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Reader Question of the Week: Teaching Assistance, Part IV

Here is the question we put before readers several weeks ago:

M.R. in Lowell, MA, asks: I am going to start teaching full time at a university this fall. Any suggestions?

And here is one last selection of the answers we got in response:

(V): Prepare your PowerPoint slides carefully. Make them clear (24 pt Calibri, Ariel, or Helvetica) so they can be seen even by the students in the back. Use color. Use illustrations, drawings, etc., where that makes sense. Your lectures will be much more effective if the slides are interesting. No more than seven bullet points per slide. Use PowerPoint's animation features to have lines of text, figures, etc. appear when you get to them. Putting the entire slide up all at once will cause the students to read the entire slide and not listen to you. Have the slides illustrate all the important points you are making well. Someone seeing only the slides should get all the points you were making in your lecture. Tell the students they can download the slides later from your webpage so they don't have to frantically take notes.

(Z): This is a pretty unpleasant observation to start with, but: The administrators of the university are not your friends. A surprising percentage of the time, they are not your allies, either. They have their imperatives, and you have yours, and the two lists are often pretty far out of alignment, even if you theoretically have the same overall mission (i.e., to educate the students). If you are ever asked to meet one-on-one with someone who has the rank of associate dean or higher (maybe even someone who has the rank of department chair or higher), take a witness to accompany you, or record the conversation, or both. If you are unionized, the union will provide a representative to accompany you.

In terms of the classroom, teach the class that you would want to take if you were the student and not the professor. Always ask yourself the question "Is this the best way to teach/explain this?" and don't teach things in a particular way just because that's the way it's always been done. Sometimes the way it's always been done is the right way, but that is a conclusion that should be reached through active analysis.

As to the information you provide, always ask yourself "How is this useful to a student in the 21st century, and in this class?" I had professors who taught survey courses as if they were graduate seminars. Few students, if any, benefited from all the stupid little details we had to memorize. I do not believe in forcing students to learn information based on some vague claim of "cultural literacy" or the like.

If you can, try to get some experience in performance. Take an improv class, sign up for Toastmasters, get a role in a local community theater play, go to open mic night at the local comedy club. A lecture is a performance, and you want to learn how to read and respond to an audience.

May the force be with you. Always.

(L): The effectiveness of your teaching and the ways you communicate the various concepts depends a great deal on the subject and the goals of your class. The subjects I teach are litigation classes where lectures aren't as important as incorporating practice sessions for the techniques they're learning. Luckily, the classes are small and there are lots of opportunities for students to give oral presentations or otherwise demonstrate their understanding of the subject. I try to keep things topical and interesting, so I regularly update the fictional cases they are assigned to work on. For one assignment (back when this was a hot topic), students had to either defend Britney Spears in her efforts to end her conservatorship or argue for continued supervision - —it got very spirited. But the goal is to teach them how to put together coherent, well-organized and persuasive arguments. Using an issue that they are already engaged in and passionate about really gets those synapses firing and they are much more open to corrections and suggestions for improvement from the teacher. Plus, it doesn't hurt to get bonus points for picking a cool topic.

Anecdotes about real world experiences also go a long way to cementing abstract concepts. Some of my war stories really help to drive home important points—especially those stories where I really screwed up—hopefully the students can learn from my rookie mistakes! It's also helpful for students to know that mistakes happen and most are not fatal, only a minor setback. But it's important that they acknowledge the error, especially if it's in a court case, fix it and learn from it.

Good luck!

M.B. in Cleveland, OH: As a new teacher, the best advice I got was, "Choose your idiosyncrasy."

The students are going to identify something that defines you. Much better that you make this easy for them (creative ties, flowery dresses, a fun catchphrase) than that they come up with it on their own (scratching your ear a lot, wearing the same pants every Monday, a less flattering catchphrase).

G.A. in Albany, NY: I taught (part time) for eight years at a university, both grad and undergrad, and here are my top suggestions:

The first day of class is the most important day, because it sets the goals, the tone and the discipline for the class. Be on time, introduce yourself, give a short overview of your background, explain why this class is important, go over the syllabus and start on whatever material you can for day one. They are going to be sitting there with no idea who you are or why they should be listening to you.

