Michael
Day asked:
What one piece of advice or information do you wish that you
had
been given just before you jumped from the frying pan into the fire of
your
first FYcomp class?
Responses:
Greetings.
The one
piece of advice I wish I'd been given?
Always
have a backup plan for when the server goes down, which it will.
Also:
invite the systems administrator or staff to sit in on your classes
whenever
they want; educate them about what you do and why you do it. When you
need
support from them, which you will, they'll be much more invested in
your needs
and concerns.
And,
um, make backups.
Michael
Moore, Michigan Tech
I wish
someone had told me not to take myself so seriously when I faced my
first
class, knees knocking audibly and stomach in knots, when I was barely
21. Maybe
no advice will help reduce first-time jitters, but over the semester
new
teachers might aim to trust themselves.
My
advice: Relax and enjoy
working with
students. They want to enjoy your
class, too, and most of them would like to get to know you when your
guard is
down. Don't be afraid to "wing
it" if you have a new idea for getting an idea across as you walk down
the
hall toward the classroom that you hadn't thought of until that moment. Make plans, but never be limited by them. If
you're a night person, warming up for early morning classes by dancing
to wild
music wouldn't hurt, either. (I loosen
up by singing Scottish folk songs with a tape as I drive to campus). Smile.
Margaret
*******************************
Margaret
Barber
University
of Southern Colorado
barber@uscolo.edu
Along
the same lines as Margaret---I wish I had been told that there are 20
other
people in my classroom who are *also* responsible for creating a good
learning
environment. One first-day trick
that
I use: ask students to interview each
other in small groups (2-3) for about 10 mins., and then have them
introduce
each other to the rest of the class. If
students seem comfortable, I'll join in with a group.
That breaks up the monotony of the "here's who I am"
introduction (and we hear more information), gives them a chance to
know better
at least one other person, and it fills the classroom with talk instead
of
expectant silence.
Karen
I wish
somebody had told me, "Your students didn't learn to write like
*you*
learned to write."
Kate
Coffield, American University, Cairo
<snip>
>
Also: invite the systems administrator or staff to sit in on your
classes
>
whenever they want; educate them about what you do and why you do it.
When
> you
need support from them, which you will, they'll be much more invested
> in
your needs and concerns.
I think
this is a great idea. When I worked as a faculty computing specialist
at
Michigan Tech, I should have invited myself to sit in on the classes of
people
with whom I was working. Sometimes it's hard to have people observe you
as you
teach, but honestly, if they are there to find out how you use what
they
provide, I'm betting they will have a different perspective--in
addition to a
few surprises, I bet they will contribute some suggestions and be
better able
to anticipate a problem or two...
kk
(also at a new institution and quickly becoming overwhelmed)
- - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Karla
Saari Kitalong
University
of Central Florida
kitalong@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
- - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Michael:
One
thing I tried that seemed to work well was to invite the computing
staff to
come and talk to the TAs during their orientation.
That way they could tell the TAs what kind of support was
available and what they needed to do to set up listservs, student
accounts,
etc., and the TAs could put faces with the "they" in computing
support.
I
remember vividly my first day in the classroom as a TA (since it was
only five
years ago)--and knocking knees and butterflies are not restricted to
21-year-old TAs! I wish I had been told
what I learned on my own: that there's
no magic formula for teaching writing (at least, I haven't found one). It's trial and error, and what works for one
group of students won't work with another group, and vice versa. Probably the single most important thing
I've learned is to work WITH the students (we're all in this
together--they
WANT to succeed, and I'm there to help them, not to "instill"
learning). It's a team effort, and the
students seem WANT help :) Now I
generally start off by asking students to tell me what they need, what
they
hope to get from the class, and then I try to help them succeed in
reaching
their own goals.
******************************************************************************
Janice
R. Walker
jwalker@gsvms.cc.gasou.edu
Dept.
of Writing and Linguistics
(912) 871-1327
Georgia
Southern University
(912) 681-0783 (Fax)
http://www2.gasou.edu/facstaff/jwalker
"THE
TROUBLE WITH THE RAT RACE IS THAT
EVEN IF YOU WIN, YOU'RE STILL A RAT."
--Lily
Tomlin
******************************************************************************
The
advice I wish I had been given: You're not there for them to LIKE you.
You
don't have to be their friend. Of
course, they WANT to like us as teachers, as much as we want to like
them. But the first year writing classroom
isn't
so much about popularity as it is about building learning networks and
helping
them take responsibility for the incredible high you get from making
connections. Help them to learn they
are there to share in the credit for what happens in the classroom,
that
they're facilitating a classroom ecology for teaching and learning. Help them think about what creates a strong
ecological environment for teaching and learning. What
was their best learning moment? Their best
teaching moment?
