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Can I learn to be a teacher in a week?
August 22, 2006 12:06 PM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

I'm teaching college for the first time next week. While I have a lot of work experience in the field (illustration/design) I have no teaching experience at all and it occurs to me that I really have no idea what I'm doing.

I have a curriculum and projects but no one really gave me much guidance on teaching good classes. For teachers out there, any tips on keeping stuff interesting and structured, not being nervous, problems/challenges I should be prepared for? Anything you would have done different when you first started out/mistakes you've learned from? It's going to be mostly freshman. I've never been that great at public speaking and while I do enjoy teaching people stuff 1-on-1, the entire concept of getting up in front of a class 2x a week is growing increasingly terrifying as the date approaches.
posted by octavia to education (25 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
Yeh, I had pretty much the same experience when I picked up a part time job teaching Econometrics at a University here in London. Sheer terror as the first lecture approached.

They probably selected you based on your real world experience (as my employer did me), so to keep the class interesting try to leverage lectures with interesting anecdotes from your professional background.

In my class I go over the material from the curriculm ("What you need to pass the class"), then reinforce the lecture based on my professional experience ("What you need to get a job on a trading desk"). The kids seem to dig it as the University has kept me around four years, and as this job pays my mortgage I really can't complain. In fact I love it!

For speaking, try to pace yourself, make eye contact with everyone in the room sooner or later, draw people into conversation with you - monologues do not make for an interesting class. Allow people to disagree and you might even learn something / change your mind - I know I did! If you learn something or change your mind, acknowledege your source. This shows humility, and that you've got an open mind. Nobody likes an arrogant professor.

Talk a hell of a lot slower than you believe is necesary, and you'lll be fine.

Best of luck!
posted by Mutant at 12:25 PM on August 22, 2006


Most folks are nervous when they start teaching/public speaking. The nervousness will quickly disappear as soon as you see that you will survive standing up front talking.

The first day is easy. Discuss the syllabus, testing expectations, grading, what books and such that they need to get, office hours etc. Tell them a little about yourself (don't dwell on your newbie status). Tell them to read something or whatever for next time. Let them out early.

If they're freshman, they're too busy being unsure of themselves to worry about you.

Just be well prepared for each class and you'll soon feel fine.
posted by bim at 12:26 PM on August 22, 2006


In a gentle way, use your first class to outline your expectations. Describe in detail upcoming assignments, expectations about attendance and participation. Make clear in your first class any peeves you may or not have (cell phones in class, etc.) Make sure the kids know your office hours and what sort of issues they need to discuss with you. Then have everyone introduce themselves. This should take up your first class, and after that you'll have work to look at and evaluate together. Home free.
posted by Sara Anne at 12:27 PM on August 22, 2006


As for the first class:
1) Arrive exactly on time. That way you avoid the awkward time when students come in and sit and wait and stare at you. You don't have to introduce yourself a multiple times. if you are worried about getting set up, come early, get things set up, write on the board the name of the class and your name, then go somewhere (your office?) until just before class starts.

2) Give them something to do right away so you can talk and they can sort of listen and sort of fill out forms, note cards, etc. This will remove a bit of the pressure of having everyone staring right at you right away.

3) Tell them how you got in to the field, what you have been doing since you got out of school. Show them your work.

4) Explain what you and the class will be doing for the semester. Go through the syllabus. Help them understand why it is organized the way it is.

5) Clearly state expectations. If you expect attendance at every session, but will give one freebie, say that. If there will be no extensions on assignments, say that. If you will reconsider grades, tell them exactly the process for discussing it (a written explanation from them about what they think is unfair and way...)

6) Learn all of their names. Even if you are bad at names, learn theirs. I used note cards. I would make them write three things about themselves. I would tell them that the more interesting things they wrote, the more likely I would learn them name by the next class. You could take digital photos too, if you need that sort of help.


In general:
1) Be enthusiastic about what you are teaching and it will be contagious.

