First time professor - How to be good/avoid being bad

August 13, 2024 10:46 AM

Starting this month, I will be teaching undergraduate-level university courses. I've done some teaching-- a class or workshop here or there-- but this is my first time designing courses and taking full ownership of the entire class. Seeking any and all tips folks might have on how to not ruin a bunch of 20-something-year-olds' educations!

I'll be teaching two classes, both in the social sciences, at a decently sized US university while working full time (or close to full time) at my main job. I have a Master's degree rather than a PhD and I was hired more because of my professional experience than my academic or teaching experience. I've spoken with other professors, including two professors who have taught the two classes I'll be teaching, but I figure I could use as much advice and info as I can get. I'm very excited for the opportunity to teach and hopefully serve as a guiding light for some of these students the way my professors were for me, and I want to come into it as prepared to do a good job as I can be.

Some general info on how I'm approaching the courses:

- No assigned textbook, since I don't want to impose an additional financial burden on students. I've been undergoing a somewhat laborious process of tracking down articles or source materials that are freely available and relevant, although I'm noticing the pages per week is much higher for one class (30-50) than for the other (20-30).
- I'd initially hoped to avoid doing exams, since I'm really not a fan of them and I don't think they're a great way for students to learn, but I'm not confident I have the experience and creativity at this point to effectively do an alternative, so I'm including a midterm and a final for both. It's also possible at least one exam is required (I haven't been getting much, or really any, guidance from the administration on this...)
- I'll be using slides, which I have mixed feelings about, but again, I don't know if I have the ability at this point to teach effectively without having the slides to fall back on to some degree.
- One of the classes will involve a decent number of simulations. I know some people dread these and feel like if they're not extroverts who talk a lot and participate very actively they're going to get a bad grade, so my goal is to show there's many ways they can participate-- by organizing team meetings before the simulation, or doing research to help their team prep, stuff like that.
- Both classes will involve writing assignments. I'd like to de-emphasize the traditional academic writing components in the form of a thesis or research paper-- those are important, but I think the students will get plenty of that and will probably have done it many times by the time they get to my classes. I'm striving to design writing assignments that are more oriented towards professional writing skills that may be useful to those who don't intend to go into academia.

I'd welcome any thoughts on the above, but really, I'm looking for any advice in general on how I can do well as a first-time professor-- specific questions might include how I can ensure accessibility, how to design/plan for the day-to-day classes, how I can make all students feel comfortable participating and engaging, how I can spot early on which students are struggling and help them without making them feel singled out, etc. I'd also welcome advice on how to deal with fears that I'm not cut out for this or that this whole teaching thing might wind up being a disaster. I realize this post comes across pretty dismal and pessimistic, but I really am excited about this, I think there's a lot of value I could impart to these students and I want to do so effectively!

Thanks in advance for any thoughts, advice, etc!

posted by Method Man to Work & Money (20 answers total)

If you’re using slides, it helps if you post them to the class website in advance of class. I always found that a big help with note-taking, because I could just annotate the slides in context, instead of having to jot everything down.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 10:58 AM on August 13

This book has a lot of great advice about effective teaching: Adults Learning by Jenny Rogers
posted by Lanark at 11:22 AM on August 13

Does the university have a teaching center? If so, connect with them and check out their available resources.

If the university doesn't have a teaching center or if they're not helpful, get a copy of Jim Lang's Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning is a great book to skim before and as you're designing and teaching a class. It has a lot of practical and meaningful ideas. It's our (I work in a teaching center at a large university in the U.S.) go-to resource for faculty who just want one thing that can be helpful immediately.
posted by ElKevbo at 12:00 PM on August 13

Hey! Teaching is awesome! It's also hard. So rule number 1: Give yourself grace when things are imperfect. You're asking great questions, and that means you will have solutions and strategies and plans for them. And then some of those won't work out as you hoped. And that's okay!

Please set your expectations there: that you will try, and that you will succeed in many places and fail in others. Then, do not gloss over your successes. Pay attention to them, and celebrate them. And for your failures, accept them and learn from them. You will feel your failures far more than the students do, and you need to work on feeling them more like the students do.

For example, my first year of teaching, I was just massively overloaded, and much of my grading happened... let's just say "late." I felt terrible about that. I also had to do things like sleep, though. And the students of course saw that things were coming back late (way late). It did impact them. They didn't get useful, timely feedback in cases. But also, they still learned. Had I failed them? Sure. Had I failed them completely? Definitely not. Did I receive some comments in student evals about the slow grading? Sure. Were the evals totally negative and focused on the slow grading? Nope. Students appreciated a lot about what I had done, and I felt good about a lot of what I had done.