What elements were present in those ecologies of their own
teaching and
learning?
Judy
Williamson, Brown University
It does
absolutely no good to be exasperated when the majority of the students
haven't
done the work for the day. It's not
their statement of your personal worth--it's evidence of a million
things from
how busy they are to how well they do or don't understand their
individual
responsibilities for making a class useful--and how useful they
actually think
this class will be. (Remember those
teachers who swept dramatically out of the room when they found out no
one had
the assignment done? Not very good
theater, although you did get a laugh and a day off.)
But don't salvage the class meeting yourself--that will just
send
the message that if they don't do any work, you're prepared to do it
all. Instead, tell the students, okay,
here are
the goals for today, and here are some options I planned for getting
there, but
they all depend on your having done X or Y or Z. So
now what do we do with this time today in order to keep moving
toward the goal?
And
then you have to wait for them to come up with something something, and
while
you're waiting you should try to look expectant rather than ticked off,
and you
have to do whatever they think up (as long as it isn't "forget it all
and
go down the street for a beer"), and then at the end you have to ask
them
what adjustments have to be made in the plan for next time, and you
have to do
all this without ever even seeming to point out that things would have
been so
much better if they'd done the homework so they could use your plan.
This
way they get to experience directly their responsibility for the
quality of the
class. For most groups, this is enough
to make them start going along with the plan.
For a few groups, you have to repeat this procedure periodically
throughout the term. When you're really
lucky, though, the class members start to LIKE the idea that they have
responsibility for the class, and they ask to have input in all the
plans.
Hm,
Michael, you were probably looking for short pithy statements, but I
gotta tell
you, if I had known the above technique right off instead of having to
think it
up with a bunch of other TA's one day when we were all sitting in the
group
office companionably pulling our hair out and trying to figure out what
one
does when like 80 percent of a class has never participated in a
revision
workshop because they never bring their drafts, I would have much
cooler-looking hair today.
Tari Fanderclai
Speaking
as a former TA (not so long ago either)--I'd let them know that it's
okay to
make mistakes. Sometimes, I came down really hard on myself--that I had
slipped
off that teacher-god pedestal, dang it! And because I had that
teacher-as-god
image in my head, it made me feel like a fraud, standing at the front
of the
room, spouting my supposed wisdom. Let them know that it's okay to have
those
feelings but remind them that teachers are human beings who can soar
AND fall
flat on their faces.
Finally,
encourage them to imitate the best practices, and, then, once they feel
more
comfortable, to experiment.
***********************
Michelle
Rogge Gannon
University
of South Dakota
WELCOME
BACK MICHAEL!!!
:-)
Ok,
some of this is me, some is Dave Schwalm, some just the result of doing
this
for 12 years and knowing lots of other people who do it:
Stuff
for the first day (and the rest of your life) as a FYC teacher:
1. When
you think you are at your all-time worst, some student will walk up and
say
"you're the best English teacher I ever had"
2. When
you think you are at your all-time best, you will overhear a student
whisper
"this class sucks."
3. You
probably did not take First Year Composition, you took the advanced
composition
track. Regardless, it was not as hard for you as it is for many of your
students. Comparing them to yourself and other English majors will be
fruitless
and frustrating. Don't do it (much).
4. Do
not eat before your first class meeting, the first day. If you have to
go into
the john and heave right before the bell, at least it will be a dry
heave and
your clothes will look ok, even if your face is slightly green (hey...
I'm not
kidding).
5. If
you have stage fright, take note cards or an outline, practice your
remarks the
night before, and then USE that energy in the classroom, channel it to
some
activity.
6.
Students WANT to like you. Even if you're not their favorite teacher,
they will
"adopt" you into their new college family. Like they do with an
overbearing auntie or uncle, they will tolerate a great deal from you
that a
stranger would never be given the privilege of inflicting on them.
Respect
that.
7.
Always leave the office door open when a student is conferencing with
you.
8. If
you hear a student getting angry or verbally abusive with a fellow
Teaching
Assistant who is obviously ill-equipped to deal with it, grab a manila
folder,
knock on their door-frame, point to your watch, and say "Ummm... did
you
forget we have that meeting in five minutes? I'll wait for you, if
you're still
going."
9. Work
long and hard on your syllabus. The more planning you do up front, the
less
hair-pulling you have to do the morning before teaching, when you had
to work
on your own term paper for a grad seminar the night before.
10.
