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What is the Easiest Subject to Teach In School?

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Wondering what is the easiest subject to teach in school as a teacher? You’re in the right place.

I’m a teacher who has taught pretty much all the standard subjects- math, literacy, drama, dance, phys-ed, French as a Second Language, science, art and music.

Based on that experience, I believe the easiest subjects to teach (in both high school and elementary school) are:

teaching
  • Gym (also known as physical education)
  • Visual arts
  • Health

Now, I want to say that this doesn’t mean that teaching these subjects is easy. Being a teacher is not an easy job in general, and I am not downplaying the complexity and importance of having a genuine interest in these subjects in order to teach them.

But generally, art and gym as school subjects tend to:

  • be more mindset and attitude-based rather than packed full of knowledge, facts and theories
  • require less prep on the teacher’s part
  • be easier to assess
  • have less take-home work associated with them
  • naturally engage the students, as they tend to be more intrinsically motivated in these subjects

Sure, there are some students who don’t enjoy art and/or gym, but you will find that the vast majority enjoy them and it isn’t a struggle to get them to participate in these subjects.

Scroll below for more information on:

✅what makes gym and art the easiest subjects + tips for teaching them
✅what challenges you need to be aware of for teaching gym and art
✅ what I think are the hardest subjects to teach

The 3 Easiest Subjects to Teach (And Why)

Here is why visual arts, gym and health are the easiest subjects to teach, but also, what you need to consider before qualifying to teach them. Generally, it takes longer to qualify to teach any of the high school subjects than elementary

Visual Arts

Not everyone considers themself to be a great artist, but you don’t necessarily need to have any special artistic talent to teach elementary-level art.

You need to however, foster creativity, open-mindedness, and show appreciation for art.

Art is more important than what people give it credit for. It’s an interdisciplinary subject that can be integrated into many other subjects.

✅ What makes teaching visual arts easy

  • If you’re not an artist yourself, it’s pretty easy to show examples to students of what they can be aiming for; you can often find examples online
  • Teaching art at the elementary level is more about encouraging a good attitude, reliance, following instructions, and creativity – rather than being a ‘perfect’ artist. Growth mindset is a big part of doing ‘well’ at art in these grades. If you value these things, then you may enjoy teaching art
  • If you’re teaching older grades (younger grades may be more challenging,) there is a lot of downtime while the students are busy doing their artwork. This makes it a great subject to teach for introverts
art in the classroom

It’s so rewarding to walk around, and admire the creations that students are coming up with, and to see the finished products once they’re done.

I really enjoy seeing students pour their heart, creativity and time into something and being proud of their creation at the end.

❌ The hard part about teaching visual arts

  • Visual arts can be subjective to assess. Often, you would use a rubric – but sometimes the final mark seems lower than what the student may deserve. Ultimately, it doesn’t sit right with me to ‘grade’ artwork at all, and I found this step challenging sometimes.
  • In order to teach visual arts the high school level, you will need a background in art or art history, as well as a portfolio of your own work

Pro Tip for Teaching Visual Arts: In order to give students an idea of what ‘done’ looks like, I like to have an example of a finished product to show the students. I either look for examples online, or I make one myself if it won’t take too long.

Gym

Teaching gym is more than just teaching them games and sports!

You are also teaching them about sportsmanship, teamwork, and good attitude. You will see pretty quickly which students need to work on these.

✅ What makes teaching gym easy

  • Students are naturally engaged in gym
  • Once they know understand the rules to the game or activity, they can often play independently while you watch
  • It’s very easy to assess – no grading papers. It is mostly based on observations while in class, which is a huge time-saver

❌ The hard part about teaching gym

  • Students who don’t enjoy gym will make excuses to sit out, and you will have to determine which reasons are valid and which aren’t
  • Student injuries can occur during class, and you need to keep your eyes open at all times so that you can see what’s going on
  • You will need to use your voice. Teaching gym is best for teachers who have extroverted, energetic qualities
  • There are always cheaters, which can hurt the integrity of the games you play if not dealt with
  • Misbehaviour that occurs in the changeroom can be hard to manage

Health

Health is only really a subject at the elementary level (not in high school.) Teaching health means teaching subjects such as:

  • healthy eating
  • dangers of too much screen time
  • stress management
  • stranger danger
  • personal hygiene
  • sex-ed
growth mindset vs a fixed mindset

The depth at which all of these things are taught is grade-dependent. It starts off very simple, and gets more elaborate as the kids get older. You can take a look at the Ontario Health Curriculum here, which I used to teach health.

Everything other than sex-ed is pretty straight-forward and easier to teach. (Sex-ed is the only exception, and I’ll explain why below.)

✅ What makes teaching health easy

  • Many of the concepts that students learn about in elementary health are pretty common sense – they seemed to know it enately. I’ve never had any students be confused about anything we were learning in health.
teacher showing something to students
  • Students are often interested in health. Because the concepts are simple and straightforward, the
  • There are so many ways to assess their knowledge and understanding in health. You could have them do a presentation, essays, information posters – the sky is the limit

❌ The hard part about teaching health

  • There is often not enough time allocated towards health cover everything. Typically, it is only one 40-minute period a week. There’s a lot to cover in such a short time
  • Sex-ed the only subject that is more complicated to teach and not easy – more on that below

Other subjects you may find easy to teach

Depending on your own personal interests and expertise, here are some other subjects that will be a piece of cake for you to teach

  • Math – many people love the straight-forwardness of teaching math. However, keep in mind that math education has undergone many changes, and the way its taught now may look different from how you learned it. Be prepared to review student work thoroughly, so that you can award some partial marks.
  • Science – you may to review some science concepts that you haven’t thought about in a while, even if you’re teaching the primary grades. (I had to remind myself what an amphibian was for Grade 2 science.) However, science is generally fun to teach – especially if you enjoy moving beyond the classroom.
Airplanes made out of recycled materials, that my Grade 6 students made in our Flight unit in science
  • Music – If you have a background in music was very challenging for me to teach, as I don’t have a background in music. (Never took piano or any other instrument as a kid and cannot even read music.)
  • Second Language – Teaching a second language can be easy, depending on which language it is, and the age of your students. If your students are on the younger side (under 12 years old) then many of them will show enthusiasm.

The difficulty of each of these subjects depend on which grade you’re teaching. The higher grade level, the more specialized and challenging the learning material becomes.

teacher

Easiest Subjects to Teach FAQ

Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about finding easy subjects to teach

What are the easiest classes to teach?

The easiest classes to teach in school are the ones that don’t involve a lot of prior planning or marking outside of the class itself. This cuts down on take-home work, and improves work-life balance for teachers.

What is the hardest subject to teach?

The hardest subject to teach is very subjective. Generally, math and language arts require a lot of prep and staying on top of the current practices, as they are highly valued by school boards and there are always new philosophies and ways of doing things. They can also be heavy on marking (language moreso than math) but both carry a lot of marking.

teacher circulating the classroom

Final Thoughts: What is the Easiest Subject to Teach?

By now you know a teacher’s honest take on what is the easiest subject to teach. Truthfully, the easiest subject to teach will be a matter of preference and what your expertise and skills are.

Generally, subjects such as the arts, gym and health have less take-home work associated with them. Students are naturally more engaged in them, and many of them have natural tendances towards them.

For this reason, they are the easiest subjects to teach, regardless of which grade level you’re working with. Regardless of which subject(s) you teach, don’t forget to take the time to destress.

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