I went into that first year with high standards. I met a lot of them! Not all of them. And that was okay. It's really helpful to expect that for yourself. And not just that some things won't be great, but rather that some aspects might be totally bad. When that happens (when), would you rather:

1. Be blindsided. Go into shock. Gnash your teeth, rend your garments, and wallow in misery as everything falls apart around you. Leave the field entirely in disgrace.
2. Take the hit. Roll with it. Adapt. Learn and grow and do better next time.

[what an overly dramatic false dichotomy! but you get the point]

From your questions and everything you've already thought about, it is obvious that you care a lot and you are putting a lot of energy into making this go well. That's amazing, and I am so glad you're going to teach, because that's what makes a good teacher. It means you are going to build a strong base for your teaching in this year, and you will iterate and improve from there in later years.

So that's all the prime directive. Here are a few concrete little things to consider:

Reading. This will vary based on student culture (for lack of a better word), but in most places, most students will not do assigned reading unless there is an immediate incentive attached to it. "Read this because you will need to have done so when the exam rolls around" won't cut it. "Read this because we'll be discussing it in class" won't cut it. "Read this because there is a brief quiz at the start of class that will be trivial to pass if you have read and impossible if you have not" can work. Other things can work, too. But without that immediate incentive, students will mostly only read when they feel a specific pressure: when an assignment requires them to use something from the material or when an exam is coming in a few days, for example. Maybe that's okay for your class. It's how a whole lot of classes end up working, in any case.

Writing. Aiming for "real-world" professional writing sounds good. It lets students write as if for an audience that is not just "my professor," with a motivation other than "make my professor happy," and you can make that explicit in the assignment with a whole hypothetical professional context for their writing. It lets you reference expectations and standards for their writing along with "real-world" ramifications for meeting or missing those. Put those into a clear, concrete rubric that you share with them in advance and follow when assessing their work. Give the students examples of good and bad writing in the genre and discuss them (maybe have an exercise where first students read the samples and formulate critiques in small groups, then share as a class while you fill in gaps).

Find a mentor if you don't have one already. It could be your supervisor, but only if they individually are a really good fit for you. It could be in your department or outside it. But ask someone with experience if you can meet with them (over coffee, virtual, whatever works) every week or two. Just talk to them about what's going on in your class. They'll have suggestions along the way. They'll help you contextualize your issues (which are probably not as big as you think they are). They'll help you feel more connected and supported even if they do nothing but listen.

And finally, limit yourself. You can easily collect hundreds of tips and strategies and suggestions and ideas. I could give you about a hundred just myself if I had the time. It might feel like the more you have, the better off you'll be, but there is a point of diminishing returns and a limit beyond which it even becomes harmful. You can't do everything, and you shouldn't try to. You have limits on your time and energy (teaching two classes on top of a full time job!!!!!). Prioritize and set aside some things. Maybe lots of things. Focus on the aspects you think are most important. You'll be wrong in some cases about what is really important, but you'll learn and adjust based on your experience. Which brings it all back to: above all else, give yourself grace. You're going to be a good teacher this first time around, and you'll build from there into being a great one.
posted by whatnotever at 12:26 PM on August 13

Assuming you are using powerpoint or the like- do.not.read.from.your.slides Trust me on that.
- make the amount of text on the slides minimal and fill in details with your. When I could, I would use both a chalk board (!) and slides. The students loved it when I would use the chalkboard because I think it slows you down and you can pivot to things that come up during the lecture
- talk about things that you find interesting. In most fields you can't cover everything (some stuff you have to cover) so pick and choose
- care less about stuffing information into their heads during lecture and more about engaging your class.
-try to focus your lectures on developing 'thinking' hopefully critical thinking.
- engage your class by asking questions. I would often structure my lectures so that I would lead to a conclusion and then ask the class what they think would happen. If you start out with questions that are 'easy' as in most of the class will know the answer, this will build confidence. If someone responds with the wrong answer, move on by saying, let me see what other people think. You can also begin the first day by telling your class - this may be the first class that you participate in and I really hope you do!
- one of the writing techniques that has some evidence to back it up in terms of increasing writing is peer review. There are lots of websites for best practices.
Good luck!
posted by bluesky43 at 1:14 PM on August 13

+1 about the slides. TED has a useful guide.

And remember your slides don't need to be static. Can you bring in video clips? Audio?

Something that many of my professors have done instead of regular exams:

1) A written exam where we had to pick 5 from a list of 10 things to define- this could range from terms to people to moments in history.
2) A final project - that could be artistic, but we would need to give a 5-7 min presentation about it and its context in the course (and need pre-approval).
3) A final paper on the subject of my choice, in context to the class (again, needing to be approved)

Other thing that kept me engaged:

Have each student sign up for a 10 minute slot where they need to present something course-related that matches the readings for that week, but expands on them, so it's not a rehash- think "The topic of this week's reading wis "cultural appropriation" so Jane signs up to give a 10 minute presentation on how appropriation of Ayahuasca rituals have affected Indigenous people and Bob shares the problem with sports mascots.