Create a comprehensive syllabus, print it and hand it out the first day of class, and read it to them. The student is paying for a service, and it makes complete sense to explain what is expected and what their responsibilities are in this class.

Be prepared for students to make mistakes, and help them get past the issue if they are willing. This attitude starts Day 1. For example, I explained the most common mistake that students made in my class. In my instance, this wasn't a class you can cram for. If you didn't understand what I was saying in week 3, for example, then by week 6, you're completely lost. I explained it like this:
You can't cram for this class. Information and techniques build week after week. If you sense you are lost, talk to me after class and we can discuss how to move forward. If you're lost, that's a problem, and I am here to help with problems. But don't come up to me a week before the final and ask for help because you haven't understood anything I said for the last 2 months. You don't have a problem, you have a disaster, and I can't help with disasters.

Be as flexible and fair as you reasonably can. I occasionally caught some flak for this, but I had this rule which I never advertised in the syllabus. I had a mandatory short meeting with any student who got below a B on the midterm. I wanted to know what happened, what can be done to bring the grade up. And I explained to them that I was willing to make a deal. If you put the work in, and you can get a B or greater on the final, I'll forget the midterm. I'll grade you solely on your final.

Students will really appreciate flexibility, as long as it helps them. I'll always remember a professor from my grad school days who should have retired years earlier. In a 15-week Mon/Wed/Fri class, he walked in day one, and canceled every other Friday's class because he was busy. He explained there was going to be a midterm project, midterm exam, final project and final exam. Then, 12 weeks later, he canceled the last week and a half of classes, the final project and the final exam. He was incredibly flexible, but only for himself.

Be enthusiastic. If you enjoy the material and communicate that joy to your students, you'll discover it can be infectious.

Have fun. The last day of class was always an open question review class with no new material, and I brought cookies.

T.S in Maple Heights, OH: Congratulations on starting a new career. I will share reminiscences and close with a potential motivational resource.

As a student I remember feeling frustrated that every professor/instructor seemed to feel that their course was the most important that semester. Later I realized, of course they do; otherwise, why would they be teaching it!

My most memorable educators were storytellers who were able to make the subject matter come alive. (I sometimes became so enthralled that I had difficulty remembering to take notes of the main points.)

The listening and empathy skills of my professors/instructors, especially at the graduate level, helped with the emotional healing of childhood trauma. This was not a part of the syllabi, but their essential humanity made a profound difference in my life well beyond the classroom. And as a motivational resource, I encourage you to spend the time watching Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture," or read the book derived from the video. May your influence on your students be felt well beyond the classroom, both geographically and chronologically.

J.D. in St. Paul, MN: I taught for 32 years at a major public university. I have one piece of advice: If you are expected to publish and provide service to your university as well as teach, structure your time to give each element its due.

Some (though not all) of your senior colleagues will be poor teachers. They might know this about themselves or they might be deluded and think they're fine. Either way, teaching doesn't matter a lot to them because tenure, respect, glory, and pay are all tied directly to research and publication, not to teaching. These colleagues will encourage you to be like them. Don't.

But I urge you equally not to make the opposite mistake, which nearly cost me my career. One way or another, make plenty of time for publishing.

Here's the problem: You're a kind and accessible person. Your students, graduate and undergraduate, are human beings. You care about them. You want your classes to be exquisitely prepared and excellent for them. Reading their work and commenting is torture, but you want to do this for them, not pass everything off to TAs. And they want your time. A lot of it. They're standing right at your office door, nervous, smiling, eager, needy, promising, troubled: the whole gamut.

The payoffs to research and writing, while real, are abstract and distant and to persons of a certain disposition feel selfish. By contrast, being generous to students feels humane and correct. But if it's 6 years and out because you neglected publication, what's the long-term good for anyone? Somehow, right from the start, find a balance.

