Job Discussion Forums

[wangdaning]

Back to the OP, being 24 is not too young. I am 24 and teach at a uni. The only thing you might look out for is students thinking you are too soft because you are too young. Many of my students saw me as the teacher who was not strict. I wasn't very strict with rules because I figured they were adults (though as 1st year college students they are really more like children). I refused to treat them like children. The way I got them to realize I wasn't just a softy was by being brutally honest in my grading. Once most of them fail an assignment they start acting more adult.

[arioch36]

Learning names ... great if you can do it. I try for english name and mayybe their Chinese name. When you see them outside of class, and can address them by name, it means a lot, a whole lot.

Depends a lot on how many students/classes you have. Some teachers ask the class leader to have the class provide a sheet with names and a small photo. Yeah, you can just ask your class to do these things.

I find that when I break them into groups, and walk around the classroom, it is easy to work on names. $ people in one group? Two girls? 50/50 chance. If time permits, I have students always enjoy name games. Sometimes I just do a simple, first person gives name, 2nd person has 1st name, and own name .. etc. Takes a while to do a 30 student class, I usually break it in half. Afterwords, I know their names

I'm used to meeting 30-35 students twice a week for english majors (two different subjects, once a week for non-english majors

[eslstudies]

A great many Chinese university teachers are themselves babies, having only recently graduated, so don't worry about age. In fact, if they don't feel intimidated by a native speaker, you can make some useful friendships with this group.

As previous posters have noted, you don't give enough information. Written or spoken English, final year majors or first year minors? My best class in Shanghai were post-grad marketing majors. Being post grad they didn't actually have to attend, but did. We worked through job applications and interviews: most subsequently got positions with multi-national companies. The university was so pleased they got me to run the course as a private class.

On the other hand, you could be teaching Carpenters song lyrics to freshmen once a week, class size 60.

[Lorean]

Treat your students as you would high-school students back home.

Anticipate cheating in whatever assignment, project, test and exam you prepare.