If you have all of the readings on the syllabus, you can open the list in the second week of school and start presentations on week 3. Depending on your class size, you've now got 10-30 minutes of less space to fill on your own.

Please don't put your students through group projects unless you want to deal with the drama that will come with them.
posted by haplesschild at 1:54 PM on August 13

You don't say how big your classes are, but if they are a reasonable size, learn your students' names including their proper pronunciation. Honestly, that is the number one tip I would give any teacher, and one thing students often comment on that I do that some of my colleagues do not.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:27 PM on August 13

I’ve seen instructors require students to respond to the class message board about the reading assignments before class. Having some sort of course message board in general might be way for less talkative students to interact with the material.

More manually, I’ve seen instructors require students to fill out an index card with their name and response to some sort of question as a way to determine attendance. These days, you may need to specifically ask students to bring a writing implement to class.

The campus library can probably assist you in providing “fair use” excerpts of reading materials.

Make sure you have a clear policy about the use of chat GP3 and the ilk.
posted by oceano at 2:36 PM on August 13

Don't put too much text on the slides. Just a few titles, maybe some piece of data.
Don't read your slides (which you shouldn't be able to because you shouldn't have too much text on them in the first place, see above). Read your notes or adlib based on the titles, or a mix of both.
posted by signal at 2:46 PM on August 13

Check with the department you're teaching for about any required information that you must include in a syllabus (my institution, for example, gives all faculty about 3 pages of boilerplate policy statements that have to go in a syllabus) as well as if you are required to do any kind of assessment and if there are any limits to how things can be weighted (again, my instution won't let you have something be, like, 85% of the grade).

Finally, use whatever course management software that your campus has so that your students will be familiar with how to access everything.

Good luck and remember to have fun!
posted by TwoStride at 2:48 PM on August 13

When I taught at the university level, I did a 15-minute quiz every class at the beginning instead of exams. I think it was 10 or 12 over the course of the semester and I dropped the quiz with the lowest grade. This helped ensure that the students did the reading needed for the class, and reduced the criticality of any *one* quiz, so there tended to be fewer students asking for regrades, etc. The quizzes were open note, but timed. The course management software made it easy to administer such quizzes remotely if someone needed to do a makeup.

I also had a group project and let folks form their own groups that could be 3-4 students. If there were any students who didn't know others, I told them to come to me and I would assign them together to a group, or add them to a group of 3.
posted by chiefthe at 2:53 PM on August 13

First, teaching is a learning experience. The first few classes, especially, will challenge you to find your own teaching style and which techniques work best for you. If something doesn't work, take note, and try something different next time.

Given that, here's a couple of things to think about:

1) Communicate clearly how a student can succeed in your class. Don't make it too complicated. Students who are worried about the method by which grades will be assigned have a hard time engaging with the material.

2) The best technique I have found to encourage participation is to use the "write/speak" technique. Rather than asking for an immediate verbal interaction, ask students to it down first. So, instead of saying, "any questions?" Say, "write down any questions you have or that you think anyone else might have at this point." Give folks 2 or 3 minutes to write, and then move to participation.

3) While I am sure there will be students who appreciate not having to buy a textbook, there will be others who will be challenged by having to find the readings for each week in different locations. For these students, you could provide support at the end of each class about where the readings for the next week can be found.

4) An alternative to more academic writing I have used is an executive summary. What are the key points from the material covered this week that would be useful for a professional in X field? The problem, of course, today is how to screen for AI with these types of assignments.5)
posted by hworth at 3:05 PM on August 13

As an MEd in Secondary Education and a PhD in English Education, I have a lot of opinions, and yet I didn't read all of the comments because this is just so urgent.

You need to know the difference between formative and summative assignments. You need to know how to gauge learning versus testing it.

As hworth says, you need to give students time to process. This is called T/P/S, or Think, Pair, Share. There are many other ways for students to CREATE and PRODUCE knowledge, and they need the opportunities to do that. There are so many ways for students to think, group together and strategize, and produce something that I can't list any here. This can be in class, before class, or after.

You do need to rely on students to prepare for class, but you also need to be ready to harness their preparation for in-class work. They prepare, and in class you process and synthesize and move forward together.

Using OER (Open Educational Resources) is really good, but your university should provide access to many research articles and probably a content-specific library that would also host everything you need. AND, your work should be research-focused. You do need to base what you do in peer-reviewed research, and let your students know that is the standard for anything you and they do.