2) Talk to your students about stuff besides class stuff. They will think of you more as a person and you will relax a bit. Try telling them what you did over the weekend and asking what they did. Tell them about a movie, a book, something you recently enjoyed. They will get to know you and then it will be easier for them to learn from you.

3) Stick to your syllabus. Stick to your previously set expectations.

4) Be prepared when you walk in to class.

5) Teach your student where to how to answer questions for themselves.
posted by sulaine at 12:28 PM on August 22, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]


In no particular order:

Don't be nervous. You will be anyway, so at least don't be nervous about being nervous.

Think of yourself as a host rather than a lecturer. You're introducing your students to the topic, not injecting them with it. What they do with it after your introduction is up to them.

If you feel overwhelmed/incompetent/the wrong person for the job, tell yourself this: "I know more than my students do, and I know where to look for the things I don't know." It's okay if your students discover you don't know everything.

Be a hardass from day one. Moderate as the semester progresses if you don't like being a hardass. It's easier to get control from the start (when they're nervous about you), than to try to seize control later (when you're the only nervous one left).

Tell stories. Listen to some, too. If they aren't on-topic, try to make them so.

One way to make public speaking easier is to give your audience handouts. Keeps their eyes off you for a while (the downside is that you can never be sure if they're listening).
posted by notyou at 12:29 PM on August 22, 2006


Things I learned on my teaching in higher education course...

I'm sure there's more... but that should get you started.
posted by handee at 12:35 PM on August 22, 2006


some more advice after that first class together - from time to time (doesn't have to be every week) make your students separate into little groups in class, and work on reading an article and answer questions together. This will shift the attention from you to them, and get your students to do active work instead of passive listening.

Then, get each group to nominate a team speaker and give a quick report back to the class.

I like to assign a sizeable amount of the total grade to participation. After all, as a teacher I am grooming my students to work in a team and solve problems - these in-class mini-cases will set them on the right path.
posted by seawallrunner at 12:37 PM on August 22, 2006


College faculty are usually thrown in at the deep end (the students I had during my first year of teaching were paying tuition for my on-the-job training...), so don't despair.

Very good advice up above. You might also want to think about yourself as an actor of sorts--not in the sense of being an entertainer (although keeping the students awake never hurts), but in the sense of playing a specific role for a specific audience. If you're a very quiet, reserved person (like, say, myself), you may need to develop an entirely different "persona" for your classroom use. Delivery, after all, does matter. Being able to project--your voice and your authority--will help a great deal.

Don't be afraid to walk around when you talk--students really do pay a bit more attention when you move, gesticulate for emphasis, etc.

Scope out your classrooms ASAP. Weird table-chair configurations? Echoes or dead spots? Odd sightlines? Annoying exhaust fans? If you need to use technology, then check it before class starts. (Yes, I learned that bit of advice the hard way.)

A professor once told me that the best way to make students write something down is to start counting. ("There are three things I want you to remember...") Believe it or not, this works for me every time.
posted by thomas j wise at 12:45 PM on August 22, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]


Time management, time management, time management....

Nothing goes worse than a class that over-runs - except a class that under-runs.

The best answer to over-running is to be flexible - in other words, have several places in your plan at which you can finish the class. Don't be afraid to say that you will come back to stuff next time.

And if you think you are going to under-run, slow down, extemporise, ask questions, etc. etc.
posted by A189Nut at 12:50 PM on August 22, 2006


I teach photography, so somewhat similar. I also find it much easier teaching one-on-one than lecturing to the whole class. So I've designed the class around my strengths. I lecture no more than 30 min in any class period and then get down to hands-on work that I can deal with one at a time. For you, if they are forced to do thumbnails in class you can go from student to student and critique them as they go, pushing them in their ideas. I assume it's a studio format, so you can spend almost the whole class time supervising them doing actual work in front of you. I also find that 14 weekly assignments (with three big crits) works better than 4 big projects. That may be because I'm not very good at getting them to pace themselves through a project. But it also plays into my teaching strength since they always have something new in the pipeline that I need to review.
posted by johngumbo at 1:11 PM on August 22, 2006


Talk a hell of a lot slower than you believe is necesary, and you'lll be fine.

