Please Help! I look too young to be a secondary school teacher

jbyrne20092010

Hi,

Im due to qualify with an honours degree in mathematics in May 2010 and am interested in doing a hdip in education to enable me become a secondary school teacher. However, I am a bit concerned about this as I am 26 years old but look rather young for my age. People often mistaken me for 19 or so. As you can imagine, this does nothing for my confidence levels going into teach students whose ages range from 12-19 and look as old as I do (or in some cases older).

On the one hand im thinking it shouldnt matter how old you look, it should just matter how good a teacher you are. But on the other hand im thinking it would upset the whole formaility of the teacher/pupil relationship if the teacher looks younger/same age as some of the students.

Could anyone please offer any advice on this?

Thanks.

JB

blubloblu

Grow a beard.

jbyrne20092010

Thanks for your 'smart' answer. I have a beard but so do some secondary school students.

TEMPLAR KNIGHT

im just finished secondary school im in my first year in college now and plan on doing a hdip myself when i finish ( and i look very young too) but as for your question i think the students will respect you much more as they might see you as one of them rather than some old fella ( me and my classmates would anyway) as long as you have the balance of being able to be a good teacher and being able to have a laugh with the students youll be grand

clartharlear

Beard-growing will be particularly effective if you are a woman. Pretty young female dippers tend to get the most hassle starting out, in my limited experience. Mind you, most of the pretty young ladies I know who survived the PGDE year and went on teaching tended to develop, not hirsutism, but very thick skins and no-nonsense attitudes.

You'd be surprised at how easily distorted is teenagers view of age too. I've told several students I'm in my 30s, which nobody has ever disbelieved, despite the fact that I probably look even younger than my real (under 30!) age.

maynooth_rules

As the person above said, you will be very surprised at what age your pupils will think you are. I look quite young and I was 23 doing my HDip. One day one of my first year pupils asked me if a certain pupil in second year was my son. All teaching figures are considered old people by pupils. This may be quite different with 5 and 6th years but most of them will be old enough to know the importance of education and won't have any issue with how young you look

Tom Dunne

This reminds me of my first year lecturing while I was waiting with students outside a lab for the caretaker to unlock it.

When he got there, he asked me where the lecturer was as he couldn't open the lab without one present. He took a bit of convincing that I was in fact the person he was looking for.

My advice is don't let it bother you. After a few classes in front of the students when you show them what you are made of, it won't be an issue.

peanuthead

lol

see what the others mean about you starting loads of threads!!

You can convey a lot about your age by the way you dress, keep that in mind.

Make a conscious effort to distance yourself socially from them too, for example, if they ask you if you like, say, Chris Brown's new song, what I do there is say, "Chris Brown? Who's he?"

They don't find it strange at all that you would say that and they instantly equate you with being older.

Another good one is to sometimes take cliched 'older' people's (using term loosely) opinions on things.
eg: Students have sweets, "do you want one sir?" You say, "Sweets? No, they rot your teeth"

theyre my strategies, I look 17/18 and they work fine for me, although now I'm at a stage where I don't need to be like this, you will get there too, and you can start phasing out the fake you and phasing in the real you.

TheDriver

I shaved my head after teaching for 4 months and had a grand normal head of hair before that. Then I didn't shave for days on end.
You could have heard the pin drop in my worst classes, they were scared!!

implausible

I was teaching some 19 year olds in my first job and I was only 21. The thing is not to be reminding yourself of how young you look, but remind yourself that you are older, qualified and know far more than they do.

My solution (I'm female) was to dress quite conservatively-trousers, shirts, v-neck jumpers, tank tops and flat shoes, no make-up, hair always tied up, never take off my glasses. I did such a good job, most of them didn't recognise me out of school!

Most kids are clueless, anyone who is a teacher is automatically old to them.

icescreamqueen

jbyrne20092010 wrote: »

Hi,

Im due to qualify with an honours degree in mathematics in May 2010 and am interested in doing a hdip in education to enable me become a secondary school teacher. However, I am a bit concerned about this as I am 26 years old but look rather young for my age. People often mistaken me for 19 or so. As you can imagine, this does nothing for my confidence levels going into teach students whose ages range from 12-19 and look as old as I do (or in some cases older).