R.H. in San Antonio, TX: Mi esposa corazón was bused to a white high school in Orange County, CA, in the mid-1970s. When she filled out her first course selection card, her counselor declined to sign it, telling my wife, to her face, "These are college prep courses, and Mexicans don't go to college."

That Mexican DID go to college—several of them in fact, earning an AA from SAC, a BA from UC Berkeley, TWO Master's degrees from SFSU, and a Doctorate from CSULB.

When she died in 2023, Dr. Salas was starting her thirty-second year employed in California higher education. Her email .sig for the entire time I knew her was simple: TRIO Works!

TRIO is one of the Great Society programs designed to help first generation, low income students navigate through the college experience.

Her dissertation is titled Supporting Student Scholars: College Success of First-Generation and Low-Income College Students (300 pages, available from CSULB on request... and there's probably a few copies floating around out there on the Interwebz).

If you're working with students from lower socioeconomic status, realize that they are coming from a different place than you likely are—some of them will have been told by their high school counselors that they are "just not college material" (which is word-for-word what my wife was told).

My wife's father had no formal schooling and her mother dropped out of the ninth grade. My wife was employed from age thirteen, full-time from age seventeen onward. Imagine getting your doctorate while employed full-time.

You will probably have students from similar situations. Realize that some of your students are dealing with issues that are completely foreign to your experience.

When my wife died, she was beginning what we'd intended as her final school year before retirement—She was Director of a TRIO program at LASC in South Central LA (Yes, THAT South Central. See Straight Outta Compton for a general idea of the milieu, though much of the 'hood has been rebuilt after the Rodney King riots in 1992.)

She called her students mijo and mija, and referred to them collectively as "my kids."

All of that is prologue to my two words of advice: TRIO Works!

(We sponsored a scholarship for FGLI students at my rural Kentucky high school; I'm pretty sure she would want me to continue doing so).

R.E.M. in Brooklyn, NY: First law school research and writing class I taught, and I'm panicked in case I can't fill 85 minutes. Also, what if I don't tell them the most important things they need to know? Or if I tell them something WRONG???

So, I made sure I had my notes and materials for the second class handy.

Ten minutes in, I realized I don't have to tell them the most important things. It's their first day of law school. If I tell them the one-thousandth most important thing—heck, the ten thousandth most important thing—I'm adding value to them.

Half an hour in, I realized that if tell them something wrong, it'll be YEARS before they figure it out, so I'll be off the hook. I exhaled and mostly enjoyed the next two decades teaching that class. Good luck!

D.R. in Chicago, IL, and Alaska: I just retired from working as a teacher and administrator in rural Alaska public schools. I also continue to work as an Adjunct Professor with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Listen to your students. Encourage them to share stories, not just in the first class session, but throughout the semester. It is much easier to teach when you know your audience.

Listen to your co-workers. Not just fellow teachers, but office staff, cooks, bus drivers, and custodians. When you have a problem with a student, all the staff of the school can be a helpful resource.

Explore your community. Recognize what resources and treasures are nearby and use them. I was the Principal at Nunamiut School in Anaktuvuk Pass for three years. Our village is home to the Simon Paneak Museum, which offers a ton of resources for school outings.

Constantly reinvent yourself. Avoid the temptation to recycle lesson plans year after year.

M.M. in San Diego, CA: Not a teacher, but I do know a particular type of student you will encounter: The Natural Born Comedian. The NBC just can't refrain from tossing out a humorous comment while you are in mid-lecture, interrupting your train of thought and causing a mild disruption for the rest of the class. By all means, take it in stride, laugh a bit in appreciation and dive back into the subject at hand. Absolutely DO NOT get testy or interpret it as a challenge to your authority because it isn't. Subtle joking breaks tension, makes the class more enjoyable and you more relatable.

M.B.T. in Bay Village, OH: Without knowing the subject matter, type of institution, course level, or class size, here are five lessons I learned the hard way. I hope they will add to the many good suggestions already sent in.

When handing back graded exams or quizzes, do not allow students to challenge your scoring during class. Tell them to wait and see you privately during office hours. Otherwise, a good argument made by one student will be claimed by all who gave the same or similar answer.

