What happens in your first teaching session can set the scene for subsequent ones. Being well prepared can help dissipate some of the pre-teaching jittery many tutors, and even seasoned teachers, experience. Arrive early to allow yourself time to settle and adjust to your surroundings, make sure the room/seating layout is suited to your upcoming session (eg, café-style for group work), teaching technologies work, and be clear about the learning outcomes of that session. Use positive visualization, instead of thinking "I'm going to be terrible" think of how you can impact student success because you know how to best achieve the goals of the tutorial/lab/task from your own experience. It might sound strange, but try and transform nervous energy into enthusiasm (for the subject, the class).

Remember, students are nervous too being new to university study or the subject. Also, mature students can create some anxiety for teaching assistants. They are likely to ask more questions but are often a valuable source of information/expertise out of their own (work)practice. Being surrounded by young people can make them feel awkward too, so make them feel included.

Your first tutorial - example of a session plan

Introduce yourself, maybe tell the students where you come from, your studies, your interests or hobbies, what you enjoyed most about this course. Write your name on the board with your office location and office hours (if you have them). If you teach online, paste this information into the Zoom chat (5 minutes).
Spend some time on ‘getting to know each other’ in smaller groups (use Zoom break-out rooms if online) and take the heat off you for a while. You could circulate around the room (zoom break-outs) and listen 'in' to what students have to say. (10 minutes)
Clearly communicate what is expected of the students in the course/tutorials/labs and set out some ground rules (see Clarifying expectations, setting ground rules). Go over some of the essential information (5-10 min):
- critical dates, eg, due dates for assignments, lab reports, expected standard of work, academic integrity;
- departmental policy on getting extensions for written work;
- weighting of in-course assessment and exams, your availability outside office hours.
Teach subject content (10 - 25 minutes)
Conclude the teaching session (5 minutes). At the end and throughout give students opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns. To get them thinking and talking, have them discuss potential issues/questions in smaller groups first, a nominated group member can then share the concerns with the wider group.

Lab teachers share their concerns when teaching for the first time

Scenario: I hate asking the students questions - nobody answers and everybody is so uncomfortable!

The type of questions that you use can have a big impact on the type of response that you get and how a session progresses. It can be difficult to think of questions or statements on the spot, so you may want to prepare some ahead of class. Questions that need a yes or no answer do not require students to elaborate on their answer. Those are less useful except in situations where you take a quick poll. Open questions that require a detailed response will encourage discussion with less input and effort from you. It might be helpful to have students brainstorm answers in small groups before you ask for a class response. Everybody gets to think about the issue. If you notice some students are not participating, you could draw them into the discussion such as “what does this group/table think about the issue?” This allows for anyone from that group/table to answer without putting an individual student on the spot. Letting them have a minute to think about a question helps too. Acknowledge responses and be respectful of other’s opinions.