I used to teach photography on the college level too. I remember my first class on the first day. I practiced my lecture/intro, timing it with breaks to two hours. It took me all of 45 minutes and I was done! -grin

Being a bit nervous is fine. Always keeps me on my toes. Students can read "complacency" from a great distance (the worse teachers I've had and I encountered in my teaching experience were those who didn't want to be there).

Talking about your own work is a good place to start. I would suggest you talk about how you solved a particular problem as I've found that creative problem solving is the hardest thing to learn and teach.

Good luck and have fun!
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 1:35 PM on August 22, 2006


I know as a student, the best profs had one thing in common: passion.

What makes you love your subject? In particular what in today's lesson is very interesting to you? Why's that?

While we all like to think of learning as a rational experience, the best learning takes place when you project excitement, wonder, even anger. It's all about emotion.

I remember a math prof of mine who taught abstract algebra (talk about a challenge) and it was a thrill to hear him because he was passionate and excited...it was great!
posted by storybored at 2:11 PM on August 22, 2006


How large is the class and what exactly are you going to be teaching? Is it going to be a studio class, are you going to mostly be critiquing things produced outside of class, or is it a lecture? Have you seen the classroom? How long does the class run and how frequently does it meet?

My background is also in illustration and I'm on the way to becoming a teacher, although my students are about waist-high. (However I've also taught high school juniors & seniors..) If your class size is small enough, I recommend allowing the students to talk about themselves. You could have them briefly discuss their favorite (heh, or least favorite) artists, which is a nice break from "hi, where are you from, what's your major?" I know a lot of students balk at the getting-to-know-you stuff, but if they're going to be critiquing each other all semester, they can't hide in a corner forever. And anyway, you get to find out who the Frazetta-worshipping nerds are (raises hand). You can incorporate their interests into your lessons, which always makes things more fun. Make sure they look at their neighbors' work. Don't let them exist in their own little bubbles. When I was in art school, I don't think it was stressed enough that one of the things you were paying for was to have a captive audience to your work. There were always at least 20 people around to share an honest, educated opinion. It's important to take advantage of that.

As for tips on interesting... Mutant's idea of using anecdotes from work is great. Most illustrators have great stories, but avoid falling into the trap of badmouthing art directors/clients at every turn. Nothing is more off-putting in a professor than someone who sounds like he hates what he teaches. Bring in some of your student work. Bring in your embarrassing crap. Show them that you had to start somewhere, and hard work pays off. If you're still illustrating, show them works in progress, bring in finished book covers, or whatever it is you do. Seeing the whole process at work is fun.

If you are going to be doing all/lots of crits -- something I always wanted to do (and can't do now because people frown on critting elementary students' work, heh) was have the students periodically rearrange/group the work on the wall according to similar mistakes, or similar strong points, or -- to be more neutral -- similar compositions, etc. I think younger students have a hard time making judgments about each others' work (at least in public) and letting them group things makes it less intimidating than standing up and saying "I think this piece and this piece both made effective uses of x." Of course, you eventually you want them to become articulate and unafraid, but it's a good way to get the gears turning on a slow day. Actually, if you're lecturing, that could work with pieces/masterworks you've selected in order to illustrate your lesson. This might be another one of my crackpot ideas, though... Anyway, most importantly, don't allow the crit to linger on a single piece for more than five minutes. It's boring and uncomfortable.

I suppose my Single Most Important Point is to let your passion for what you teach show. Teachers who were passionate about things I initially didn't care about managed to suck me in because they were so in love with their subject that it was contagious. Be enthusiastic and it will catch on.
posted by Marit at 2:19 PM on August 22, 2006


As loads of people have mentioned above, it's okay to admit that you don't know the answer to a particular question. In these cases, it can be effective to turn the question back to the class as a whole by saying something along the lines of "That's an interesting point and I'm not quite sure of the answer. What do you (ie - the class) think?"