In larger classes, set up group projects. If you have, say, 25 students you can split them into 5 groups of 5 each. (Give them a way to choose their teammates, but retain control over the final decision on who goes to which group.) You end up having to grade 5 papers instead of 25 and the group collaboration experience, with all its drama and unfairness, is exactly what they will face in the real world once they graduate.

Do not teach out of a textbook. Bring in personal experiences when you can. In a similar vein, be self-deprecating. Students love it when they hear about a mistake you made or if you struggled with a certain difficult topic when you were a student and how you handled it.

Don't tolerate bad or immature behavior. Gently remind them the first day of class that their high school years are behind them and that someone is paying real money for them to be there. The good students will be fully behind you on this.

As you gain confidence, don't brag and don't slip into even a smidgen of impatience or arrogance.

B.B. in Dothan, AL: Having been a postsecondary student for 12+ years, my suggestion is to not make obvious, egregious errors that insult your students. For example, from my personal experience:

Don't wear baggy shorts that expose your private parts to everyone.

Don't create Powerpoint slides and then read every word on the slide in a halting, droning manner with a thick, barely understandable accent.

Don't use class time to read articles from the local newspaper to 'prove' your eccentric, cockamamie theory that everything is caused by some kind of overly simplistic factor.

It's OK to be a mediocre professor, especially at first. Just don't be a horrible one.

T.W. in Nashville, TN: After teaching for 35 years in New York, Texas and California, I can say two things about teaching college students with assurance:

Your primary focus should be on relationships, and

"It is now!" is always the answer to the question, "Will this be on the test?"

B.B. in Metairie, LA: I taught undergraduate Physiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for close to 20 years. At the beginning, I found there were a lot of slackers among the students, who were used to a lot of "rote learning" classes, until they hit mine, which required actually understanding biological mechanisms. So I introduced my lectures to the next class as follows: "I know you've heard this is a tough class in which to get an 'A', and it is. But it's also hard to get an 'F'—you have to skip the spot quizzes (by not attending lectures), don't show up for the (required) lab exercises, and think you can pass just by memorizing numbers." There were a few nervous sniggers at that. But, apparently, some students didn't take my advice to heart, and I had to award 7 'F' grades in my class at the end of the course, out of about 40 students. I wasn't going to compromise my standards, nor the efforts of the good students, by changing those 'F' grades. That approach worked, as apparently the news spread—I never had to award more than 1 or at most 2 'F' grades ever again.

M.A.H. in Ithaca, NY: The advice that has had the most impact on my teaching career was about the importance of setting "the bar" at the correct height for your students. If you set a low bar for your students, they will disappoint you every time by just barely clearing the bar. On the other hand, if you set a high bar for your students, they will make you proud when they all (or mostly all) clear your high bar.

Over thirty years in, and I am very proud of my many students who have cleared my high bars, even when others said they would not.

C.B. in Hamden, CT: Two things to add to the excellent advice already on offer:

Build some flexibility into your course requirements: "every student can drop one problem set (or weekly quiz)"; "every student can get one three-day extension." This will save dealing with a large number of sob stories, allow you to stick to your guns on other aspects of the syllabus, and it's fairer to the students who don't have the chutzpah to ask for special treatment.

Don't get bent out of shape about hostile student evaluations! We all get them. But don't ignore the evals altogether—there's useful information in there. The most useful are the criticisms from students who generally liked the course.

B.D. in Lisle, IL: In response to the question of beginning a university teaching position. I have very limited experience at that level, but I offer some tidbits from extensive experience as a high school teacher. They are in no hierarchy:

Treat your students like the adults they (almost) are. Always. They don't want to be told what to think or do. They want to see why it matters to them (and you). Engage with them outside of class and outside of the school when you see them. Watch the sports. Go to the concerts. Attend the theatre productions. See the fair presentations. You (and they) will be better for it.

