Notes

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What GTAs Need Their First Semester

"A lot of luck! Time! Mentoring! They need to set high goals and demand students meet them (although the students will complain like hell!)."
--Steve Shawl, KU professor of Physics and Astronomy

1. A Show of Confidence

The Heart of a Teacher
You’ve been selected to teach a lab, studio, or classroom, assist a professor, or be a grader because of the many attributes you bring to teaching. However, moving from student to teacher can be an intimidating change, and pre-teaching nerves can cause a GTA to lose sight of what he or she brings to the classroom. Palmer believes you’ll be a better teacher if you acknowledge your concerns and imperfections.

The subjects we teach are as large and complex as life, so our knowledge of them is always flawed and partial. There will always be a need—always—to command more content. Know that you have been hired because you do have enough knowledge to begin teaching.

The students we teach are larger than life and even more complex. The ability to respond wisely to them at any particular moment about any particular question will never be humanly possible. Acknowledge that your teaching will never perfectly match up with their needs. You’ll try, and you’ll do very well—but give yourself and students the grace to be flawed.

Work to construct identity and integrity. Identity represents your intersection with culture; integrity represents the wholeness that comes from deciding what is most important to you. Palmer believes that they form the heart of good teaching: knowledge and technique alone are inadequate.

Teaching is a daily exercise in vulnerability. Teaching intersects your personal and public life. Think you’re alone at feeling self-protective? Many teachers--even those with a lifetime of teaching experience--approach new classes with trepidation. Dialogue with others about this, for such fears are natural.

We fear exposing weakness in the midst of competitive people and politics. Attending graduate school means putting a lot on the line: your academic abilities, your future plans. However, the nature of teaching means you can’t hide, and attempting to do so behind technique or power will threaten to split your identity and integrity from your teaching. Trust the strengths that have brought you to this point—and that you can continue to trust in your dual role as a student and a teacher.

Adapted from Palmer, Parker J. "The Heart of a Teacher." The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.

Responding to Questions
A fear for many beginning teachers is that they’ll get asked a question they don’t know how to answer—and that lack of knowledge will label them a "fraud" in the students’ eyes. Besides reminding yourself that you don’t have to be a walking encyclopedia in order to be an excellent teacher, try using this routine to build your confidence. It will program your mind to deal with a question no matter its content, and perhaps being aware of that will take the edge off your worries!
• Listen to the question.
• Repeat the question.
• Respond to the question: Be polite and respectful. There are no dumb comments. Explain in a different way.
• Solicit follow-up questions from the class.
• Don’t be afraid to say:
--"I don’t know that but I’ll find out and let you know next class." (Then do so!)
--"Hold that question, we’ll be covering that shortly." (Check after that material is covered to be certain the question was answered.)
--"Stop by after class or during office hours and we’ll discuss it further."

Adapted from Glavinich, Tom. "Teaching Technical and Scientific Courses." Handout. Lawrence, KS: Graduate Teaching Assistant Seminar, August 1997.

2. Ideas for the First Class; Setting Ground Rules

First Day Activities
Students see their intellectual journey beginning on the first day of class. Use that day to establish the tone and expectations for the rest of the semester.

Arrive early and plan to stay a bit afterwards.
This is good advice for any class period, but especially so on the first day because it gives you time to settle in, allows you to talk with some of your students, and sends a clear message about punctuality.

Find out who your students are.
Start to get to know your students—learn their names and find out something about their backgrounds, expectations, prior knowledge and beliefs about the course topic. This helps to establish rapport, plus it gives you valuable information upon which to base future class discussions and assessments. (See activities that follow.)

Share some information about yourself.
Give the students professional information such as your teaching philosophy and scholarly interests as well as personal information about hobbies or life history. It establishes your credibility as a scholar, lets students find out about your methods, and builds understanding of your character and personality.

Review the syllabus.
For you, the first step of this class was when you conceptualized the course, thought about the course goals, instructional methods, and learning assessments, and made them explicit in the syllabus. Make sure that these ideas are also clear to your students.

Use the whole class period.
Covering all of the above may take the entire class period. If not, resist the urge that many of us have to let class out early—instead, move into the content. The message you send: class time and the course material are important.

Model your teaching style from day one.
Do you expect class participation? Do you like to use active learning strategies like one-minute papers or think-pair-shares? Will you present major ideas via PowerPoint? There’s no time like the present: start today.

Show enthusiasm for the course, the discipline, and your students.
The first day can go a long way towards engaging students. Set an enthusiastic tone fitting your personality, be it using humor, displaying high energy, or sharing your personal fascination with the subject.

Adapted from Zahorski, K. J. "Planning the First Class Period." The Teaching Professor, June/July1993. 5-6.

Short & Basic Ideas for an Effective First Day

Do opening formalities. Give the students handouts of these items:
1. Syllabus
2. List of instructional objectives
3. Assignment schedule
4. Statement of policies and procedures

Do something that will help you and the students learn each other’s names. More on this next week.

Do something to motivate the students’ interests.
• Show a graph organizer for the course—not only what and when, but why.
• Have student anonymously list things they know about the course content and their questions over it.
• Have students write goals for themselves and share those goals with you.
• Present some problem that the students can solve by the end of the course.
• Sell the class on team learning if it will be part of the course.

Adapted from Felder, Richard M., and Rebecca Brent. "Getting Started." Chemical Engineering Education 29 (3 , Summer 1995. 166-67.

First Day Questions

HOW?
1. Give students a brief summary of the topics you’ll be covering from the syllabus.
2. Ask them to think of one question they would like to have answered during the semester.
3. Have them write their questions on an index card.
4. Sort the questions by topic and incorporate them in your class notes at the appropriate time.

WHY USE THEIR QUESTIONS?
1. To remind you of what students think is interesting and important.
2. To show the class that you welcome their ideas and encourage their curiosity.

Adapted from Fazio, B. In S.H. Stocking, et al., eds. More Quick Hits. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1998.

Meet the Teacher

HOW?
1. Distribute the syllabus and other materials that you have the students read.
2. Divide the students into groups of three to four and tell each group to identify one question to ask you.
3. They ask you the questions, which may be routine (assignments, attendance, exams) or more challenging (your qualifications, your other interests, why you are teaching college). Answer questions fully but not in excess—no need to be overly verbose or deeply confessional.

WHY?
1. You’ll get a good chance to see if the materials are clear.
2. Students will have a chance to guide the interview. This paves the way for students feeling comfortable asking questions throughout the course.
3. Students are responsible for reading the material. This gives them expectations of an active role versus a passive role from the first day.
4. Students get an idea of what you’re like as a scholar, a teacher, and a person, all of which are important to them.

Adapted from Magnam, R. 147 Practical Tips for Teaching Professors. Madison: Magna, 1990.