People say (I know, never start out by saying people say, but nevertheless, people say…and yes, I could document the people) that many new faculty enter classrooms being a bit uncertain and sometimes a little tenuous about what they might know and not know about teaching. In other words, their confidence is a bit lacking.
And students, well, students are a lot like dogs. They can sense fear. And some of them react to the profs fear by being sympathetic and helpful. Others see the fear and want to capitalize on it and dominate and gain the upper hand. And a big problem is that you have all those “dogs” watching you and waiting to sense the fear.
So what do you do? Run, hide, roll over or give in? Actually, the best thing to do is to tell yourself a story.
Because the story you tell yourself when you walk into the classroom, that story, determines everything.
• If you tell yourself you’re scared, you’ll be scared. (This is not the same as being nervous. Nervous is a good thing.)
• If you walk into the room like you own the room, you will own the room.
• If you speak assertively, you will be perceived as assertive.
• If you’ve practiced using the technology and seeing that it works, then you will be perceived as competent.
• If you gesture while you speak you will be perceived as outgoing and friendly.
• If you tell a sad story to yourself about your teaching, then you’ll be a sad teacher.
It’s the story in your head. The story that you told yourself the day you were hired. The story you told yourself when you walked in your new office. The story you told yourself when you wrote your syllabi. The story you told yourself in graduate school when you made the decision to teach.
It’s not about what they (students) think of you. It’s about what you (the professor) think about yourself. That little engine attitude of “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” goes a long way toward climbing that hill and succeeding. Yep, what you think about yourself is everything.
If you’ve not been telling yourself any story about your teaching life, or if you realize that you’ve been telling yourself the wrong story, then create a new story. And make that story the one you teach by.
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