When you look as young as your students, commanding their respect can be pretty tricky. To help, we’ve curated three teaching techniques that will help you quickly take control of your classroom in spite of your baby face. Check ’em out ya’ll! 👇

1. Demonstrate Everything

This is the single most useful tip we can give you for quickly commanding the respect of your students. Demonstrating accomplishes three things as a young-looking teacher:

1. It shows students that you have successfully incorporated the skills and technique you are teaching into your own practice, and are therefore in a position to teach it.

2. It allows them to visually see correct alignment and technique, which helps them find correct positioning to imitate with their own bodies.

3. Their surprise over how high your leg can still go will make you feel grrreat about yourself! (Heyyyyyyy! 💁)

2. Set Boundaries

The line between being your students’ friend and being their teacher can be tricky to manage, particularly when you look young. Establishing boundaries early on can help you stay in an authoritative position, while still giving your students the emotional support they need from a mentor. Let your students know that as long as they respect you, stay focused and work hard in class, you can still find time to have fun, goof off and be friends. A balance can be made if they are willing to put in the effort. Usually (not always) this keeps class from turning into total mayhem, like this.👇

3. Come Overprepared

Of course every teacher needs to come prepared for class, but when you’re young—you REALLY need to. Nothing says “inexperienced” like a disorganized or unprepared teacher. Come to class with your lesson plan/choreography/combinations established, and you will show your students that you mean business.