Maybe you’ve been a faculty member in a college or university for only a few years. Or maybe you’re a seasoned teacher. And maybe you still find that at the beginning of each semester, and even occasionally at the start of any class period, there’s a touch, or even more than a touch, of nervousness.
You find yourself a bit unsure, uneasy and apprehensive.
• Will it all work?
• Can you persuade the class in the way you need to persuade them?
• Can a new technique work as well in practice as it did in the planning?
• Can you actually teach this course that you have never taught before?
• Will the students look at you as a fool who knows nothing?
Is it okay to be nervous?
The answer is simple.
It is definitely cool to be nervous.
It is totally beneficial to be a bit apprehensive. It makes you sharper, less dull, more aware of your abilities and your proficiency. Nervousness in teaching is a great way of self-evaluation. It makes us more cognizant of what we’re doing in the classroom.
But, as the saying goes, never let ‘em (‘em = students) see you sweat. In a class, the teacher always has to be the alpha dog, the unquestionable leader or authority in a group. Nervousness can, if too obvious, dilute that authority. It can challenge a class with the delusion that they can somehow manipulate the professor and assume a type of power.
Nervousness can, indeed, make you a better teacher. Nervousness that is too obvious can make you look like a vulnerable target.
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