Posted by alexandra_k on January 23, 2006, at 19:15:30
In reply to Anxiety? about teaching--please help!!!!, posted by Lucia Francisca on January 22, 2006, at 13:42:26
I have worked as a tutor for a few courses and I find tutoring really very stressful. For the same reasons as you.
I think that it does get easier in time.
But it is still really very hard for me.
I had teaching evaluations for a couple of courses and they turned out to be helpful for the most part. If you get to decide what questions to ask then you can think about what you were trying to do and see whether you achieved that or not. We always say that it isn't so useful for people to write comments like 'the course sucked'; but if they thought the course sucked then it would be helpful if they could come up with concrete suggestions that are practical for the lecturers / tutors to do that could make it more interesting and things like that. For the most part... The students seem to rise to that really well and we have gotten helpful comments and suggestions. Students really like to be given handouts is one thing I learned (as an example).
I am very sensitive to criticism too. But then I think most people are. Teaching is a hard thing to do. Putting yourself 'out there' in front of lots of students. My office mate used to tell me 'remember - they want to like you'. And most of them... Do want to like you. I used to worry about whether I knew enough to be running tutorials too but got more confident with that over time as I realised that most students want the lectures clarified which isn't so very hard. Also that students do seem to respect you for saying 'that is a really good question and I'm not sure what the answer to that is'. I'd either tell them where they might be able to find the answer and say I'd be impressed if they could let the rest of us know next week, or I'd say that I'd ask the lecturer (or find out more generally) and get back to them next week.
I'm not really sure what else to say except... Hang in there. Sounds like you are getting positive feedback - and you said that you are feeling okay while you are taking the class. Sometimes I think that we can be our harshest critics and our biggest fear is that other people judge us as harshly as we judge ourself.
I think it really does... Get better over time.
But that being said... I've decided I really don't want to teach if at all possible. I find it too stressful. So if you find something that helps... Could you let me know?
poster:alexandra_k
thread:601811
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/studs/20051123/msgs/602193.html