One thing I’ll do differently—
Never again will I make up my mind in front of students. Of course, you’ll always be in those situations where you have to think on your feet, but their faith in yhou dictates that you should always seem firm, fearless, and unwavering. I think the worst thing in the world is to answer a student’s question with “I don’t know.” As if you’d never thought of it before. Another terrible thing to do is let them decide (“whichever is fine”) because it makes it appear as though you didn’t take the time to think it through. Better to make a snap decision or, if possible, say you’ll address that question at the end of class.
Another thing with how I appear is just little things—being visibly tired, rolling my eyes at the intercom, grimacing when a student does something terrible, laughing when they do something funny. I’ve really got to remain professional at all times, and sometimes I think I show a little too much of myself. To the students, who see me as an adult, this is a weakness. Like waiting tables, teaching is a lot like acting. The difference is, the acting is nearly the opposite—in waiting tables, you become subservient, obsequious, all smiles, even when you’re running your tail off and you hate the customer’s guts and you know they’ll leave a measly tip anyway. In teaching, it’s the opposite—you have to, at times, rein in the emotions that would surface naturally. The confusion, fear, doubt, fatigue, depression, anger, and sadness—all human emotions that flicker over me no more often than anyone else—must be tightly reigned in and controlled. Instead of granting the customer anything he wants, you push the student where he must go. Instead of working hard in order to be liked, you try your hardest to get work out of them, and it doesn’t make one bit of difference whether they like you or not, so long as they fear and respect you. Okay, that was for shock value. Not really fear, exactly, although that might be what Mc would call it. Respect for your authority, then. As an authority figure, you must show no human frailties. They want so badly to have faith in you. Don’t spoil it by spotlighting your inadequacies.