As an educator at Educational Innovation 360, I have experienced firsthand the challenges that come with teaching. While it is an incredibly gratifying career, it is essential to acknowledge and address the obstacles we face in order to provide the best education for our students. Here are my insights on the top 5 challenges teachers face in the classroom and how I now see how to support student growth in every situation.

How do you understand the different learning challenges revolving around our students?

In my classroom, I encounter a diverse range of learning abilities. Each student has unique needs that demand my attention. I always go into every year working to overcome this challenge. What, I have known to work is taking a student-centered approach to meeting individual needs while thinking outside the box to meet individual learning styles. By developing various teaching strategies, I have been known to empower, celebrate, and inspire each student, ensuring they thrive academically.

How are you supporting families, and solving pressing problems, while tackling the ongoing issue of bullying?

Beyond academic challenges, students often face family issues. There are many times, I reach out to our resources and find a way to connect families to them. A way I have been successful with Adult classes at the school, at least three times out of the year I have volunteered to talk to families. There is always, food, games, prizes, raffles, and giveaways. In every meeting, there is an activity as well as my information. Yes, it took a little time to build trust, but once my parents knew me, they were so available and willing to help throughout the school year. As for bullying, it’s tricky, especially with social media, but we make sure I work to be a source of emotional support. Again, it is important to recognize the limits of my role as an educator. I am always learning, and collaborating with our social workers so I can identify certain language and protocols that are used while learning about all resources. Also, developing a close family-like environment using Social-Emotional Learning truly helps our family school community.

There is no money; there are so many disparities.

One of the most pressing challenges in education is the lack of funding. Public and independent schools, like ours, often face budget issues that impact the quality of education. To overcome this challenge, I actively raise awareness about funding issues, advocating for increased support. By engaging with the community, parents, and stakeholders, I strive to secure additional resources that enable us to provide support to our students in a positive learning environment.

There is a Huge Lack of effective communication and educational jargon that hinders our progress.

Effective communication is critical in fostering a positive learning environment. I recognize the importance of building trust with my students and their parents. The challenge is that even though I communicate with my parents, I can’t say that the entire teacher population is doing the same. Teachers tend to follow the lead of their administration, so when the principal struggles to get back to families within 48 hours, we must work hard to be the buffer, and sometimes it’s a challenge. I am often sending out reminders to the administration and working on improving my communication skills. I work hard to make sure I am establishing open lines of communication because I know it strengthens family collaboration. Also, much of our communication is filled with academic jargon, I’ve had many parents tell me that when we send translated materials out to families, it reads like a brief-so if we could find a way to make our newsletters more conversational,

Being encouraging and motivating in challenging times:

Throughout the school year, students face various challenges that require encouragement and motivation. Whether it's exam season or developmental milestones, I am committed to providing unwavering support. By building positive relationships and serving as a reliable mentor, I help my students navigate difficult times and maintain their motivation to achieve their goals.

Classroom management and working through discipline:

Dealing with discipline issues can be emotionally stressful for all teachers. While it is essential to address disruptive behavior, I strive to maintain a positive classroom atmosphere. Implementing fair consequences, identifying the root causes of misbehavior, involving families when I can, and creating intervention plans are strategies I strategically to effectively manage our classroom and create a conducive learning environment. Overplanning has helped tremendously, and I work hard to identify how I can scaffold each possible opportunity for students to thrive.

Try to implement some of these strategies into your day!

Working to address the significant hurdles faced by educators and provide strategies to overcome them can sometimes be a challenge, but really thinking outside the box can help you and your administration change current practices for your school. I hope this blog helps new teachers find effective solutions to enhance their teaching experience to ensure better outcomes for both teachers and students.