. Don't worry about being perfect. And don't take the comments personal.”

Why it works: Feedback isn’t a verdict. It’s data. And the sooner you stop treating it like a personal Yelp review, the faster you can use it to improve.

3. Find Your Inner Goldilocks

After each semester, Dr. Kendra Thomas reflects with a simple quadrant matrix: what took the most time and had the least impact? That’s the first thing to go.

“If I can't change everything next semester, I should at least change the things that took the students the most time and had the least impact. Because that's busy work. And I'll do the same thing for me. What took the most time grading, and had the least impact?”

Why it works: Reflection doesn’t have to be a full-course redesign. This tip makes course tweaks feel doable, data-informed, and actually student-centered.

4. Just Pick One New Thing to Try

Dr. Jennifer Ripley Stueckle wants new instructors to keep it simple. Don’t download every new tool. Don’t revamp your course overnight. Just pick one thing.

“Your classroom could turn into a circus very quickly, and your students will never have a clue what's going on… I started with Clickers. And then it took me another year. I threw in a few group activities. But even now, I won't try more than one thing.”

Why it works: New instructors often feel pressure to “tech up” fast. This tip reframes that instinct: better to build one strong bridge to your students than scatter stepping stones they can’t follow. Students need consistency more than bells and whistles.

5. Channel Your Inner Beginner. Teach Like It’s Still Hard for You

Dr. Mike May has a reminder: when you forget how hard it was to learn something, you start designing for the expert you’ve become not the learner in your classroom.

“If you're a teacher in college, you were never an ordinary student in the class that you're teaching; beginning
classes are as hard for the students ... as advanced students are for the PhD students.”

Why it works: When you assume confusion is the default, not the exception, you design for access. You can get through to the students who find the content challenging.

6. Teach with Confidence and Help Students Build Theirs

Dr. Derek Harmon works with graduate students on the brink of becoming faculty, and even they wrestle with impostor syndrome. Remember what helped you learn. And then teach from that version of yourself.

“You are now trying to transition to now being a person that is taking in this content as a student, to now trying to convey this content as a faculty member... Always pay close attention to their facial and visual cues they give you, because oftentimes they do not want to admit when they don't understand something, because they don't want the risk of potential embarrassment.”

Why it works: Expertise isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about remembering what helped you find them. Your younger self might just be your best guide.

7. Not Everyone Got Sorted Into ‘Loves School’ House—And That’s OK

Jennifer Duncan learned early on that her students weren’t mirrors of herself. She reminds us that students don’t always love school, and that’s not a flaw. It’s your starting point. 

“They were not necessarily the same type of learner that I was. They were not necessarily the same place in their life that I was. They weren't necessarily going to go about college the way that I went about college. So, realizing that our students are not clones of us, our students have their own things going on, and taking the time to figure out what that is. So it's not going to be so much about us presenting information to them. It's going to be about us becoming a resource and a guide that will partner with them.”

Why it works:  Some students are in House Survival. Some are in House Group Project Ghosters. Your job isn’t to sort them, it’s to support them.

8. Don't Do It Alone

Adriana Bryant says your colleagues are one of your greatest assets. Because there's always someone who has been there, done that and has a Google Drive full of resources to share.

“Don't be afraid to ask for help. We have so many great minds out there and colleagues who have been at this for so many years and have this great wealth of knowledge.”

Why it works: Teaching well is more about being resourceful than trying to do it alone. Colleagues are your curriculum. Passion is your power source. 

9. Plan Like a Pro, Reflect Like a Rookie

Dr. Amy Goodman is a 26-year veteran, but she still adjusts her classes every semester. Her secret is to plan early, listen to feedback and reflect honestly.

“Plan your entire semester before it begins… Then just go and execute that. While you're teaching, take notes about things that really clicked with your class… Read those early feedback forms. Compare that to your own reflections.”

Why it works: Even the best plans will wobble. But reflection is what turns “this didn’t work” into “next time, here’s what I’ll try.” 

10. You Will Make a Difference

Julie Moore knows that job is hard and can feel thankless at times. She thinks new teachers should all get the preparatory talk, reminding them that the system isn't perfect. But they're changing lives every single day..

“You're going to go into this hoping to make a difference, and you will. You will make a difference in some students' lives. And those students will be really grateful to you for that.”

Why it works: There may be no applause, no gold stars, and no RateMyProfessor bump. But impact shows up quietly in the students who stay because you showed up. 

BONUS TIP: Lead with Kindness

Mary Gourley isn’t here for the internet hot takes or Reddit rants, she’s here for the students. And her advice to new instructors is simple, powerful, and hard to forget: kindness isn’t a bonus. It’s the job.

“Is a privilege and an honor to be in front of students every day... to change lives, and to have a real platform every day ... I’m getting chills right now talking about it. It is something that you do not need to lose focus on. ” 

She encourages all new teachers to read What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain.

Why it works: It’s easy to get caught up in the noise with grading, policies, and performance reviews. This tip reminds us that teaching is a platform. A privilege. A chance to change lives. And leading with kindness is where it starts.

Some of these tips are about mindset. Some are about mechanics. And some are about just trying to get through the week without reinventing your entire course at 11 p.m. on a Sunday.

But what they all have in common is this: you don’t have to be perfect. You just have to show up with curiosity, compassion, maybe, with a backup plan for when the LMS goes down.

🎧 Want to hear it all in action? Listen to the full episode on The What & Who of EDU →  and be sure to check out the podcast on Apple or Spotify to hear all the tips straight from the instructors themselves.

Have a tip for a new teacher? Leave us a voicemail at (512) 765-4688 and you might just hear yourself on a future episode.