I Look Too Young to be a College Teacher!

Dear Dr. Kirk:
I found your Contract on Classroom Behavior online and I would like your permission to post it on my Blackboard site.  Students have often had strange responses upon first meeting me in the classroom.  I am a youthful looking African American woman of 41 years of age.  I could probably pass for about 25-30.  My colleagues and I have noticed that students are becoming more and more rude.   They become too comfortable, too familiar, too...I can't find the right word.  Can you give me some tips as to how to cope?                        

...In New Teaching Position on East Coast

Dear New:
Teaching has become more challenging in the past few years because college students have become more aggressive and demanding.  Inappropriate student behavior has become such a serious issue that schools such as the University of Arizona have developed a video of “bad classroom behavior” that they show to all their incoming freshmen.

Professors who are or look young, are female and/or are a minority faculty member seem to have more issues getting the respect of their students.  Thus, it's important that you dress and present yourself as a professional.  Introduce yourself with your title of Dr. or Professor (you don't even have to put your first name on your syllabus).  Establish your credibility the first day of class by sharing your work experiences and why you are the best person to teach that class.  Determine your classroom policies and put these on your syllabus.  Address behavioral issues as they occur.

It's said that we teach others how to treat us.  Thus, be sure that you demand to be treated the way you deserve.  This will be a good lesson for your students in how to be successful once they get out into the work world.

technorati tags: Classroom management Tips for teaching Delaney Kirk

Comments

[Dr. Leslie C. Miller]

One thing I do in my attempt to keep students from getting too familiar and trying to become my "buddy" is to only refer to them as "Mr. Hawthorne" or "Ms. Banks." I rarely ever need to explain to them why I do this; they seem to automatically pick up on what's going on. When they do ask, I respond that they are adults and I am attempting to show them the respect they deserve, and I expect the same in return. Since I began doing this in my second year of teaching (I am at year 10 now), I have only had a couple of failures with students getting too familiar, but those have been my fault for not sticking to my guns.

[Delaney Kirk]

Thanks for the suggestion--I would think this would be especially good advice for young profs, especially women who look close in age to their students.

[Stephan DeLong]

I was actually going to adopt this practice in the coming year (addressing students as Mister Jackson, or Miss Hammond, etc)... I've been teaching for about 17 years, but I've been noticing an increasing sense of informality in class, and I think that that may be contributing to students working a bit less diligently on the course materials... I figure it's worth a try.

[Dr. Delaney Kirk]

I'd be interested in knowing your results-please email me after the semester is over.