Important Lessons From Teaching Young People

Teaching is hard. Teaching young people is harder. Of course teaching your lesson is important, but it's also what you're specifically trained to do. If you want your class to actually be successful, you're gonna have to do more than just communicate the material. Here's what's important in a class for young people (though I'm sure many lessons can be translated into teaching older students).

• Having Fun: This is the most important thing for any class. If your class isn't fun, students will struggle to pay attention. Be silly from time to time and pay close attention to what exercises your students enjoy the most. Do more things like that and they will never want to leave your class.
• Don't Get Angry: This seems like a no brainer, but remember that very little of what a young person does is actually malicious. If they're doing something that bothers you or disrupts class, ask them to stop and let them know why you'd like them to stop. Offer them the old fashioned "Binary Choice." "You can stop doing that and have fun with us, or you can sit over there. Which is it?" Just remember to truly forgive them and let go of whatever misbehavior was occurring as soon as they correct it.
• Maintaining Control of the Class: Having a boat-load of fun tends to make a classroom descend into chaos from time to time. During my first session I always create a call and response that I will use to get the students' attention when things get out of hand. Something as simple as "1-2-3 eyes on me! (1-2 eyes on you!)" tends to work wonders.
• Keeping Students Safe: Kids love running. They also love bumping into each other and desks. Also, they all believe that they are the best at cartwheels. Make sure you set up your room in a way that colliding with stuff is very, very unlikely. Tell your class that you would be very upset if somebody got hurt and make a point of "moving carefully" through the space. Gently remind anybody who decides their somersaults are too dang sweet to be denied.
• Teaching Students to Respect Each Other: The problem of more than one person speaking at a time as well as kids constantly touching and poking at each other is very common. Make it clear which student has the floor and that everybody else needs to listen to them. I tell my classes that when it's someone's turn to speak they should respect them just as much as they respect me.
• Always Follow and Enforce Your Own Rules: This is a good tip for being in any leadership position. If you never make an exception to your rules, nobody expects to be exempt from them. It will spare you a lot of frustration and your students a lot of confusion if you are very, very consistent in the way you run things. Do you stop class and wait when people aren't paying attention? Don't continue until you have everybody on board. Stop every time. Your class will get the idea much more quickly.
• Plan More Than You Need: Never look at a lesson and think, "Yeah, that'll probably be enough." It won't be. The class will crack a puzzle you expected to take 30 minutes in 5 minutes flat. They'll all blaze through whatever craft you planned. Or worse, they'll get bored and you won't have anything left to move on to. I always plan out the main lessons for my class and then have 5-10 emergency time-fillers that I know the class will have a lot of fun with. If you find one activity is more fun than another, find a way to do that first activity more. You'll run out of stuff way less often.