What should I do?

[cnada]

Out of my own curiousity, how old are you?

I'm 25.

[Jiffy]

If I could give any new instructor a piece of advise it would be this.

If you have the answer, give it. If you don't, then don't, but find it.

What I mean by that is be honest with your students and provide them with the answers they need. If you do not know, do not make it up. They will respect you for saying "I don't know". But, if you don't know, make sure you find out and make sure you get back to them with the answer, otherwise, neither of you would have learned nothing. Teaching is a great thing, but once you have been teaching for some time, you'll relise that the biggest part of teaching your students is actually learning from them.

[bushido_man96]

If I could give any new instructor a piece of advise it would be this.

If you have the answer, give it. If you don't, then don't, but find it.

What I mean by that is be honest with your students and provide them with the answers they need. If you do not know, do not make it up. They will respect you for saying "I don't know". But, if you don't know, make sure you find out and make sure you get back to them with the answer, otherwise, neither of you would have learned nothing. Teaching is a great thing, but once you have been teaching for some time, you'll relise that the biggest part of teaching your students is actually learning from them.

Very good point. Always be willing to make an effort to help students, but do not lie to them if you don't know something.

[bbk2132]

when you teach, always remember that you are in charge. Don't let the kids walk all over you, and don't do things that will make them think they have the right to. Examples:

Make sure your voice is always loud and commanding. If you sound quite and nervous the kids won't respect you or want to listen, and they will get bored and become restless. Keep the energy up.

Don't be afraid to punish them when they deserve it

In my dojo, we have a method for correctiong mistakes called PCP; Praise, Correct, Praise. When you see someone, for example, doing a front kick incorrectly, you could say. "Good job, your working really hard but don't forget to do this," and when they have fixed it "Thats it!" This way kids never feel they are bad at it, and it keeps them positive to hear praise so they don't focus on the fact that they were doing it wrong.

Of course there are times when kids aren't even trying, don't praise them just tell them what to do and praise them if they do it. Give them a few chances but if they keep goofing off threaten to make them sit out or whatever punishment you chose and then punish them if they continue to not listen.

Keep up the positive energy, your goal as an instructor is to teach them, but also make them want to learn. If you are to tough they won't want to learn. If you are two happy and giddy and fun they won't learn. You have to find the place in between where they are enjoying themselves and learning.

Most important, confidence. Your instructor wouldn't let you teach if he didn't think you could do it, so don't be afraid.