I am a new instructor. A challenge I face is some students that are a bit older than me tend to look down to me. In other words, I get looks like "How would you know. Your young enough to be my son". This usually happens when I make a suggestion in improving some hands-on skills. If I see they are doing something wrong or could be improved, I step in to help them without them asking for help. I feel they would rather struggle than to take instructions from someone younger then them.

I am a new instructor and I feel that motivation can be a challenge. How do you engage a class as a whole? I see half the students engaged and half are not.

I recently became an instructor and just finished a course on Effective Teaching Stratagies. I read that different styles may be used to grab the attention of your students. Well something that I am good at and people tend to love me for it, is my sense of humor. Is this a good and effective way to teach? I've gone over some lecture plans and see lots of areas where I can incorporate some appropriate humor in my lectures. Thank you, Sammy P.