On the one hand im thinking it shouldnt matter how old you look, it should just matter how good a teacher you are. But on the other hand im thinking it would upset the whole formaility of the teacher/pupil relationship if the teacher looks younger/same age as some of the students.

Could anyone please offer any advice on this?

Thanks.

JB

I was 20 when I started teaching and I looked about 16 at the time. I even got asked for my number by 6th class boys! In years to come, you'll want that youthful look back again so enjoy it while it lasts! I remember when I had my 1st class, I brought my class out to their parents after school. I overheard one of the fathers saying to his son that he had to talk to his teacher (even though he would have seen me lead the class out the door). He brushed past me and made his way into the school. His son turned to him and said to him, that's my teacher over there. The father looked absolutely gobsmacked that his son had pointed me out as his teacher! I do think there is a lot of ageism towards young teachers and you will feel undervalued for the 1st few years. A lot of the parents (if you're in contact with them) won't take you as seriously as you deserve. However, like what was said in a previous post, dress professionally, act confidently and believe in yourself!

rainbowtrout

In my experience teenagers in school (doesn't matter what year) think teacher = old. They don't put too much thought into it, you've done college and you work so you must be old. 25 seems to be their lower limit and when you're 16 or 17, 25 is ancient.

I look young for my age, I still do, i'm nearly 31 and most strangers would put me at 23 or 24. I started teaching at 22 so you can imagine what it was like, I was still carrying ID at weekends, but the students didn't give my age a second thought.

One school tour I did a few years ago involved bringing a group of leaving cert girls on a tour to London. Four female teachers (all mid 20s) went with them, me being one of them. When myself and one of the other teachers went up to the ticket counter in the tube station to get a student group ticket, the guy at the counter thought the two of us were students and gave us student tickets. In London you have to be under 16 to be classed as a student! We went on to the hotel and the receptionist was giving us funny looks when the two of us handed over credit cards to pay for the group. They thought it was a girlie weekend away and didn't realise it was a school tour because once we were in our hoodies and jeans we didn't look a whole lot different from the leaving certs who had gone all out to look older.

So just be professional in the classroom and it won't matter how old you look.

Actually to be honest, it's not the students that are judgemental, it tends to be other school staff. I examine agricultural science and visit various schools every year to examine the projects. Many times when I've examined in a school for the first time and gone to the school reception, I've often had secretaries barely bid me the time of day/ignore me/leave me waiting because if I look that young I mustn't be there for anything of importance, until they hear the words 'I'm the agricultural science examiner for your school and I'm here to look at the projects' and then you see the look of horror on their faces as they realise they've just snubbed the examiner. Normally they're expecting a man in his sixties, not a woman in her twenties with spiky hair (as it was back then).

RealJohn

It's not about how young you look mate. Sure, you might get a bit of stick at first but if you're well prepared and know your subject you'll get a handle on them pretty quickly. Let's face it, you might look young but you're not that young in reality and your life-experience ought to enable you to cope with them.

I was 25 when I started teaching. I suppose I didn't look that young but I don't think I looked much more than my 25 years if at all. The only real way the way you look can effect you is if you let it. Trust me.

(it will be much more challenging when you're a dip to be honest because the kids will know you're not a "real teacher" but you'll get through that too)

peanuthead

RealJohn wrote: »

It's not about how young you look mate. Sure, you might get a bit of stick at first but if you're well prepared and know your subject you'll get a handle on them pretty quickly. Let's face it, you might look young but you're not that young in reality and your life-experience ought to enable you to cope with them.

I was 25 when I started teaching. I suppose I didn't look that young but I don't think I looked much more than my 25 years if at all. The only real way the way you look can effect you is if you let it. Trust me.

(it will be much more challenging when you're a dip to be honest because the kids will know you're not a "real teacher" but you'll get through that too)

While I like your comment, I find it very idealistic.

It kind of is about how young you look. Its all about how you look. You are judged a lot in life by your appearance and in a school environment one of the main things students will scrutinise is your age, especially if you look very young.

ytareh

You know there have been secondary school principals (well one Ive heard of ...!) under 30!!!Class preparation/discipline maybe even clothes/'style' will be far more important than how 'old' you look...