You've decided to teach English, maybe you want to tutor in your own home and don't know how to start. I'll give you some ideas here for your first class. I'll give examples relating to teaching English as a foreign language because that's what I know but the ideas will work with any subject.

One question a new teacher always asks is: "what do I do in my first class?" in some ways your first class is the easiest. You can do the same thing with each new student:

Find out something about your student(s),

Find out their reasons for learning and

Find out their level of English (or whatever subject you're teaching).
Ways to ascertain your students' level:

Give them a short test and evaluate how well they do. This isn't the most exciting way to spend a lesson; so here are some ways to deal with it. You could e-mail it or give it to the students and ask them to complete it before the first lesson. You can then go over their responses together in class. If you see an incorrect answer, tell them it's wrong and ask them to correct it. This gives students a chance to correct their own mistakes and you get a better idea of their real level. Sometimes they put a wrong answer down in haste but can work out the correct answer given time. Make it clear to new students that the goal of the test is to check their level so that you can help them more efficiently and that they should do it alone without the help of friends, books or the internet. Alternatively, you can do the test together in the first class with your students answering the questions orally. Again, if they give a wrong answer, give them the chance to self-correct before giving the correct answer yourself.

For useful tests, you can type "English placement tests" into any good search engine. You could also buy a course book or take one out of the library and use one of the tests or exercises in there. Choose a book that is at the students' level (beginner, intermediate, advanced...) and look through the book for a test or for an exercise to use. Many course books have an accompanying exercise or homework book. Test type exercises are more likely to be in there, remember to pick that up from the library too.

You can also ask students to bring with them the materials they used previously when studying the subject. You can then take some of the activities or exercises from that book and ask students to complete them. This approach works if you feel confident about ascertaining their level on the spot without the use of the answer key. You can do this if you've taught before and know your subject well.

Whichever route you choose, keep a note of what they do well and what is not so good. These notes will help you make decisions about what to teach in later lessons. Look at which areas were good, which were okay and which were really bad. It's a good idea to review one or more of the areas that they partly knew in the second lesson. This will build up their confidence and will make an easy starting point for a new teacher because you won't be teaching something from scratch. After reviewing the areas that were partly mastered, you can move onto teaching the areas where the students performed badly.

Get to know your students and their reasons for learning

As well as dealing with the test, you should spend some time getting to know your students and finding out their reasons for learning English (or whatever the topic is). You can speak to them about their previous lessons, their previous experience in the subject; then ask them what they hope to do when they've learnt the subject. Are they learning for a new job? Are they learning for pleasure? What do they plan to do when they've mastered (or mistressed!) the subject. You can ask them what worked for them in their previous classes, what didn't work and what they would like to do in class with you. It's up to you whether you start the lesson with this conversation or whether you start it with the test. Either way, these 2 activities should take around an hour. You can also spend some time explaining your policy on cancellations, fixing times of future lesson and telling the students what you expect from them (amount of homework, commitment...). So that's your first lesson taken care of.

Lucy Pollard has worked in TEFL for over 18 years. She has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer and school manager in France, Spain, Turkey and Poland. She has taught children and teenagers as well as general English and business English to adults. She has also helped many teachers develop new skills.
You can follow Lucy on:
http://newteflteacher.com/blog/
You can buy Lucy's guide to teaching English at:
http://newteflteacher.com/