young instructor
i sometimes find it hard and stressful in the classroom because i'm one of the younger instructors and its not easy to get the respect in the class that im teaching.
For my two cents, I find that being on the younger half of the faculty is stressful. It's perhaps not my biggest stressor but a significant one:
A) Students might not automatically show a respect for you (as they should as we are educators who should then work to maintain that respect) if they are older/more overwhelmed by the choices/responsibilities they make in their lives.
B)It's too easy to be the "buddy" teacher. My age I would say definitely puts me in the ideal generation to connect with our average age student. Although this feels great as far as relationships and interaction go, it makes it tougher on me to dispense discipline in their studies. I feel stressed because my superiors might frown on this as well as the occasional brown-nosing student.
I guess the thing to do is to keep working hard to find the balance to be in a good zone, and work hard in general. We should use our youth to our advantage. We won't always have the gusto to be as hip as we are now!
What else might be a good strategy to combat age differences?
Steven. Find something that will give you creditability with your students. As an example, if you work at a music school, bring in one of your compositions and have students record with you. If you teach painting, bring in some of your art. Show the students your are accomplishing some of the things that they want to accomplish.
I am not a new instructor, but I know that I see stress when I am helping the newer instructors and they are having a hard time. I find meself stressed because I want them to get it, and they have a hard time and struggle, which in turn causes me stress.
another way to reduce the stress caused by teaching students of your age is to spend more time preparing the class in a way that you show to them how good are you in what you do,you need to be ready to answer any question from them ,by the way allowing them to ask questions and being able to aswer them will release some of the stress since they will star trusting more in you and will start to realize more how much you know,that helps a lot
I am basically in the same boat, but not knowing it I have always conveyed the importance of each assignments given and also very good at explaining the value of the subject matter from my real world experiences.
Steven, That sounds like a tough spot. When the age of our students is too similar to our own, it can sometimes be tough to earn their respect. My best advice is to come in solid with your curriculum and learning goals. Show your students that you have something of value to offer. They will usually be able to respect that.
Dr. Melissa Read
