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[concordancia]

I certainly agree with this, concordancia.  Don't get me wrong there.  Being an expert is not the same as being a good pedagogue, but assuming someone is a decent teacher to start with, expertise in the material can only be an advantage.

You assume quite a bit.

More generally, I find these complaints about teaching outside of one's specialty quite amusing. In my department, the new hires are tasked with teaching "World History." All of it. (The new hires get stuck with it because the grizzled veterans prefer not to take it on).

What in the world, you may ask, is not encompassed by the topic, "World History"? Absolutely nothing. It is a course that covers all that ever was. Research expertise will get the new hires through maybe a week, if they're lucky. Otherwise, it's all about keeping a step ahead of the students.

What happens if I just show Mel Brooks and make the students write papers about why each skit is funny?

I, for one, would give you chile peppers if you did this.

Well, I have been known to show one of the skits and talk pretty extensively why it is even funnier/ sadder when you know the actual history instead of just laughing at the silliness of it all.

[whatsmyname]

In graduate school, I looked forward to TA-ing in courses that I did not have a background in. Obviously, I was TA-ing in courses within my discipline, but it was interesting, and sometimes necessary to, TA in areas outside of my specialization. My fellow graduate students did it all the time.

Think of it as an opportunity to learn something new. You are obviously much more expert in the field in general than your students, so don't worry about having their respect. It sounds like you are a perfectionist, and are worried about making a mistake and then getting reamed for it. You won't. Your biggest challenge will be in keeping these kids awake. Then you get to listen to their whining about grades. But questioning your authority or competence? It's about as likely as getting hit by a comet. These kids are incredibly overwhelmed and distracted as it is.

[frogfactory]

Thanks, and also to the other 'stop panicking, you can handle it' posters.  I'll probably be a whole lot more reassured after [first class on unfamiliar subject] this week. I appreciate the reassuring words.  And, believe it or not, I also appreciate the 'kick up the arse'/'suck it up' posts insofar as they tell me that my situation is not an unusual, yet the US higher ed system has not yet fallen apart, so it can't be that bad for the UG students.  So please don't think you've wasted your effort feeding a troll.

I'm still interested - what's a sock puppet?

[concordancia]

Since we have already told you to go look up all that biology stuff, I will give you this one.

[frogfactory]

Oh, I assumed it was a CHE-specific term (? like 'chime'?).  Fair enough, haven't seen it before on other fora.  I assume that accusation has been put away.  If not, and anyone really cares, do PM me to let me know what would be sufficient to verify my reality and non-puppetness.   

And yeah, looked up that biology stuff before I even OPed here, cheers for the advice ;)  Got given the UG textbook as a lovely welcome present.

[concordancia]

I am not sure that "chime" is so specific to CHE either, it is a logical outgrowth of phrases like "Chime in any time" or "I would like to chime in here."

Either way, giving you the link was meant as a peace offering - I give you fair warning now to google something before you ask around here. Part of that academic mentality.

[frogfactory]

Sure, appreciated.  Yes, I should have checked before assuming the term was specific to this place.  Some earlier post about how I knew the forum terminology despite being a new poster led me to assume that you have some of your own terms here (most of which seem to be shared with RYS anyway), and I guessed this was one of them.

I do understand where 'chime' comes from, and I think it's quite a nice term.  I haven't seen it elsewhere, though, and either it's not very google-able, or it's a CHE dialect usage. 

[whatsmyname]

I think you are panicking a little bit. It's based on perfectionism. It can be good, in the sense that it can motivate you to work very hard. But if you're TOO exacting, you'll freeze up; especially if you're hyper sensitive to criticism.

Some of the older troglodytes don't remember very well what it was like to start out apparently, so that's where a lot of this shut yer yap and get to work chatter comes from. You're handling it well.

[grasshopper]

I like to just outright lie to students when I'm teaching something I don't fully understand. No, really. Play a version of three truths and a lie, then ask them to figure out which statement is incorrect.

I think you are panicking a little bit. It's based on perfectionism.

I don't think so. I think it's the result of expectations clashing with reality. Her experience of education was in a different system. Now she's comparing the two systems, and of course the unfamiliar one comes up short.

Some of the older troglodytes don't remember very well what it was like to start out apparently, so that's where a lot of this shut yer yap and get to work chatter comes from. You're handling it well.

Actually, I'm still a grad student. Many of the posters who have responded are grad students, adjuncts, and junior faculty. A lot of the shut yer yap and get to work chatter is coming from our own current experiences, where we are asked every year to teach outside of our tiny dissertation topics. If we can do it, you can, too. And no, nobody will die and the system won't come crashing down.

[neutralname]

It is pretty common for grad students to want to convey many finer points of the field when they first start teaching  intro courses.  It takes a couple of years of teaching to knock that out of you.  It's one of the reasons I am often reluctant to hire grad students as adjuncts.  On the other hand, I also admire their idealism and find that it helps to stop me from aiming too low when teaching those courses.

[darkmatter]

Some of the older troglodytes don't remember very well what it was like to start out apparently, so that's where a lot of this shut yer yap and get to work chatter comes from.

Have you even read this thread?  Sheesh.

[aandsdean]

It is pretty common for grad students to want to convey many finer points of the field when they first start teaching  intro courses.  It takes a couple of years of teaching to knock that out of you.  It's one of the reasons I am often reluctant to hire grad students as adjuncts.  On the other hand, I also admire their idealism and find that it helps to stop me from aiming too low when teaching those courses.

YES.  When I first started as a TA, but even more in my first FT job, I really had to fight the "I want my students to know everything I know, and understand the way I understand, or else I'm a failure" impulse.

It's a bad one and one of the shorter roads to madness.

Oh, and I learned more from teaching 15 or so sections of Brit Survey I than I ever did in grad school.

[conjugate]

There is, or once was, a thread on common forum acronyms, so that one could look up such possibly unique usages as SLAC, 4/4 (3/3, 3/2, 2/2, etc.), TT, and so forth.

[frogfactory]

YES.  When I first started as a TA, but even more in my first FT job, I really had to fight the "I want my students to know everything I know, and understand the way I understand, or else I'm a failure" impulse.

It's a bad one and one of the shorter roads to madness.

 

I think that's worth printing and sticking above my desk.

[voxprincipalis]

There is, or once was, a thread on common forum acronyms, so that one could look up such possibly unique usages as SLAC, 4/4 (3/3, 3/2, 2/2, etc.), TT, and so forth.

It still exists:

http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,29829.0.html

... and it contains terms that are also part of common Internet parlance, not restricted to these fora. There are also many other very helpful links in the "Asked and Answered" section of the fora, which is our version of a FAQ. (The mods are getting around to updating that section so that newer threads are included, but it hasn't happened yet. Still, nothing there is really out of date.)

But those pesky other words, like "chime" and "smores" (or, more properly, "s'mores") are common words that cannot hide from the mighty power of Google, should the user care to invoke it.

VP