Hi Estella,
Glad to hear that you are comfortable working students that are within your age range as well as those that are older. It demonstrates your confidence in your abilities as an educator and leader.
Gary
I also find myself in that situation where I am only a bit older that moat of my students and younger than a few. I find it is an asset that has helped me to gain their trust and respect. Always making sure they understand that I am their teacher first and foremost.
Hi David,
Thanks for sharing your story. Through your expertise, confidence and competence you have demonstrated that you are very capable as an instructor. As a result as you say age has become a non-issue. I commend you for your abilities as an instructor and I wish you much teaching success.
Gary
I have found a similar problem with a different age group. I am 30, and I am teaching adult learners. Many of my students are older than I am.
I have found that many of my older (than I) students are a bit skeptical of my ability to teach when they begin a class. To compensate for this, I try to focus on my within-field experience and the success of my previous students.
My comfort level has gone up, and newer students, who have heard about me through previous students, don't seem to even notice the age issue now. It has become a non-issue.
I agree with Karen. I found that being a young teach brings rewards and challenges. All my younger teacher have a better rapport with the students. Students feel open to tell them everything. However, on the flip side the older students don’t share as much. As the director of the program, the older student gravitate to me. In that since we bring balance
I agree being a young teacher with the youth today and being able to relate to the youth and the new challenges that come with understanding and relating to them has its rewards—the biggest challenge for me to overcome was teaching classrooms with diverse ages especially adults 30+ years older than me
I too am younger than many of my students.
I actually enjoy it, and as discussed, can really add a lot to the class!
Hi Jesse,
Thank you for sharing your perspective on being a young teacher just starting out. I was hired in to replace a teacher that had to leave due to illness. I was 20 years old and student teaching when the vacancy occurred. I was student teaching in the in the high school from which I had graduated three years previous. Talk about being close to the same age as your students! They asked me to stay on after my student teaching and complete the year. I did because I could live at home and earn some badly needed income. This was a small farming community and my two sisters were still in high school there. I knew everybody and they knew me. It worked out fine but I was seen as my father's son rather than a professional educator. Which is very common in settings like this. I completed the year and was able to help my school out since they needed a teacher to fill in while gaining much experience as a teacher. I then moved to a large metro school district in another state. This is where I was able to find out if I was going to be a teacher or not. Thirty plus years later I can say both the small town local setting and the metro large city setting helped me to become a teacher that has enjoyed being a teacher all these years.
Gary