Try to impress no one. Let your teaching and general comportment speak for you. The only people impressed by style over substance are the occasional idiot administrator, poor colleagues, and not-very-well-informed students. The credibility gained in this way will be deeper, more permanent, and more meaningful to you than the alternative.

Know your stuff and deliver good content on a consistent basis. Students will recognize it very quickly and respond well to it. When you don't know something, don't bluff. Admit it. If it was funny, laugh about it publicly. Give praise and thanks to the students that found the deficiency. Then go out and fix the hole in your knowledge before the next class.

Don't lecture students regularly about what is in your dissertation. It MIGHT be worth a day (or 5 minutes of one), but certainly not a week. No one's dissertation is that meaningful to anyone else in the room. It was a means to an end and you know that. Mine didn't change the world and neither did yours.

Work really hard and put in the time. If you can "get by" while not working hard, imagine how good you could be if only you did.

Watch other teachers teach. Many of them are outstanding. You can learn an amazing amount from them. Stealing what works is not only a good idea and an acceptable practice, the other teacher will almost always be flattered by it. You can also learn an equally amazing amount from really poor teachers. Learning what not to do is just as important as learning what to do. There is no exact formula out there for being a good teacher, but there are many practices that will set one in the right direction.

Accept your mistakes with grace and humor. Everyone has bad days. You will too. Accept it. Move on from it and don't let it define you. Have a better day next time.

No one's class is more important than anyone else's class. They all have their audience and students that need the knowledge.

Have a life outside of your classroom. Maybe it's an activity like playing an instrument or being in a sports league. Make it a change of pace from what you do on a daily basis.

Students are the great thing about teaching and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Some will frustrate you, others will make you proud, but interacting with them is truly the joy of being a teacher. Adults, on the other hand...

I close with a couple of anecdotes from my student days that I always thought were instructive. One good. One not so much.

I had a professor who was one of the few people I would call a genius—the kind of person who you took a class from regardless of your content interest. He would always give his final exam during the last day of class instead of at the assigned time. Then he arranged to meet at the local watering hole (it was a grad level class) for lunch at the assigned time for burgers and beer as a celebration for a job well done—and he paid the tab. Be that guy. Maybe not in that way if it's not you, but find a way to be that guy.

I had a professor who seemingly broke every rule in the "ten things that will surely get you fired, even if you only do one of them" list. However, he managed to do about eight out of ten of them in short succession, such that it didn't even seem possible and he was able to avoid sanction based on this assumption. For a while. It did finally catch up to him but he managed to reflect poorly on himself, the department, the school, and his students before finally finding new employment. Don't be that guy.

J.S. in Houston, TX: Some arbitrary bits since the good stuff has been covered well by others:

>Have a bowl of wrapped candy in your office. Offer it to students that stop by.

Do not speak in a smooth, well rehearsed monotone. That puts them to sleep. When I pause for no reason for 10 seconds, even students in deep sleep wake up!

If you are asking questions to the class and nobody answers—maybe you are answering them yourself too quickly. If you wait till the silence becomes uncomfortable, say 10-15 seconds, someone will bite.

My background is that I have been trying to teach computer science for a few decades.

A.P. in Kitchener, ON, Canada: A bit of advice for first time university/college teachers. Some of it is advice others provided me that I have applied and found useful:

The first time you teach a course spend the time so it can be repeated without too much work. Little things that take extra time the first time you teach save time for years. I try and consider universal design for learning principles when creating a course. Essentially, I make my goal that if any student ask for an accommodation I won't have to do any additional work because that's already embedded into my course (e.g., ensuring videos have subtitles turned on, making sure all tests leave plenty of time for students to finish, ensuring I do not use red and green).

Try and use open access textbooks. Students greatly appreciate the cost savings and it increases the chances students will read the material, as costs can cause students to not purchase a book. If you have to use an expensive textbook put a copy on reserve at the library. (Publishers provide a free copy.)

If your institution has an option to be evaluated by a teaching and learning staff person take it! I learned a lot from each review I have had over the years.

Read the book Stoner by John Williams (it echoes the advice provided last week on not getting involved in campus politics and a warning about making enemies).