Engagement: Maybe your university has a teaching center or something to help people who haven't taught or learned about learning sciences before. They might have workshops. But lecturing for 45 or 75 minutes is something you should never do. And the same goes for assessments. There should never be one that determines a student's success in your class. They need to know how they are doing, if what they are doing and thinking is right, and if they are on the right track.

I can go on about education a lot. so please memail me for even more :)
posted by Snowishberlin at 3:40 PM on August 13

Hey, I'm a tenured prof who's been teaching undergrads for many many years and I'd just like to say that there are many ways to approach teaching. So, you're basically a professor of practice, & my feeling is that the best way to approach this is to come to them with the same spirit in your question: exuberance and enthusiasm and a wish to reach them. Let that show. And then let them know your actual chops in the field. Tell them stories and anecdotes about your experience, stuff they won't read in the articles you're assigning. Go with the flow to some extent. Honestly some of the most successful and impactful faculty just basically.... talk to the students! Still, in this era of all the tech! You can have a good or bad class with or without exams and perfect PPs. Have some humor, don't stress them out too much, give them some grace, make it real. There's a reason the dept. hired you and you bring something from the world that their other profs might not. You'll do great.
posted by ojocaliente at 4:13 PM on August 13

There are likely librarians who can help you know how to track down some of that course content. If you’re not already using the library catalog and databases, or don’t know how to do it well, ask a librarian at your university.
posted by bluedaisy at 6:41 PM on August 13

Some good advice that was given to me when I started was “don’t tell your students you are new at this.” They won’t know. Be the authority that you are and they’ll go along for the ride (even though you will still learn as you go).

Also be generous with grading the first few semesters and because you’re new at this, you might be more likely to be hard on them. I would suggest the opposite approach. Give extra credit assignments, be flexible with dates.
posted by degoao at 7:50 PM on August 13

When deciding how many assignments you will have, keep in mind that you have to grade those and provide feedback. Consider how much time you have to really do this, because it can be labor-intensive. It’s okay to assign some tasks where you just give the students full credit for a good-faith effort.

When giving feedback, tell the students what they are doing right, not just what they are doing wrong. It is so incredibly important for them to hear things like, “this works well.” In my opinion, too much focus is placed on communicating what is wrong on an assignment, leaving the student without a way to discern between what they are doing that is just okay and what they are excelling at.

Students are really, really busy, and I think it’s nice to voice to them that you appreciate their hard work.
posted by Knowyournuts at 8:52 PM on August 13

Tools For Teaching was indispensable for me as a GI and later, a professor. It’s been updated since I bought it more than 20 years ago (literally my first-ever Amazon purchase, back when they only sold books), but the reviews are still good and many of the tips were timeless. It’s a quick read and an immense help for organization and overall approach, no matter what your discipline.
posted by Fuego at 7:30 AM on August 14

Late reply so I'll limit to two specific things to do that I know will help.

1. "Thread" one bigger but specific idea (or just an idea) through each day's class.
a. Start with some announcement like "Today's topic is X" or "The thing I want you to take home today is X".
b. Then when you lecture or explain or demonstrate, use those words again: "This is X" or "This is how X works" or "Here is one type of X".
c. At the end of class, summarize: "So, today we learned more about X: we learned X1, and X2".

It's the repetition that does the thing, plus the literal pointing towards what you want them to learn. Do this every day.

2. In your syllabus (and wherever (LMS) it points), make it super, granularly, explicitly clear how students will earn their grade. An example of this is something like: here is a list of 1000 points, which you'll accumulate through exam 1 (100 pts), exam 2 (100 pts), quizzes 1-10 (400 pts) and project/paper Z (300 pts). Attendance is worth 100 pts.

Students *need* to have a clear, achievable, verifiable-daily path to whatever grade it is they want. Don't make it too complicated. Even if you end up curving the living daylights out of it, give them the formula or point equivalent. This will establish a baseline of trust. It's especially important for a newbie prof, they can't ask their friends how the grading went last year. Of course, get grading done on time.
posted by Dashy at 1:40 PM on August 16

how I can make all students feel comfortable participating and engaging

ok, one more. Be (the kindest version of) yourself when you reply to or handle engagement. Students know fakeness or talking-down or constructed replies when they get them, and they don't like it. Make sure you uncross your arms, face them, wait for them to finish, etc. Start off by thanking them for their contribution, then echo or repeat something positive from it to the rest of the class: "Thanks for that. I like that you said ..... ". Ask followup questions to turn it into a conversation.

Importantly, handling this is emotional labor. Your words and demeanor create a safe space where they're valued for themselves. Realize that this is the task. You can direct the learning and facts as you need to, but you have to create trust and support first.
posted by Dashy at 1:47 PM on August 16