34 Lecturing jitters

How do you respond to lecturing jitters?

EG: Emily is lucky enough to not get them; for me, the jitters are present for the first few weeks of class/tutorial and then start to ease. Beyond the obvious matter of being prepared for class, here are a few things that, for me, speed the process up:

• Talk to students in small groups: use the time before lecture, or while rotating around during group work, to build personal connections with students.
• Tell them you’re nervous: I’ll sometimes remark in the very first moments of a new term (in a casual, joking way) that it’s always a bit nerve-wracking at the front of the class. It’s a good way to introduce a commitment to group dialogue, and acknowledging the nervousness seems to ease it somewhat.