# Teaching > General Teaching >  Teaching my first course in January, petrified.

## MoonSoap

I'm teaching my first college course beginning in January. It's going to be an English Comp. class from 6-9 on Wednesday evenings. I'm a bit scared, especially since it's such a long class. What if I run out of material after only an hour or two? What if all the students think I'm stupid? 

Did anyone else experience this type of anxiety before teaching their first class? Hopefully it goes away after the first or second session. Does anyone have any tips as to how I can increase my efficiency and how to make the class interesting? 

I don't get to choose the material, the class readings are already chosen by the college. Fortunately I can plan the assignments. I'm thinking of assigning a couple of short papers, reading records after every chapter, and one larger final paper.

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## Pompey Bum

> I'm teaching my first college course beginning in January. It's going to be an English Comp. class from 6-9 on Wednesday evenings. I'm a bit scared, especially since it's such a long class. What if I run out of material after only an hour or two? What if all the students think I'm stupid? 
> 
> Did anyone else experience this type of anxiety before teaching their first class? Hopefully it goes away after the first or second session. Does anyone have any tips as to how I can increase my efficiency and how to make the class interesting? 
> 
> I don't get to choose the material, the class readings are already chosen by the college. Fortunately I can plan the assignments. I'm thinking of assigning a couple of short papers, reading records after every chapter, and one larger final paper.


If you have too much time, call for questions, encourage debate, then pass out mats and tell your students it's "quiet time." Beyond that, you'll have to ask the real teachers here. Good luck! (You'll be fine).

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## NikolaiI

YES!!!!! Absolutely. I have thousands of ideas.

I'm sorry. I'm just excited, because.. well, okay. I just, have a lot of ideas. 

Alright - you can best get people interested in something by being interested in it yourself. The same way you would raise a child, although with a different age group, because child-raising you would start with an infant..

Just be yourself, engage them, be friendly, encouraging... Be confident, calm, etc., etc., all of those things will help a great deal..

Ask them questions, that will draw them in. 

but- about the topic, just be interested in it. Show that you love it, that you enjoy it. That will give them an example to follow. . . People follow each other, they copy each other - their actions, their beliefs, their thoughts, their habits... just about everything... So to teach someting, you just have to know it, and have a great lot of knowledge about it, but equally important is how this knowledge affects you, how you use it, how you can help others do all these things, too.

So, have a lot of knowledge and also be able to get at it, use it, shere it.. 

as well as lean on the other things, such as having them read or something... 

But a class can't be all book learning, and no teaching... I'd say the ideal would be about 50/50 for me... I mean, 50 % the teacher presenting and sharing the material and 50% other learning..

But I don't know, that's probably going to vary a lot.. and that's not so important, I guess what's important is that you have insights and can help the students reach their own, etc., about the material.

But yeah, be interested, be able to talk about the subject and share insights - always get them to ask plenty of qestions, and ask them yourself.

Everything they will learn about a subject, they will learn themsevles; all learning is self-learning, but they also learn from you. Knowing how to learn is important, so you can help teach them that. 

Some people learn best quietly by themselves, some with discussions with others... both are probably necessary for a whole arsenal. There are hundreds, or thousands of ways to learn - okay, illimitable number. Anyway, what you know about learning can be helpful..

as of course, always, can what the students know about learning help you

One important thing I would say is to keep in mind that about half of the population is primarily introvert in their nature.

Apologies for the incorrect English and grammar.. I can follow grammatcal rules when I want to, even write an essay without mistakes (how hard is it? you just notice one when you make one and correct it.) ... I just stopped doing so in most cases. How I'm feeling, for example, changes the impact of the things I say me than grammar does, so it's pretty far down on the list.

I also, could have said everything in a few short sentences, like "be interested in it, how knowledge and be good at sharing it," etc.. but I have a tendency, you'll find like many of us here, to go on too long with words.. 

William James wrote and shared a lot of interesting ideas and concepts about teaching.

_The Further Reaches of Human Nature_, just an incredible book and definitely one of my top ten books ever.. might be useful.




Above all, relax, don't worry, eventually you'll be an old hand, I mean, it'll be like you've been riding a horse for years, as comfortal as that. I've personally never ridden a horse, but what I mean is, everything we do we eventually become really good at.. 

Or not. Of course. But the less we worry about tomorrow, almost always makes us better at we do today. 

You know you're going to do your best, and the results are out of your hands. The results always are.. fate, God, chance, or simply cause-and-effect... This is why Indian phoiosophers long ago adopted the credo: "karam karo, fal ki chinta mat karo" or "work without attachment to the fruits (of your labor)." The point, the meaning, the reason for action, for anything, is in process, not the results.



There is a positive loop between the less worried you are, the more at peace you are, the more confident you are, and the more you will succeed. 
I wrote a few paragraphs but it rambled a lot, so I just replaced it with this.


do your best, and have fun!

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## Paulclem

> I'm teaching my first college course beginning in January. It's going to be an English Comp. class from 6-9 on Wednesday evenings. I'm a bit scared, especially since it's such a long class. What if I run out of material after only an hour or two? What if all the students think I'm stupid? 
> 
> Did anyone else experience this type of anxiety before teaching their first class? Hopefully it goes away after the first or second session. Does anyone have any tips as to how I can increase my efficiency and how to make the class interesting? 
> 
> I don't get to choose the material, the class readings are already chosen by the college. Fortunately I can plan the assignments. I'm thinking of assigning a couple of short papers, reading records after every chapter, and one larger final paper.


What is English Comp.? ( I'm from the Uk )
What texts are you studying?
In answer to your question about anxiety - of course. Quite normal.

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## byquist

The Q&A method is best. Ask them questions and then don't answer them. Wait and give them time to respond. Coax discussion out of them. Once it starts rolling, you may find that many will enjoy talking. Let them have free rein. 

Also, bring a sense of humor, jolliness, joviality, whatever you call it. Cheerfulness. That you enjoy being there, and they will sense it.

Yes, my first teaching was, like you, plenty of trepidation. 

Actually, I would probably start with going down the rows, asking their name, and tell a little about themselves. That ought to take at least a half hour. Feed off of what they say -- ask them to elaborate. Amazing things no doubt have happened in their lives, and it is interesting.

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## Bicycle1711

As someone said earlier be stoked on what you are teaching. For me, when my teacher is excited and I don't care about the material it gets me excited. As said before ask the students questions. Not every student will get involved but at least the students who want to speak up can plus that helps use time. I had a once a week three hour American lit course and we read stories during the week and we came into class and did a writing assignment about it usually about 20 minutes.

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## Dreamwoven

> What is English Comp.? ( I'm from the Uk )


English Composition.

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## Danik 2016

Deleted post.

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