Tips for Beginning Teachers

[Clusterfrack]

There's a wealth of good advice in this thread already. Here are some more thoughts:

-Your long term career success is primary. You'll be told, "Students come first; it's all about the students", but that's just an excuse to get you to work at your own disadvantage.

-Don't try to make your course perfect. It's impossible. Also, you need to show continual improvement in your salary and promotion reviews.

-Don't make things difficult for yourself unnecessarily. Optimize the time you spend grading, preparing course materials, etc. E.g. If a mostly multiple choice exam will suffice, don't use all essay questions. If you can use student graders to save time, do it.

-Students like it when you are genuinely excited about your course. If you have the choice, show them things you are passionate about.

-Admit mistakes. Be confident and admit your limitations. Embrace your Growth Mindset. I love it when students correct me, and I reward it.

-I do not welcome unsolicited advice from students regarding my teaching, and will not discuss ways I can better address their special learning styles. I tell them to put it on the teaching evaluation. When you're new, some students will try to gaslight you by criticizing your teaching. Watch out for that and stamp it the fuck out.

-Show students some Growth Mindset slides. You can find it on Google. It makes them less whiny when their grades aren't as good as they hoped.

-Don't fight unnecessary battles. Late work? Sure, as long as it doesn't make extra work for me. Missed exam due to "illness"? Prorate grades from other exams and the final. I used to be a total hardass but learned that it takes too much time, most students won't learn from it, and brand new students come next semester.

-Document all significant issues that occur between you and students or colleagues. What, when, where. Follow up verbal exchanges with an email summarizing what you heard them say, and what you are telling them.

-And, yes, never close your office door. Never, ever be alone with a student. When they start crying, open the door wider and possibly bring a colleague (witness) to come help. After some experience, I now have a physical barrier (table) between the student's seat, and my office chair. Also, no hugs. Just don't go there. If you are propositioned sexually or a student starts acting crazy, call the hotline, campus safety, or 911. Doesn't matter that you are male, you need to document what happened before they do.

[LockedBreech]

Appreciate the time taken, thank you


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[Duelist]

Blackboard can be a PITA. Make sure you get as familiar with it as you can, because your students will expect you to be an expert at running it and will be more likely to ask you for help than the help desk.

Establish exactly how you want to be contacted for your most optimal response time and communicate that to them clearly and in more than one place. Better to repeat yourself and be redundant than for a student to not be able to find the "right" way to contact you.

Make deadlines very clear in the syllabus.

[RevolverRob]

A lot of students naturally assume that I'll be available to answer their panicked e-mail at 11:58pm....

I resolve this issue, by clearly stating in the syllabus, "Instructor only checks and responds to emails twice daily Monday-Friday, at 9:30am and 4:30pm. All emails received after 4:30pm will, at the earliest, be read and responded to the following day (unless received on Fridays in which case, the following Monday)."

Some other time saving devices - I tell my students (in the syllabus) to include the course identifier in the subject line, for instance if I'm teaching geology 101, all emails should have "GEO101" in the subject line - an additional subject title is appreciated such as, "GEO101 - Absence For Class on Thursday". As I explain to my students, I do this to allow their emails to be filtered into specific folders in my inbox, saving me time and organizational effort. I don't know about you guys, but on a "slow" day I received ~30 emails, during mid-terms, I can see that spike up to 70 or 80. So, I filter as much of it as I can into designated class folders. It also makes it much easier to find emails from a specific student or time or date. And it puts the onus on the student to communicate properly. Students who think I am at their beck and call are exceedingly frustrating to deal with. Making them jump through hoops saves me time and demonstrates the appropriate hierarchical nature of our working relationship.

___

@LockedBreech my main advice is as follows:

Everything goes in the syllabus.

Communication Policy
Office Hours
Absence Policy
Grading Policy
Boiler Plate Legal Stuff (Ethics, Disability Accommodations, etc).
Exam Dates
Schedule
Readings
Homework Assignments
Due Dates for all materials not exams

It cuts down, tremendously on silly questions and importantly, forces you to consider from A-to-Z what you're course outline is going to be. Let's you know what you need to prep and gives you the contractual fallback you may need (you're a lawyer, you get it!).

Whatever your policies are, confirm that they are generally inline with the university (e.g., if they use +/- grading, you use it). Make sure to submit your syllabus to the department chair for "approval". Chances are really good the department chair will never look at it, but if they don't, it wasn't because you didn't give it to them. It's cover your ass insurance. I honestly, did not know this was a fairly universal policy for the first half-dozen semesters I taught. Until, I nearly got caught out one day and had the fortune of having a good chair to back me on it. Since then, every time I write a syllabus, it goes to the department chair (of the department the class is in, not always the department I am in) for 'approval'. I haven't needed it since, but I'm glad to be covered.

Ditto on the things echo'ed above - no closed doors with students, any potential solicitations you receive need to be immediately reported. Cheating needs to be dealt with immediately. I have a zero tolerance cheating policy. You'd think that students are all above this, but they really aren't. I've taught nine classes across two universities now and I've caught cheaters in four of them and had two female students and a male student offer "favors" for better grades.

Finally, I try to have an open door policy in terms of allowing my students to discuss with me any mitigating circumstances that might be affecting their performance in class. If something is genuinely affecting a student's life, it's better I know about it so I can help them, knowing after the fact ties your hands. If you know, you can help a student who may otherwise fail, succeed, and that is amazing.