Students are basically good people. They don't want to hurt you or
insult you,
they just have different priorities. They have lives too.
11.
Disclose only as much information about yourself as you are comfortable
with.
If you don't want to talk about yourself, be straight about that. If
you do,
remember to be professional and don't burden them.
12. On
the topic of being professional, that is what you are now. Remember
that when
you are in close proximity to photocopiers, secretarial staff, ringing
phones,
office doorways, fellow TA's and computer labs.
13. To
this day, I plan to have lunch or dinner with a good friend who loves
me on the
day I hand back the first batch of graded papers. The classroom
honeymoon is
truly over on that day. ;-)
14. Try
to give an overview of the class period at the beginning.
15.
Learn their names as fast as you can. Tell them to correct you when you
mangle
a pronunciation or forget what they prefer to be called.
16. If
a student points out to you that he/she is Native American, it is ok to
ask
"What nation?"
17.
Learn from your students.
18. Be
clear about your office location, office hours, office phone or message
phone
number, and your email address AND email habits.
19.
Clean off the dry-erase or chalkboard when your class period is over.
If you
changed settings in the Elmo or the computer driving it, return them to
the defaults
(unless there is a good reason not to).
20.
Lighten up. You are not a brain surgeon, and nobody dies or is blinded
for life
if you make a mistake. Own up to it, be on your students' side, show
them the
written things that bring you joy. Your joy is contagious. It is not
illegal to
have FYC students read "Mending Wall" or "To His Coy
Mistress."
21. 90%
of life is just showing up. Tell your students to show up. Take
attendance.
When one of them complains bitterly about being lost, glance at your
attendance
sheet. You will find that much student confusion arises from
absenteeism.
That's
All I can think of right now, michael. You have permission to use any
or all of
this. Most of it comes from people older and wiser than me.
CeeJ
(Cynthia Jeney), Missouri Western University
Good Luck and Best Wishes!!!
The
best single piece of advice I got came from David Jolliffe who was
director of
composition at my university.
He
said, "when you teach a new course, teach it three times: once to get
it
wrong, once to get it right, and the third time to know that the second
time
wasn't a fluke."
That
gave me room to fail, and that made all the difference those times that
my
experiment with a given course design didn't come off the way I thought
it
would.
Keith
Dorwick, Ph.D.
Southwestern
Louisiana State University
The
best piece of advice I got on what to do the very first day EVER I
taught was
to sit down. I remember not
understanding why the guy who advised the TAs told us that, but then I
was so
unbelivably nervous on that first day that if I hadn't sat down, I
probably
would have passed out or something.
Not
computer related perhaps, but still...
--Steve
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Steven
D. Krause * Assistant Professor, English
614G
Pray-Harrold Hall * Eastern Michigan University
Ypsilanti,
MI 48197 * http://www.online.emich.edu/~skrause
Michael,
It
occured to me after posting my 'first day advice' that i'd overlooked
the best
advice i ever got, from tilly warnock: "teach from your strengths."
I
always took that to mean not from a book, not the way you were taught,
not what
you think the program wants, not what your colleagues do, but from what
you
know.
She
told me that my first year as a teacher.
It
works.
:)
Best,
Michael
Moore, Michigan Tech
I would
add learn to not be afraid to make mistakes, and learn to laugh both at
yourself and with your students.
Sabrina Peters-Whitehead
I
haven't read these carefully, but my advice is three-fold:
Be
well-prepared so you can offer students a friendly, confident smile;
Know
enough about what you want to accomplish in the course so students
realize they
will have an interesting productive time in your class;
Communicate
your respect for students in as many ways as possible as soon as
possible.
Patty
Ericsson
Rhetoric
and Technical Communication
Michigan
Technological University
On Mon,
16 Aug 1999, Patricia Ericsson wrote:
>
Communicate your respect for students in as many ways as possible as
soon
> as
possible.
I want
to add my "What Patty said!" here.
It's *amazing* to me how students respond to being respected. If you treat them like people who enjoy
challenging intellectual inquiry, if you respect their questions and
their
minds, there's practically no limit to what they'll do.
Marcy Bauman, University of Michigan, Dearborn
What cj
said.
What
Patti said.
Actually,
it's all excellent advice.
Here's
mine:
First,
write on an index card (4x6 or 5x7) an outline or list of what you want
to
accomplish, in the order in which it should be done. Put that card (use
a
colored card, like green or yellow) on the podium and go back to it as
the
class proceeds.
Second,
once you have a plan, play it out BEFORE you go to class.
Talk your way through it. "Good
morning class. I'm Ralph Bunche, your fy
comp instructor.
