One of the differences that I’ve really relied on when teaching English 101 is my education; I might only be a few years older than my students, but I’ve obtained my Bachelors in English (Summa Cum Laude in fact), and thus consider myself qualified to teach them.  I’ve struggled to overcome the age issue, given that I’m currently 21 and most of my students are 18. But this isn’t a difference that I can control. However, I’ve used this obvious age factor to my advantage: I told my students flat-out on the first day of the quarter that I was recently in their shoes and know how challenging their adjustment to college might be. With that being said, I’ve been able to connect with my students quite easily; since there isn’t a huge age gap between instructor and students, we have common interests, hobbies, and TV shows and music. These commonalities help me build personal bonds and relationships with my students.  

Another major difference between myself and my students is my knowledge of college courses and my time management and organization. Many of my students are still adjusting to college and I’ve noticed them struggle to manage new course workloads and homework, and to take responsibility for their assignments. One of the biggest challenges my students are facing right now is learning to adjust to living on campus, surrounded by friends and distractions, and balancing their social life with academics and work. I personally have found a great balance of all of these aspects throughout my undergraduate time, and it’s something that I’m aware of. My students are still finding this balance, still learning to manage their time, and still learning to prioritize school over social time.  

Another difference between my students and myself is that I’m a meticulous student, and I’m able to troubleshoot my own problems in my courses by asking a classmate or searching through Canvas before emailing my instructor for help. My students’ first reaction to a question or issue is to email me frantically. I’m trying to encourage them to instead try looking through our Canvas materials or asking a friend in the course before emailing me with the subject “Help!” I suppose the greater difference between my students and I just comes from learning how to be a successful and independent college student. I, as their instructor, am one of the forces that is helping them learn these skills.  

Aside from this, one of the similarities between my students and I is that we are all collectively taking in this new English 101 course materials and are processing these together. Our roles in processing these assignments are clearly different, as they do the assignments and I grade them, but this is all new for both them and I, and it’s nice to hear some collective feedback from the class about what assignments they consider to be valuable or entertaining.  

Although I can’t control all the differences between my students and myself, I’ve enjoyed finding unique ways to counter these challenges.