Sometimes the students will come up with something brilliant in response, sometimes this will start a roaring discussion (because people are more likely to speak up when there isn't a 'right' answer the lecturer is going for), and sometimes this will backfire miserably with no one saying anything. It's certainly worth a go because someone will usually say something to prompt your memory and you can quickly get back on track.
posted by lumiere at 2:35 PM on August 22, 2006


Lots of times new teachers will draw upon two sources of teaching stereotypes: pop culture representations of teaching (think The Paper Chase, etc.) or talk show hosts. Try to let your classroom activities be driven by what they need to learn, and maybe outline what you are going to do in class that day as you start off.

You will be tested by pre-med students who have all read somewhere that telling the instructor you "need an A" will result in a higher grade. Please do not hesitate to disavow their pampered identities of that notion.
posted by craniac at 2:55 PM on August 22, 2006


in no particular order:

-have an outline so you always know where to go next in terms of what to talk about

-have a set of questions you can ask the students, if you want to slow things down or if you want time to think about whats next

-if nervous, it might help to talk to your audience (and think of them) as if they are your friends, just a group of friends there for a conversation.
posted by jak68 at 5:31 PM on August 22, 2006


First the obvious -- check the college library for books on how to teach! Also, does the college have a unit devoted to improving its own teaching? And try the interweb. There is lot to learn that can make your life easier.

One of the things you want to look up is how to prepare a lesson/lecture plan. Decide on your objectives for the session, that sort of stuff. Plan a good intro, a good ending , and the body of the class with a "crumple zone" at the end which can be dropped if time runs short so that you can finish with your planned ending including "What you should be taking away from today's session is...." Have a short activity planned which can be dropped into the end of any class if you find you have got through all the planned material.

First year classes tend to be big, so you may have no chance to carry out the getting-to-know you discussions others have suggested. However, a surprisingly effective weapon against trouble-makers is showing you know their names, so make an effort to learn those. You do not usually need to talk/shout over people -- just stand at the front being silent and expectant and a hush will fall.

Do check out the rooms you will be using ahead of time, and any audio-visual gear you will need. Know the AV technicians' contact details, and have a Plan B in case the AV doesn't work -- the same sort of things apply if you will be using computers in class.

Never apologise -- at least not for the big things. Unless you say "It wasn't meant to be like this" your victims may never know. Just try to improve -- the discipline of proper planning and of making notes afterwards on the bottom of the plans will help in this. Don't fret too much over what didn't go well, learn from your mistales.

Ask experienced lecturers if you can watch one of their classes, they will usually be flattered. Learn from the good ones (and the bad ones).

Have fun!
posted by Idcoytco at 5:53 PM on August 22, 2006


Also: Preparation for teaching a course for the first time takes longer than anyone ever imagines. A good textbook which you can follow to give you the backbone of the course will make a huge difference.
posted by Idcoytco at 6:13 PM on August 22, 2006


I was a complete rookie. Now I'm a six-year lecturer. There's lots of excellent, essential advice above.

One more essential for a first-timer: You want grading metrics. That is, you want marks to lay down in the beginning of the class - that you can refer to all throughout the class - of what it takes to get a certain grade.

Even if it's no more sophisticated than "20 percent class participation, 20 percent attendance, 30 percent homework, 30 percent tests," you've laid out the standards.

This is all so that at the end of the semester you can be hard on students who screwed off or simply ignored you, without wondering if it was your fault - New Teacher Syndrome.
posted by sacre_bleu at 7:21 PM on August 22, 2006


There can be lots of chance to "tutor 1-on-1" if you are willing to pull back a little bit, send them off on their own to experiment, try, and err. In the midst of this, you can casually meander around to talk with them about what they are doing. Treat it like a design lab sometimes. Be a mentor.

One way of thinking about it is that your students can't lose. They are going to be spending a lot of time in contact with, talking with someone who has been successful in the field, getting exposed to important ideas and skills and rules and rhetoric. If you don't get hamstrung by excessive need for respect, or assumptions about what teaching is, or assumptions about what students are, you will probably have a blast.