One of my favorite anecdotes in my career is from when I lectured a class in Austin. I had a first year student who came to class every day, asked questions, always went to lab, she was clearly trying but having difficulty with the exams. She came to my office hours one afternoon and came completely unglued, started crying. She was a first generation student, far from home, and her mother and boyfriend were guilting her badly about it. She was depressed, not sleeping, and thinking of quitting. Hard stuff for anyone to deal with. I've been there, myself, on a very personal level, so I understood. I directed her to student counseling services for her depression, her TA and I worked together to make sure she got a bit of additional tutoring in class, I reached out to her academic counselor who worked with her to get her more help. She passed the class, brought her solid C up to an A-. I got an email from her last year, she had just won the department award for best undergraduate student research in geology, won best paper at a regional Geo Soc America meeting, and gotten a fellowship to fund her first two years of her graduate school in geology. Her words were, "You may not remember. But I came into your office and I thought I was done. You helped me, you showed compassion, and because of that, I have been successful." To which I told her, "No, you're successful because you put in the work to get it done. You had the courage to ask for help when you needed it. I'm glad that I was there to be a helpful part of that solution". - It really doesn't get more rewarding than that. I could publish a thousand papers, get a Nobel prize or whatever, and ultimately still not be as rewarded as knowing you helped someone who wanted to succeed, succeed.

[Baldanders]

I don't have tons to add to this necro thread, but I have a few things I have gleaned in 2 years at the High School level:

1) Realize you will suck raw ass at first. Even future teachers of the year were shit at the beginning. Competence may hit at the 4-5 year point. (Yes, I'm still working on it myself)

2) If you are bored and/or frustrated, so are your students.

3) Non-teachers giving you advice are as worthless as folks who tell LEOs how they should do their job. Everyone has had years of experience being a student, so everyone thinks they know how to perform the job. By the same logic, reading novels and watching movies should give you all the skills to be a successful writer or director.

4) If it's not working, stop doing it immediately. Take a chance on something that might work. Worst case, it fails as well. At least you know two things you shouldn't do instead of just one.

5) Have a plan everyday, but realize "no plan survives contact with the enemy" and don't freak out in front of the students. Flip out later.

6) Keep a sense of humor or you will lose your mind.

[Baldanders]

One of my favorite anecdotes in my career is from when I lectured a class in Austin. I had a first year student who came to class every day, asked questions, always went to lab, she was clearly trying but having difficulty with the exams. She came to my office hours one afternoon and came completely unglued, started crying. She was a first generation student, far from home, and her mother and boyfriend were guilting her badly about it. She was depressed, not sleeping, and thinking of quitting. Hard stuff for anyone to deal with. I've been there, myself, on a very personal level, so I understood. I directed her to student counseling services for her depression, her TA and I worked together to make sure she got a bit of additional tutoring in class, I reached out to her academic counselor who worked with her to get her more help. She passed the class, brought her solid C up to an A-. I got an email from her last year, she had just won the department award for best undergraduate student research in geology, won best paper at a regional Geo Soc America meeting, and gotten a fellowship to fund her first two years of her graduate school in geology. Her words were, "You may not remember. But I came into your office and I thought I was done. You helped me, you showed compassion, and because of that, I have been successful." To which I told her, "No, you're successful because you put in the work to get it done. You had the courage to ask for help when you needed it. I'm glad that I was there to be a helpful part of that solution". - It really doesn't get more rewarding than that. I could publish a thousand papers, get a Nobel prize or whatever, and ultimately still not be as rewarded as knowing you helped someone who wanted to succeed, succeed.

Well done sir, well done! Mind if I quote you on this to other teachers?

[RevolverRob]

6) Keep a sense of humor or you will lose your mind.

Reminds me of another anecdote. I believe humor is a great teacher, anything that can allow others to see you as a human, tends to be good.

I gave a lecture that I was particularly interested in one time to the students (it was about the evolution of the middle ear in mammals). It turns out that the students hated that lecture, sufficiently that they immediately complained to their TAs about it (always a mistake, it means I hear about it). So, the following lecture period, I open up the Powerpoint. And I turn to the students and I say, "Since everyone loved the middle-ear lecture so much last time, I've decided that we're going to spend today's lecture, discussing the diversity of animals from the perspective of their middle ears." Then I hit next slide - to which showed half-a-dozen mammal middle ears on the screen. I had animated the slide to start labeling anatomical structures and show some of the nuanced differences of middle and inner ears between mammals.

The look on their faces - priceless. A mixture of disgust, denial, hatred...the pure, burning, hatred.

I clicked the next slide and kept babbling about ears. They started looking at each other, "No...this can't be happening."

I clicked the next slide - it's blank. Everyone stops and at this point, one of my TAs is in the back barely containing himself....and I crack a smile and look at the students and say, "Next time you guys complain to the TAs, remember I hear about it...We will not be talking about middle ear diversity today. I'm just screwing with you guys."

The look of relief, you'd thought they'd all simultaneously gotten reprieves from death sentences.

[RevolverRob]

Well done sir, well done! Mind if I quote you on this to other teachers?

If you think it'll help anyone be a better teacher or person, go for it.

[Baldanders]

At the very least, I think it will lift some spirts, thanks. Nice anecdote on the middle ear.

Me, I avoid slave narratives and the like because I realized my African-American students feel like it's time for the Klan kids (the KKK is still a big thing where I live) to sneer at them again every time they have to cover such material in public. White people's ideas of what will empower minorities are often sadly mistaken. Sometimes the groans are a valuable feedback on what I am doing wrong --but not not often. 😊

My highest moment of sadism as a teacher was making my honors kids take a bit from a sci-fi novel that simulates a computer trying to transribe the thoughts of a severe dyslexic and have them turn it into perfect standard English. Those were some fun groans. For extra jack-assedness, I "translated " the passage at the same time as they were doing it, with no prior prep.

[LockedBreech]

Too much quality stuff added to reply on my phone, but it has all been read and very, very appreciated. I’ll give an update about halfway through the course as to how it’s going.

Thanks again.


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