As a new instructor, nearly twelve years ago, I found myself often wondering if I was “doing it right”, as if there was one specific way to instruct, connect and manage a classroom. It was hard to see that at the time I was creating my own road map for excellence simply by showing up, being a life-long learner and giving 110% percent every class. When people who are interested in teaching on the college level ask me for tips and tricks, I tend to speak from the current knowing that I possess, and I forget what it was like to be a beginner. I forget what my first computer science class was like and how I felt like a fish out of water standing in front of twenty-five adults posing as an expert on my subject matter. The biggest challenge I faced was lacking confidence in my own abilities and feeling as though I didn’t belong there. Which I now know was the farthest from the truth. My first course was truly a crash and burn undertaking, I was over-prepared some days and under-prepared others. Sometimes a student would correct me and this would completely throw me off for the rest of the day.
Let’s just say, I have come a long way since those days and now I tend to see the classroom as my own personal playground, filled with innovative ideas, thought provoking topics and an inclusive culture. When I began to focus my attention on how I could make my students’ lives better, I became better. My classroom became less about me and more about whether or not my students were gaining something substantial they could later take into the world and use to do outstanding work.
I’ve compiled a short list of five helpful tips for new instructors that have expanded and improved my teaching, far above and beyond that very first class I taught.
1. The professor and the student are on the same team. Each semester, I have come in contact with a student, that many instructors might feel are hindering their classroom or challenging them inappropriately. My goal in those situations is to always remain calm and remember that the instructor is in charge of the classroom's culture. If other students see you go tit for tat with a student they lose confidence in your ability to lead them. Never adopt the attitude of seeing a student as an enemy, see them as someone who is there to learn, not only the subject matter but social nuances too. Show them appropriate behavior through being a quality example.
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel. When I first began, I had all of these big ideas about ways to improve upon the education system and take the industry by storm. There is nothing wrong with this mindset, but trying to do it all the first semester may be more challenging than necessary. Use the first few semesters to take inventory, learn from others who are already doing the job well and only make a few substantial changes at a time. It is always important to see how an institution operates already before addressing issues that may not even exist in that institution. Respect the system that has already been established before you arrived, study it and then make your changes. You might find that your time is better spent becoming more familiar with the text and material instead of requesting a new way of doing things.
3. Get familiar with templates. I use templates for everything. This piggybacks on the idea of not trying to reinvent the wheel right away. Everyone already knows you’re brilliant and capable, that’s why they hired you. It is a good idea to spend the summer before the semester creating PowerPoint templates that you can just drop data into, and also a template for your syllabus, classroom expectations, projects, lesson plans, etc. There is nothing more time consuming than recreating documents each time a new semester begins. Templates also help you keep updated info since all of the data isn't already there, it would be easy to add new industry standards for your subject matter.
4. Go to educational workshops and conferences. The idea of being a life-long learner should not be just in theory but also in practice. I attend at least four educational conferences/workshops per year, a couple I travel to and the others are local. It is always helpful to know what is being adopted in the leading-edge areas of higher learning and classroom technology. Education is always shifting and evolving to meet the needs of industry, and in order to remain a productive member of this world, it is important to become aware of any new and exciting educational standards. It was at an educational conference ten years ago that higher learning advocates from across the country were debating the validity of online education, now it is a staple at most major and ivy league universities and colleges. These conferences are also great places to network if you need a research partner, a new job or just a like-minded crowd.
5. Keep your workload light. This doesn’t mean that you should barely assign deliverables so you won’t have to grade, but when you’re first beginning, it is important that you don’t feel over-whelmed and that you return graded assignments when you say you will. Your word is everything to the students, once they see you slack, they slack too. Therefor, assigning a 10-15 page paper with a turn around time of one week might be too aggressive for a new instructor with a class of 20 or more students. Another way to assign writing assignments is in chunks. Let them do about 200 words per week, something that can be graded in a day or two and this way they’re still, writing, reading, comprehending and summarizing their ideas; but not all in one very large paper.
If you’re anything like me, you like to hit the ground running and show the employer why they made a good decision in hiring you for the job. But, as I understand now, it takes time to innovate and become fully confident in your abilities in the classroom, to make mistakes without feeling like a bad instructor and to connect with students in a way that makes them not only enjoy but request your classes each semester.
I hope these tips are helpful, and remember, as instructor, your goal is to be caring while imparting knowledge, and over time, everything else will fall in place. Be patient and persistent.
Jameelah Ra'oof MIS, MS
Coordinator of Teaching, Learning & Academic Excellence
Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE)
Texas Woman's University
