First Conversations Guide

Students who have an interest in teaching often reach out to someone they trust to ask questions about the profession. These first conversations typically take between 30 and 60 minutes, are extremely important, and can be surprisingly similar from one person to the next. Here are some ideas to consider for your next conversation with a prospective teacher candidate.

Questions to ask

• Tell me a bit about your interest in teaching? What’s drawing you to it? The idea is to get them to still share even if they aren’t sure they want to teach.
• What do you think would be your favorite class to teach? This will help you know what type of licensure they may want to pursue, along with giving you a better indication of their current interest level in teaching.
• How did you hear about our teacher preparation program? This may help you keep track of which recruiting practices are most effective.
• What questions and concerns do you have about becoming a teacher? It is good to give students space to express their concerns so that you can hopefully alleviate them with fact-based information.

Things to share

• Data Handouts with information about the key concerns that typically dissuade students from pursuing their interest in teaching.
• Your own teaching experience and what you find rewarding and intellectually stimulating about it. Many students are pleasantly surprised to hear that teaching doesn’t become boring after a year or two!
• Differences between teaching in higher ed (tenure-track vs. non-tenure-track), high school, and middle school. For example, teaching loads, research expectations, pay, benefits, and other logistical considerations (e.g., picking where you live or years of education), are important factors that many students do not know much about.
• Information about early teaching opportunities, student club activities, scholarship opportunities, and the teacher preparation pathways at your institution.

Common student questions and concerns

• Does teaching get boring after a year or two? This question can be answered both with your own experience and by pointing to job satisfaction data in the Student Get The Facts Out handouts.
• Some STEM students believe they should go into industry first, even though they plan to eventually become a teacher. Some reasons students have given for doing this are to build up a nest egg, appease parents, or build credibility as a science or math teacher (many students have pointed to a teacher who was an engineer who they really admired). It is important to hear where they are coming from so that you can address it. For example, in many cases students would actually be better off in terms of retirement by going into teaching straight away. There’s also many opportunities to do research and continue your education as a teacher (e.g., Summer RETs)
• Classroom management is a concern for many students. It is helpful to point out that they will begin to develop classroom management skills as part of your teacher preparation program and that experienced teachers do not see this as an issue.

Next steps → Recommend the Get the Facts Out website for more information, and make sure students are linked into site-specific resources:

• Are they on your email list?
• How do they sign up for classes?
• How do they get involved with the student club?
• Are there student ambassadors they can talk to about their experiences?
• Is there information they can take with them to share with their family?