Now that the semester is four or five weeks old, here are five things to reflect on and then do.
(1) Recognize that you should in all probability go slower in your courses. It’s not the amount you teach that’s significant. It’s the amount that your students learn and think about and find worth remembering. Courses are like people. Each one is different. Each has a different personality. Some are quicker. Some are slower. And you can’t treat a course this semester the same as you treated a course last semester. It doesn’t really work that way.
(2) Ask your students how they’re doing. Not in that touchy-feely caring way that makes you sound too nurturing. Just ask them if the course they’re taking with you is doing something positive for them. Encourage honesty, and point out that you’re not necessarily just looking for what’s wrong. Ask them if the pace of the course is right, if the assignments and readings are something they feel is worth their time. You may not want to do this because hey, you’re the teacher, you’ve taught this course before, and you know what’s best. That’s not really true that you know what’s best. You know what you think is best. Your students actually know what is working. So, ask them.
(3) Do something in a class that takes you out of your comfort zone, yet is totally on-target in terms of the course content. Changing things up is good for everyone, and it reveals a different side of you.
(4) Create an assignment that requires only one page (about 250 words) of reading. And then have each student write one 10-word-or-less profound sentence about the reading. Point out that what they write should not be an opinion about the reading, but a sentence that they would say resulted from thinking critically about what they read. Spend a class session discussing their responses. Use the Socratic method.
(5) Evaluate your own workload. There are limits to the amount of responsibility and work one person can take on. Too often in a department, the more good work you do, the more work you get to do. But a person cannot be an excellent teacher and an excellent researcher and an excellent committee member and an excellent faculty recruiter and an excellent colleague. Evaluate what you are being asked to do and determine if it’s time to speak up.
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