If you’re new to teaching chemistry, whether it’s your first year in the classroom or just your first time with this subject, you’re probably feeling the weight of all the content you’re expected to know. Chemistry is tough. I worked my tail off to get a 3.2 in my chem classes. Chemistry is big, it’s abstract, and it comes with a lab full of glassware, safety rules, and student questions you can’t always predict.
But here’s the good news: content confidence can be built. You don’t need to know all of chemistry the minute you walk into your first class. You can easily build it as you go. With the right approach and some supportive resources, you’ll feel more confident teaching chemistry than you ever thought possible.
Here are a few strategies to help you build your chemistry content confidence.
Start With the Big Picture
But don’t try to read an entire textbook, or year long curriculum. It’s too much all at once. The way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. The very first thing to do is to zoom out and focus on the big picture. Chemistry is all about the electrons. At its core, chemistry is about how matter is built, how it changes, and how we can describe and measure those changes.
If you’re just starting out, you should read my Chemistry Curriculum Outline. I give you a few Big Picture ideas to start out with, to get your feet wet. Plus I organize all of chemistry into units (in the proper order). With that, I give you the rationale as to why the units are organized in their particular order. It’s a great way to see how the bigger pieces fit together without entirely diving in. Once you understand that structure, the details (like quantum numbers or redox half-reactions) feel less intimidating.
If you really need to see more about how chemistry concepts connect to each other beyond that free outline, I’ll recommend my “Making Chemistry Connections” Professional Development session. It walks through ways to connect real life to chemistry and then chemistry concepts to each other.
Make Sure You’re Comfortable in the Lab
Being that I’ve been a chemistry teacher and was a college chemistry student, I never really had this issue. I even took a really good lab safety class in college, where we used the emergency shower, eye wash, and fire extinguishers to get practice with them. But that’s not the case with every chemistry teacher.
When my school renovated and the science department was entirely rebuilt, each lab room was built near identically. Aside from only on two or so rooms having fume hood, they were built, largely to be interchangeable. If there was a year we had a ton of bio students, we didn’t have to stick them in the “physics” lab.
Once, we had a student pull the triangle for the emergency shower and run out of the classroom. The shower, of course was right in front of the door, so the teacher inside the classroom was trapped inside if he wanted to stay dry. He yelled across the hall to me, “how do I turn this thing off?” (You just push it back up.) You know what you’re good at and you’re good at what you know. And if you’re new to chemistry, the emergency shower could be that for you. For me, it’d be how to keep a room full of students safe when they’re handling scalpels.
If you want some help with chemistry specifics, I’d recommend my Managing a Chemistry Lab professional development. In it, I cover nearly everything you’d need between safety, contracts, organization, and resource management.
Rely on Good Resources Instead of Reinventing the Wheel
Confidence comes from being prepared, and preparation is a lot easier when you have strong resources in your corner. As a new chemistry teacher, don’t feel pressured to create every worksheet, note sheet, or lab from scratch. That’s not a badge of honor. It’s a recipe for burnout. And I know that because I was there. My first year, (even knowing chemistry) I was basically LIVING at school.
You should look for resources that are clear, consistent, and classroom tested, so you know you’re not starting from ground zero. For example, I created a guided notes curriculum that helps to keep students organized and ensure that they don’t miss key content during instruction. They write just a few notes and spend most of the time listening to me teach.
Starting with a great set of notes or lesson materials helps you to focus on teaching the content, rather than scrambling to piece things together. You can also see if your school will purchase something for you. I was able to get slides from our textbook company the year that I taught AP Chem. Then I was able to create my own worksheets, but it saved me SO MUCH TIME to not have to start from scratch.
Take Advantage of New Chemistry Teacher Support Online
You don’t have to figure it all out on your own. There are online communities, professional development opportunities, and plenty of free resources online designed for chemistry teachers to share their ideas.
In terms of professional development, I have a few sessions you can check out. They’re taught by me (an experienced chemistry teacher) and focus on things specifically for your chemistry classroom: Differentiation, Informal Assessment, and more.
I also have a YouTube channel where I’ve taught the entire high school chemistry curriculum lesson by lesson. If you’re unsure about a concept or nervous about how to introduce it, you can “observe” a full lesson from me before teaching it yourself. It’s like having a mentor teacher in your back pocket. Plus you can use this as a tool to help your students study.
Learn Alongside Your Students With Labs
Labs can feel intimidating when you’re new to chemistry, but they can also be your best friend. Choose reliable, low-prep labs to make your teacher life simple. Short and sweet investigations, like calculating average atomic mass, or testing reaction rate, can boost your own confidence while giving students hands-on experience. My lab collection is full of easy, simple, low maintenance labs that make lab day as low stress as it can be.
Most of my labs in particular, don’t need a lot of teacher knowledge on the results. You just need to know enough to keep your students safe. And because the chemicals used in my labs are really low maintenance, you don’t need a lot of knowledge to do them. For the most part, students are going to do simple lab activities, and writing very detailed conclusions which synthesize their results.
For example, my lab on the factors that affect solubility, students mix sugar and water. You don’t even have to know how the results will turn out to do this lab with your students. Just keep them safe from eating the experiment, working with glass, and hot water. It’s perfectly fine to say, “Let’s see what happens together.” When you model curiosity and careful observation, you’re building a classroom culture that values scientific thinking.
Anticipate the Tough Spots
This is probably going to be the toughest part for you as a New to Chemistry Teacher. The more you teach chemistry, the easier it will be to find out what students find most difficult. There are some things that are just tough regardless, like stoichiometry, redox (the whole unit honestly) and VSEPR Theory. Think of the things that were tough for you back when you were learning chemistry.
In each of my guided notes lessons I write a few common misconceptions that students have with the given content. As you teach chemistry, I recommend keeping a daily diary. (I know that’s a lot of work – you can just use your teacher planner or a composition book.) Take note of the things that students found difficult, or things that they flat out got wrong. It’ll help you next year as you reteach chemistry. BUT if you make a habit of looking at it now, you can find some ways to reteach things your students didn’t learn very well on the first go around.
This is another thing that having another chemistry teacher around is good for. We are really good at picking out the things that students get wrong – because it’s the same stuff every year. Teaching alone? (Many of us are!) Try watching how other teachers introduce these concepts, or work through practice problems on YouTube. It’s a good way to get an explanation or a model from another teacher. Or observe another teacher in your school during your prep or lunch time.
Give Yourself Grace and Celebrate Small Wins
Finally, remember: chemistry content confidence doesn’t come all at once. It’s built over time, through time spent teaching in your classroom. The first time you successfully guide a class through balancing equations, or the first time your lab goes off without a hitch, you’ll feel that confidence growing. Give yourself permission not to know everything, and celebrate the progress you are making. Your students don’t need a walking Merck Index. They need a teacher who is prepared, positive, and willing to learn alongside them.
Your students will notice your effort, and they’ll benefit from your enthusiasm. One day soon, you’ll look back and realize, you are the confident chemistry teacher you once hoped to become.