Chunk your class in 7 to 15 minute blocks changing up activities (lecture, then class discussion, then lecture, then a case study in small groups).

Use case studies even if they are not common to your discipline. The book Public Administration: Cases in Managerial Role Playing opens with a good explanation of how to incorporate case studies into your class. Formal cases work (and can be found open access) but pulling something from the news often works even better.

Good luck!

K.P. in Salem, OR: First, a bit of context about my academic professorial experience: 1 year as a sabbatical replacement at a junior Ivy League college in New England, 5 years as a tenure-track assistant professor at a branch campus of a major research university in Texas, and 27 years at a small liberal arts college in the southeast as a tenure-track assistant professor promoted through the ranks to full professor, during which time I served as a department head and an academic division head for 13 years. I'm now retired. My area of expertise is/was in the natural sciences and mathematics.

I'm going to assume that interacting with and sharing the subject matter in the area(s) of your expertise is one of the great joys of your life. If my assumption is wrong you should perhaps consider a different type of employer.

When you interact with students, let your love of the subject matter shine through. Students will recognize it as genuine and even if they don't "get it"—and you can rest assured that many will not "get it"—they will respect you for it. But never make any comments, regardless of how innocent you think those comments are, that in any way belittles them for not "getting it." In other words, recognize there are different strokes for different folks. Also realize that your course is very likely not the most important thing in the world to most of them, as they will have many other responsibilities. A reasoned dose of empathy and sympathy will do wonders to enhance rapport and make it easier for you to hold firm to your academic standards. You aren't trying to buy good student evaluations, but you do want to convey your love of the subject to your students.

Your other main constituents are your colleagues, which to me means all other faculty, staff, and administrators. To learn the ropes here you need a mentor, and preferably more than one, including one in your department, one in a related department, and one in any other department. If you have been assigned a mentor, bear in mind that the people who made that assignment likely had some ulterior motive(s). Ulterior motives may be good or bad for you, but you need to figure out what those motives are. Beyond that, your mentors need to be people you can trust and who will tell you the way things are (even if it's something you don't want to hear), at least as they see it. In my experience, academic departments want to hire either a puppy or a cat. Your department thinks you are one or the other and the question is "Are they correct?" If they are correct, great, as that minimizes some of the political stress in your life. If they are incorrect you will need to decide how to handle that. As a new kid on the block, you will likely be saddled with some chores you do not enjoy such as running a seminar program. Accept these chores with grace as they are probably some sort of initiation that most or all of the current department faculty had to endure. Finally, treat staff people with respect, kindness, and appreciation, whether they be in or out of your department. They can make your life a living hell or quite pleasant.

Good luck! I hope this is the beginning of a rewarding career for you.

N.C. from Columbus, MS: Hi, M.R.! Some thoughts from a faculty member in her 20th year of full-time teaching, in no particular order:

Most of your students are not a younger version of you and are never going to love your field the way you do. Model that love anyway. They will respect passionately—nerdy more than faux-cool, and they need to know what passionately nerdy looks like.

Anything that gets students talking and solving problems together is good, especially if they are the sort of problems professionals authentically wrestle with in your field. Any activity that lets them make or touch something is also good, and will perk them right up if a class is flagging.

Try not to work harder or care more than they do. You won't succeed at this, but it's a worthwhile maxim to keep in mind anyway.

Play with generative AI just enough to figure out what it is terrible at doing, and make sure your assignments require that thing to be done well.

It will feel amazing some days and terrible on other days; but it's all good in the end. The classes that feel like they went badly are not always so bad from the student's perspective, and even when they are, tomorrow is another day.

Here is the question for next week:

S.H. in Duluth, MN, asks: After reading the responses to the reader question of the week from M.R. in Lowell, I was wondering if I could get the other side of it. I'm a young student who has just started my first semester of university this fall, studying earth science. I was wondering if I could get any advice or suggestions about things I could be doing in college, or stuff that I should avoid doing.

Submit your answers to comments@electoral-vote.com, preferably with subject line "Student Counsel"!

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