Finally, have them do a lot of writing and give them feedback based on your knowledge of the field (not grammar).
posted by Aghast. at 8:10 PM on August 22, 2006


As others have said: have a paper outline, printed in larger-than-normal-text-font, that contains more than you will probably get to. Have a couple of natural ending spots in it. I like to put up several bullet points on the board at the start of class (the three main topics we'll cover, and two sub-topics within topic 2, for example). This gives the students a chance to set up their paper notes in a way that will work for them. During the lecture you can repeatedly come back to this, and point to where we are in the outline -- because it won't be obvious to many students. It also will help underscore the main points for people who are visual learners. You can plan ahead and have points in your outline for phrases you want to write up on the board as the lecture goes on, capturing the most important points.

Go slower, and speak louder (if it's a lecture) than you think you need to. You know more than they do, and the material you're covering will be new to them. Don't be embarrassed because it seems obvious to you; it's not obvious to them.

Check out the room ahead and see if you have a chalkboard (bring chalk), whiteboard (bring markers and eraser), wireless microphone, or whatever. See where the lights are; see where the bathrooms are in the building.

I like to take a digital picture and pass around an attendance sheet for signatures and email addresses -- this generates its own seating chart that I can compare against the digital picture to start learning names. Learning names, even up to about 100 students, is very effective.

Bring a watch or clock, and check the time before class to see if it's accurate. Know when your class starts and ends, and adhere rigorously to those times.

Ditto for setting down grading breakdowns and rules (esp for what you're looking for, and what counts as cheating) in your syllabus, and adhering to them. Check out other people's syllabi online to get a sense of how this goes.

The first day, enter the room about 2 minutes early, and write up your name and contact info, the name of the class, and your outline for the day. When it's time for class to start, the students will be sitting around and talking. You will stand at the front of the class looking around, and they may not settle down. This can be unnerving, but don't let it get to you. Just begin with a slightly-louder-than-normal-voice "Good morning. (pause for them to settle a bit) Welcome to Class 101. I'm Professor X. (pause for them to settle a bit more)" Then you'll pass out syllabi or whatever.

In my experience, it's better to have them call you by a title (even if just Ms. X rather than Professor X) than by your first name alone. It's also a good idea not to give them your home phone number. You can still be friendly and have a personality, just don't try to be their buddy -- it puts you and them in a weird position, and various kinds of mischief can result.

(Not that this will happen, but Idcoyto is right about troublemakers -- if someone is chattering, or otherwise being disruptive, ask their name specifically and remember it; in class, use the expectant silence; after class you can ask them to stay and let them know that their behavior is inappropriate for a university classroom. If there is a troublemaker, don't let yourself get drawn into a battle of wills or feel like a student is eroding your authority; you are in charge, period, and no student can change that. But really, this is extremely *extremely* rare.)

Begin each class by saying "As you recall, last time we..." It takes students a couple of minutes to get back into the mental space of your class; give them that time by recapping the high points from last time. By the same token, anticipate the end of class so you have a few minutes at the end to say "Here's what we learned today. For next time, be thinking about..."

It's a good idea to sit in on the classes of other people in the department. Being a "student" in a class will help you to remember what it's like, especially if you haven't been in school for a while. It will be clear to you what works and what doesn't.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:48 PM on August 22, 2006


Just like to add, re: LobsterMitten
My students all call me "John" and they all have my home number. Far from being a problem, I like being able to help them in the midst of a project. They call from all sorts of places to ask "How do I...?" I recommend it.
posted by johngumbo at 2:28 PM on August 23, 2006


Will you be teaching in a computer lab? If so, lay down the law from the start about doing anything on the computer that is not related to what you are currently discussing in your class (i.e. checking sports scores, stock quotes, email, reading Metafilter).

If your school has a policy on computer lab use, make sure it (or a reference to the relevant page in the student handbook) is in your syllabus.

Use one of those overhead sheets and a dry erase marker to make a seating chart. It seems that most students tend to sit in the same desk class after class, but with an overhead sheet and a marker, you can make neat changes right in class - also helpful for taking attendance, if you need to.

SECONDING bringing your own chalk or markers! Also, an eraser! Make sure your markers write nice and dark.

