To Jon, on His First Year of Teaching

A proud uncle shares 11 classroom tips.

By Jim Delisle

Dear Jon, I just heard the good news that you were hired as a 9th grade math teacher. Congratulations. As your uncle, I'm proud that you are joining the profession of teaching, one in which I have been happily involved since before your birth. If all goes well, you should be eligible for tenure the same year I will retire. The cycle continues.

I've put a little gift in this envelope that you may want to use to buy start-up supplies for your classroom. I also wanted to give you something less tangible but more valuable. I hesitate to call it advice, so I'll simply label it "experiences from the trenches." After 27 years in multiple K-12 and college classrooms, I've learned a few things not available in any textbook. If even one of these observations makes your first year of teaching more pleasurable or fulfilling, I'll be glad.

Kids misbehave in class because what teachers are asking them to do is either too easy, too hard, irrelevant, or boring. I have learned that teachers who know their material and how to present it, who relate the content to students' lives, plan twice as much material as they think they will need for a lesson, and return students' work promptly and free of red ink (use green or black ink, instead) have few discipline problems. Classroom control is a matter of engagement. If you love what you do, and show this to students daily, you are conveying respect for their minds and time—and most of them...