Blah, Blah, Blah." I'm serious
about talking it out loud. The biggest
problem I had as a beginning teacher and the biggest problem I see
beginning
teachers in my classes trying to deal with is time.
You simply don't know how much time it will take.
But if you talk through your part and
imagine a classroom of students and try to mentally see them talking
and
walking through the activities you have planned, you at least have a
starting
point.
Third,
do some kind of get acquainted activity the first day.
In fact, do it before you read the syllabus
to them. I like one I borrowed from
Martha Petry; each student must tell two facts and one surprising fact
about
themselves. However, the teacher starts
it, so they have a model. And you help
if they can't come up with anything surprising (I suggest to them that
don't
have to make it racy in fact that they don't say anything that would
embarass
the teacher, just something that maybe not everyone would guess about
them;
even their favorite offbeat food.)
Fourth,
do some writing in class the first day.
In fact, do some writing in class every day.
Set your timer to ring (or your watch to beep) 5-10 minutes
before the end of class and have everybody give you 5-10 minutes on a
topic of
your choice. Eventually, a topic of
their choice.
Fifth,
you can sit down (especially useful if you think that otherwise you
might fall
down.) Or you can walk around. I like to walk around. Then
I can really see them and they stay
awake better. I connect better with
them if I'm closer.
Sixth,
learn their names. Show them
respect. Tell them what you expect,
what you hope to achieve, and what THEY will get out of your class if
everything goes according to plan.
Don't expect to know everything.
And if you do something stupid, you'll have to go back and 'fess
up and
try to do better.
I've
got a lot more, but this should be a good beginning.
Nancy
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
Nancy
Tucker
ntucker@ibm.net
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
One
thing no one really ever said to me directly:
The most important reason to do all this preparation is not that
things
will go like you planned them--they almost never do--in fact, if
nothing
unplanned happens, you should probably stop and take pulses. But somehow having worked up a plan and
rehearsed/imagined your way through it leaves you ready to think on
your feet
and change the plan as necessary.
The
other thing Nancy and others made me think about: I'm
one of those lucky people who doesn't get stage fright.
People like me have to be told twice that
it's important to plan out and go over what you're going to do.
And
here's one I don't think anyone mentioned yet:
Silence in a classroom is okay.
Don't hurry to fill it. Let
people think.
Tari Fanderclai
I used
to go by my first name as a teacher, but when I got here it was
suggested I
stop that practice....
The
best advice I could give is have fun and be, well, not necessarily
yourself,
but play to your strengths. Some of the worst teaching I have ever seen
was
from new teachers who were trying to emulate somebody who they were
not, or be
someone in front of the classroom they were not capable of pulling off.
A lot
of successful teaching is finding the right teaching style that works
for you in
that setting.
Scott
L. Jones
Slj7@cornell.edu
Adding
my bit to the pot: Be ready for anything!
I also
like to have students write the first day. The first college class I
taught, I
borrowed an idea and had them write the story their mom always tells
about them
when they have company. Any who wanted to were then invited to share
with the
class. One student wrote/told about how his mother ran over him when he
was a
child, squashed certain parts, and now he can never have children. He
talked
about how humiliated he was whenever his mom told people that. I was
never sure
if he was kidding, if the telling was cathartic, or if I had merely
added to
the humiliation. He was a somewhat troubled young man, and an absolute
literalist--wanted specific, detailed instructions and followed them
unimaginatively and to the letter. Whatever, I don't use that
particular prompt
any more!
Sometimes
I have students write two facts about themselves, one of which is a
lie--and
the rest of the class guesses which one. That's usually interesting and
gives
students a chance to share unique experiences. Also helps me learn
names: ____
is the one who......
Annie
Olson
I don't
get stage fright in front of a class either.
(Just a few little excited butterflies) But part of the reason I
don't
is because I've talked my way all through a lesson -- that's my system. I write down what I want to do because once
I start rolling, I'm off and I dont' want to forget anything important
that
must be done.
As far
as silence, YES. When
you ask a question, give people a few
seconds to process the question, a few more to gather their thoughts, a
few
more to formulate an answer. In other
words, wait. Silence is not your
enemy. To remind myself that I'm
waiting, I sometimes put a finger on my lips.
Nancy
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
Nancy
Tucker
ntucker@ibm.net
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
"they
ain't paying you enough, and they never will, but if you are in it for
the pay
you are in the wrong place." is the first thing I would tell them,
followed by "if you don't still love this job 16 weeks from now you are
in
the wrong place."
John
Ronan, University of Florida