[This is a guest post by William Patrick Wend, a lecturer in the Liberal Arts program at Burlington County College in Pemberton NJ. He can be found online and on Twitter at @wpwend42.--@jbj]
One of the first things I tell my students on day one of class is that I failed every class my first semester of college. Well, I got a D in one, but that was a pretty major exaggeration of my skills. Some of this was my own fault; I was barely prepared for college due to a number of circumstances involving emotional issues, learning disabilities, and other concerns. However, some of the problems I had my first semester involved awful professors. My stories are no more interesting or unique than anyone else’s, so no need to repeat them.
Knowing that, one day, my goal was to become a college professor, and I did take the long way to get there, I sat with a few friends in the student center on the final day of classes and lamented the ways I had been wronged by a few of my professors. At one point, I blurted out something like “I’d never do that!” On a napkin, I made a list of the three or four things they had done I found to be wrong. Later, I wrote about them in a pseudonymous online journal as I progressed through community college.
When I transferred to a four year school, I really righted myself as I became immersed in the Literature program at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. At the end of the semester, I sat in a different student center with a friend and we went over how great our semesters had been. In particular, we had loved our Literary Research course with Dr. Thomas Kinsella, who would go on to be my mentor and great friend as the years passed. As we ran through all the great aspects of the class, and his teaching style, I began to think back on that list I’d made of the bad things my first semester professors had done and an idea hit me. I started writing down every interesting teaching trick Tom had done during the semester. I wrote down assignments that worked, and interesting paper topics.
When I went home that night, I started typing up the list. That summer, I made it two columns and began adding “bad” things too. The “good” list was much longer as time went on. As the semesters passed, I graduated, went through the Homeric quest known as graduate school, and got my MA, I ended up with a document chronicling a tool box of teaching styles, ideas, and methods that I had seen work for other professors. I also had a list of “bad” things I would never do in my own classroom.
A few months after receiving my MA, I was hired as an adjunct at the school where I now I teach full time. I only had three or four weeks to prepare for my first set of classes. I sat at my desk each day with that document, taking portions of it, trying to build my own courses. My first batch of Composition I assignments all came from professors I had as a students. Papers I enjoyed writing, and knew would work. My policies on revision, attendance, and technology were all inspired by what I had documented on that list. My teaching style was highly influenced by what I loved about my favorite professors, which I had written down as well.
I don’t know what I would have done without a list like this. When my students who are going to teach ask me for advice I tell them to start making a list like mine. Create a classroom filled with things you would have loved as a student. Many of them will work out fine; honestly, some will not. As I say to my students, your mileage will vary. When you get your first classroom, having a list of what you love and know can work is a great first step.
Did you keep a list like this as a student? How about now that you are teaching? What other lists did you keep as a student?
Photo by Flickr user ladyada / Creative Commons licensed
Follow Profhacker through your favorite RSS reader: 