If you are interested in some icebreakers for the first day of class, write me. I just went to a seminar for adjunct faculty where they spent half the time discussing lame and not-so-lame icebreakers that I probably won't use in my classes. But I would be happy to explain them all to you.

One thing I learned last semester (my first as a teacher) is that no matter how clear and concise and perfect you think your explanation of something is, someone in the class WILL NOT GET IT. But you may not find that out until the final exam or final project, and by then it's too late to help that person. So this semester, I intend to go out of my way to interact with my students (luckily, I teach a small section) in a way that I will (hopefully) be able to suss out their real level of understanding before it's too late. Last semester, I felt like Moses delivering the 10 Commandments. But I wasn't getting much real feedback from my students other than polite nods, which I mistook for complete fascination. This semester, I will know better!

Also, pretend you are trying to teach your mom or grandma. Use lots of patience and assume they are starting at zero. And then be even more patient, and start at -1.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 2:28 PM on August 23, 2006


re: johngumbo. Yes, I should have said: only give them your home phone number if you are really prepared to have them actually call you, sometimes late at night. I generally tell my students that email is the best way to get hold of me; this way they have to explain their question clearly in writing, and I have a chance to think about what will be the most useful answer. It's often more work for me, but I think they get more out of it, and it means that I don't get phone calls during dinner asking "Where in the book can I find this?". It may be quite different if your subject means they have practical projects that they might need help with.

The first name thing is useful if you are young-looking or petite or tend to dress casually. My initial inclination on these things was to be very anti-authority, and try to have students see me as an equal partner in an intellectual journey. But that made them uncomfortable, and it's really not accurate -- I am in charge, I know more, I issue the grades, no point in pretending otherwise. So now I have them use a title, and I find it works better for me. (While still allowing me to be caring, interested, funny, etc toward them.) It may also depend what your school is like and what the other teachers in your department do.
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:52 PM on August 23, 2006


The syllabus is a contract between you and your students. You should use it to let the students know what is expected of them and what is not acceptable behavior. You should probably refer them to the college's academic dishonesty policy and possible consequences. You have a much stronger legal leg to stand on if you have your expectations in writing from the very beginning. I always preferred it as a student to know what the rules were while I still had time to add or drop classes.

You should find out what the emergency procedures are on the campus. Who should you call if an emergency happens? What do you do with the students if a fire breaks out? The first thing the fire department will ask you is can you account for all of the students. That is one of the reasons it is a good idea to take roll. You should also tell the students whom to call or what to do in case an emergency happens and you are incapacitated. Sounds silly, but it has happened. Where is the fire extinguisher? First-aid kit?

Meet with your dean as soon as you can. Just a quick meeting to introduce yourself and find out if they have any expectations of you. You don’t want your first meeting to be over a crisis. Let your dean know at the first sign of a problem. They want to know, really. They hate surprises, like when a student shows up in tears at the door crying about how unfair you were, when they may just be angling to raise a grade to something they don't deserve.

Do figure out your method of grading for the semester and let the students know what that is. As a student I preferred to have several test to get to know the teachers style of testing before the mid-term or final. When there is only the final, it really bites to find out that the teacher was a trivia/detail freak rather than a broad concept kind of teacher, or vice versa.

Check to see if your campus has a mentoring program for new teachers. You might also see if there is a staff development office that can help you. Check for a part-time faculty handbook while you are at it. Does the campus give you an e-mail account? Voice-mail extension? Access to a copier?

Odds are you will have great students, but every once in a while there will be a raging jerk. One can take down the while class if not dealt with. That's were having the syllabus can be a lifesaver.

Relax. Have fun. Most of the students want to be there and want to learn what you can teach them. You may very well make a big difference in someone's life. On all too rare occasions you get to be there when a student will have an "Aha!" moment, when something clicks and they see the world in a new way. Give it time. You will find your style. Don't kick yourself too hard when you make mistakes, just learn from them. Learning is fun. Your job is to not get in the way of that. Oh, and congraulations.
posted by tbird at 12:51 AM on August 26, 2006


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