New Instructors
As a new instructor, you want the students to like you. You should also want them to respect you. Never get into a class room discussion with students regarding your personal life and problems. Students are not your friends. They are there to learn as you are there to teach. It is most important for a student to respect you than to not have respect for you, then they may not have the urge to learn.
Hi Morgan,
I understand your perspective. New instructors must realize that it is a natural part of our job to deal with confrontation. I concur, most our students want structure, and they certainly need structure.
Patricia
New instructors often have the feeling that they don't want to make a student angry, that they will just make the rest of the term miserable and dislike the instructor. Some students actually are SEEKING structure, and pushing the instructors boundaries to get it. New instructors should see difficult-to-manage students as a challenge, not a hinderance to their job.
Hi Kay,
Everyone wants to be liked, and you especially want your students to like you so that you can get good evaluations to keep your job. It is so freightening when administration puts your job on the line based on students evaluations.
Patricia
As a new instructor..employment at will..one may worried about students' evaluations. At some schools where I have worked, the student's evaluation will decide IF you work the next semester or not. Funny a question: do you respect your instructor... seldom appears on the form.
I can understand why new instructors are so concerned about being liked.
Hi Elizabeth,
Students are really not looking for another friend. They are looking for someone to teach them so that they can be successful in the workplace.
Patricia
I agree. We are here to teach he, not to be friends.
