One of the things you can count on in academic life is that sooner or later, the new term will begin. With it will come a bunch of fresh faces, maybe some fresh courses, and always, blessedly, the chance for a fresh start. Maybe you’ve got your personal routine down pat for getting ready for the first day. but if you’re new to teaching, or if you’d like to do something different this year, then perhaps the ProfHacker archives can help.
Take Care of Yourself
George reminds us that “your stress level is about to go up significantly” and offers some good suggestions about how to make plans now to manage your future stress, including learning to say “no” to some requests, and practicing good self-care.
Paying attention to what you say and how you respond to those around you can help you maintain an optimistic, calm mindset when you need it the most. Jason resolves to avoid the trap of complaining about “these kids today” and I suggest that we dispense with the metaphor of the salt mines to describe our work.
Do a Little Planning
Jason reminds us that although you will be in class every day, some of your students may not, due to the add/drop period. Thinking ahead about how you will handle shifting enrollments for the first few days can help you ensure that you and all of your students are making the best use of classroom time.
Billie discusses two structured models for lesson planning, Nels explains why he creates GTD action lists for students, and George offers a simple way to have students show their work and build discussion.
What Kind of Roles Will You Play in Your Classroom?
Jason writes about how serving as a coach has influenced his approach to giving feedback and communicating with students. Julie suggests that instructors interested in using technology in their teaching should try to balance being a role model, acting as tech support, and being a cheerleader.
What will you actually do on the first day?
Although Brian’s excellent post “So Now You’re a Teacher…” is aimed at new instructors, it contains useful tips and reminders about the nitty-gritty details of teaching that anyone could find helpful, such as: take a look at your classroom beforehand, bring your own whiteboard markers, and be explicit about how you want your students to address you. I offer some tips on Learning Student Names.
Jason wrote about how he sets expectations for students on the first day by doing four things: going through his course policies; telling a story about his own learning process; introducing the course wiki; and talking about literary interpretation. His post includes some useful links to a section of his syllabus and other resources.
If you’ve spent the summer in t-shirts and flip-flops, it can feel a bit disconcerting to have to think about what to wear to class. Check out guest author Courtney Danforth’s three-part series on The Academic Wardrobe: Habitude; Planning; and Getting Dressed.
Are there other first day topics you’d like to see us cover? Let us know in the comments!
[Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user ydhsu]
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5 Responses to From the Archives: Preparing for the First Week of Classes
phdeviate - August 9, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Great reminders of ProfHacker posts and pointers to things I missed the first time around.I’m prepping a class at a new university for the first time in a while, and I’m finding it difficult to remember all the different things I have to master, and quickly:- How do I put materials on reserve, and what are the resources available in the library *to* reserve?- What are the procedures for ordering books to the bookstore?- Designing office hours when I don’t know my office yet.- Figuring out how to “pitch” my syllabus when I don’t know the caliber of this university’s students’ preparation. It goes on and on. When we talk about prepping a new class, sometimes we forget the things we have to relearn even if we’re prepping a class we’ve taught before, but at a different university.
peril - August 9, 2010 at 5:31 pm
As the start of a new semester I think it’s also a good time to try something new- that said, it’s important to make sure that your tried and true methods of doing something are in place to serve as a safety net in case your cool new thing falls on it’s face.One thing I will be doing this semester is collecting papers from students with a cool Dropbox script that I’ve added to my website. This gives my students a simple point of contact for me (the LMS software here is terrible to say the least) and it means that when my students submit papers, they are automatically delivered to my iPad!Write up (along with shameless link to my own blog drperil.com): Accepting files with DropboxHope you all find this useful :) ~ Aaron
liz491966 - August 10, 2010 at 3:02 pm
Does anyone do icebreakers with their students to help them get to know one another better? I can’t come up with anything that doesn’t seem hopelessly cheesy.
glomzx - August 11, 2010 at 7:39 am
Just about every semester for decades I would rethink the upcoming courses to make changes despite having taught them many times before. Why I don’t know–some sort of masochistic self-flagellating perfection drive presumably. My suggestion: Don’t do that. Tweaking is one thing, major changes and experiments are another. If it worked before, leave it alone. Make the minor changes (calendar, syllabus updates, etc), but resist the tedious reworks. Finally, this semester I’m heeding that advise and it’s very liberating. The increase in time and decrease in pressure are breaths of fresh air.
billiehara - August 11, 2010 at 5:27 pm
I have a suggestion, @liz491966. This suggestion works for me, and it’s something that I use throughout the term, not just as an ice breaker at the beginning of the semester. I teach smaller classes (~25 students), and I take roll each day. Instead of calling out the student’s name, “John?”, I ask really weird questions. The students must then answer that question and that’s how I know he/she is present. I often group students by their answers, “OK, all of you who liked some version of chocolate ice cream, over here!” Or, I’ll use the answers to the questions in some kind of activity for that day.The students, then, have the shared experience of living through my weird questions, but they also find out things about teach other that they can share.Hope that’s helpful.