Fun Questions to Ask Your Teacher
Twenty questions students can ask a teacher who is willing to talk about something other than the syllabus: classroom disasters, what they were bad at in school, and how they ended up teaching. Also usable by teachers who want a first-day warm-up.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What subject were you worst at when you were a student?
Why ask it
Teachers rarely volunteer this, and hearing that yours could not do fractions makes it safer for you to say when you are lost. Ask what they did about it and you often get better study advice than any lesson gives.
What's the funniest thing that's ever happened in your classroom?
Why ask it
Most teachers have one story they retell every year, so this is the easiest yes on the list. If they cannot think of anything, narrow it to a fire drill, a wasp, or a substitute.
What's the strangest thing you've ever found left behind in your classroom?
Why ask it
Lost property is reliably absurd, and this gets them telling a story rather than giving an answer that still sounds like teaching.
What do you do on a Saturday when nothing needs marking?
Why ask it
Teachers get asked about their subject constantly and about their weekends almost never. Expect something you would not have guessed: a band, a boat, an unreasonably serious garden.
Which topic do you actually look forward to teaching each year?
Why ask it
The answer is usually one specific unit rather than a whole subject. Once you know which one it is, you can tell when the enthusiasm in the room is real and when it is professional.
What are you good at that has nothing to do with school?
Why ask it
This gets the skill they are quietly proud of. Listen for whether they name something they used to do for a living, because plenty of teachers arrived from another career entirely.
What have you read or watched recently that you'd recommend to us?
Why ask it
Asking for a recommendation instead of a favorite gets a current answer rather than a rehearsed one, and you find out whether they read anything outside their own subject.
What's the most interesting thing you've learned from a student?
Why ask it
Teachers who can answer straight away tend to be the ones who actually listen in class. A long pause tells you something too, and it is not a reason to think less of them.
What's a question a student asked that you couldn't answer?
Why ask it
Admitting to being stumped is a small risk for them, so the answer usually arrives with the story of how they went and found out afterwards.
What's the most creative assignment you've ever set?
Why ask it
You are inviting them to describe their best work, which most teachers enjoy. It also hints at what they might be persuaded to let your class try.
What's something you wish you could teach that isn't in the curriculum?
Why ask it
The gap between what they are required to cover and what they would choose shows where their real interest sits, and it is often nothing to do with their department.
What's the best trip you've taken with a class, and what went wrong on it?
Why ask it
School trips are where teachers accumulate disaster stories: a lost student, a broken coach, a museum closed on arrival. Asking for the failure gets you the good version.
If you could take this class anywhere, where would you pick?
Why ask it
Their choice is usually somewhere they wish they could show you in person instead of on a slide, which makes the answer a hint about what they care about most in the subject.
What's the best advice you've been given, and who gave it to you?
Why ask it
The person they name matters more than the advice: a parent, a coach, a teacher of their own. It is the shortest route to what they think a good adult looks like.
Which teacher of your own do you still think about?
Why ask it
Most teachers are copying someone. Hearing who tells you what they are aiming at in your class, which is more useful than asking them to describe their methods.
How do you know when a lesson has gone well?
Why ask it
The answer reveals what they watch for while you work: questions, a particular kind of quiet, one specific student finally getting it. Useful if you would like to be read as engaged.
What are you looking forward to this year?
Why ask it
Asked in September this gets a plan they have not announced yet. Asked in June you get an honest countdown to the holidays, which is funnier.
What do students always get wrong about being a teacher?
Why ask it
Room to correct a misconception produces the bluntest answer of the conversation, usually about how much of the job happens after everyone has gone home.
What do you hope people remember about your class in ten years?
Why ask it
Almost nobody answers with content. It is usually a habit or a feeling, which tells you what they are really grading for underneath the rubric.
Was teaching the plan, or did you end up here?
Why ask it
Framed as an open door rather than a compliment, this gets the actual route. For many teachers it involved a different job first and a decision they can still date precisely.
Asking a teacher without making it awkward
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
When to ask
- The five minutes after a lesson ends is the best window. There is no audience, and a teacher who is packing up will talk more freely than one standing at the front.
- Long, dead time works too: a coach on a school trip, a wet lunch break, the walk between buildings, the last lesson before a holiday.
- Skip the first ten minutes of a lesson and anything close to a deadline or a parents' evening. A teacher who is behind on marking has no small talk left.
- One question at a time. A list read out loud feels like an interview and gets short, careful answers.
What not to ask
- Pay, age, and whether they are married or seeing anyone. All three are the reason teachers get cagey about personal questions in the first place.
- Anything about another teacher, especially an invitation to agree that one is bad at their job.
- Anything about another student's grades, behavior, or family.
- Questions designed to catch them out or to get the class laughing at them rather than with them. It closes the door for everyone else.
Getting past the first answer
- 1Ask for a detail rather than a reason: what year was that, who else was there, what happened next.
- 2Repeat the interesting noun back as a question. If they mention a band, ask what they played.
- 3Say what you thought the answer would be. Being told you were wrong is a fast way to get them talking properly.
- 4When it is going well, ask a version of the same question about now instead of then.
If you are the teacher using this list
- Pick three, not twenty. Answer the first one yourself in about thirty seconds so the class hears what a real answer sounds like.
- Decide in advance which questions you will not answer, and say so plainly rather than deflecting. Students read a dodge as something to chase.
- Turn the best question back on the room afterwards. What you were worst at in school works in both directions and is often the most useful thing said all lesson.
- Keep one answer in reserve for the class that arrives flat in February. A specific, slightly embarrassing story about yourself buys more attention than a new activity.