Tanya Stewart

I have asked students what the top things employers look for. And I let them know attitude is at the top. Then dependability-a good attendance record. The hard skills they are usually willing to teach but as they say it's too much work to try to take someone's frown away.

Very interesting. I would like to hear more on this too.

This may sound odd but when I started my problem was the opposite. When I started I was not accustomed to telling people older than me to put their cell phones away and enforcing discipline on people I had already given warnings to.

It took me a bit to realize I needed to use "the look" sometimes and be comfortable being firm with boundaries and allowing my expressions to let them know when I was serious and mean what I say!

Be in control and confident. If necessary fake it till you make it. (They can sense if you are the one in control or if the students are.) But if you are the one in control they will trust and respect you for it.  (Like was said no wishy-washy; it does have to be kinda my way or the highway, for they will constantly test you. I have a quote I posted by my desk that says: inconsistancy signals to the students that they should try harder to get away with more) This is a lot of hard work but it really… >>>

I have had a student who enjoyed "bombing" I had to say, "My job is to teach. I am in the middle of lecture. If you have other urgent questions or concerns that don't pertain to lecture you can step out and bring it up with the program director. My job is to get through this lecture. And then proceed. (It was unfair for her to constantly disrupt the whole class needing to talk to me about all sorts of petty issues. In reality she was the problem!)