Some Teaching Mistakes Other People Have Made (So You Don’t Have to)

As some old sage said, “Even fools learn from their own mistakes, but the wise learn from the mistakes of others.” In the spirit of that anonymous proverb, here are a few accrued lessons that adjuncts have volunteered from mistakes they’ve made:

Negotiating Your Department

In the frenzy of your hiring procedures, you’ll inevitably miss some really essential pieces of information. Here are a few leads:

· “Find out what the turnaround time for papers is at your college. No one ever told me that, and I had bad student evals for a while. They went way up when I found this out.” (Anonymous)

· “Barring a student from attending (due to lateness) or suddenly ending class due to lack of student preparation—I was told by our dept. staff that both of these are illegal.” (Nancy Derbyshire)

· “Get to know the secretaries because they know and ultimately control EVERYTHING, including your files, your supplies, your teaching schedule, and your students’ complaints. Don’t schmooze or anything, but do respect them, because you want them on your side.” (Anonymous)

· “If you are an adjunct or new hire, it would be a mistake to expect: an office, a computer, a printer, a working and available copy machine, a sympathetic secretary, an ID card before the 5^th week, a paycheck before the 7^th week, students who buy their books before the 1^st assignment is due, administrators who care, everything to go as planned. You’ll have to actively pursue all of the above.” (Frank Crocco)

In addition, here are a few departmental policies to check on: plagiarism, attendance, any required first-day procedures, required texts, departmental syllabus, requirements for your final, and (if you happen to be teaching comp) whether or not you must teach research. Other things to check on: audio-visual aids, setting up voicemail, your mailbox, ordering texts, classroom observations, sick days, keys, and electronic grade submission.

Your Classroom Presence

Your attitude and boundaries will set the tone for the whole class. Be professional and enforce consequences, especially at the beginning. You can always be more lenient later on, but it’s virtually impossible to tighten up; students feel betrayed or simply won’t comply with “new” rules.

· “Don't be flexible at the beginning. As far as the students know, class always starts on time, you log every tardy, sleeping in class makes you ‘absent,’ and there are no extensions on deadlines—ever. I didn't understand going in that my students didn't really know how to be students yet. I treated them like old hands at the school game. Result—kids talking in class, going out to make phone calls, and an embarrassing evaluation day.” (Jenny Weiss)

· “If you're young (like, I was 21 when I first taught a college class), don't tell your age (even if the students ask) until late in the semester, if ever.” (Anonymous)

· “Refuse to indulge college-kid humor about drinking: participating at all in those rib-nudge jokes and asides alienates some students because it is absolutely not true that they all drink.” (Anonymous)

· “Jocularity is good, but there is a fine line; too much humor sends mixed signals.” (Rebecca Williams)

· “If you don't know something, don't make it up. Tell them that you don't know but that you'll find out and follow up. And then do it. They will respect you more for not lying and for keeping your word to find out the answer.” (Emily Sherwood)

· “[Assign] an oral presentation the second week. Have a paper due at the end of the add/drop period. Those… are particularly useful when you have 40 enrolled in your lit class, but the fire warden says your room should only hold 30.” (Rob Faunce)

· “Don't give out a personal phone number.” (Anonymous)

· “Be courteous and respectful to your students: part of this is setting clear standards for evaluation in the first meeting, establishing rules, and sticking to them (within reason). But it also means being kind: I have heard several students complain that many of their professors don't treat them nicely (nasty comments on papers, not greeting the class when they walk in, embarrassing them when they don't know the answer in class, etc.).” (Kate Kinney)

And I would add that you should hold yourself to the same standards to which you hold your students. Hypocrisy is the best way to ensure your students’ resentment. Be punctual, be respectful, return papers on time, and apologize if you screw up.

Internet Protocol

Because this is a relatively new medium for communication, most departments don’t have a policy for internet correspondence, and many teachers falsely assume that students intuit what’s good web etiquette. Here are a few ideas:

· “Establish email protocol! This applies to content and accessibility. You can quickly become consumed by this technology if you don't establish limits, and I know that I am not the only instructor who has received inappropriate (and frankly weird) images and messages via email.” (Kate Kinney)

· “Set up an e-mail policy that is explicit about when you will be checking e-mails, how long it will take you to respond, and your expectations about student responses to e-mail (for example, I say I will respond within 48 hours to any e-mail, which means that if they don't get a response, I didn't get it—this avoids the excuse that they e-mailed me something but I didn't get it).” (Jessica Cantiello)

· “Don't let your students know that you are on Facebook! I have had several students attempt to befriend me—ugh!” (Rebecca Williams)

· “Awkward! Now I decline all friend requests from students, during and after the semester, with a polite explanation that I never ‘friend’ students.” (Anonymous)

· “Send me e-mail from an address that has the name of the school in [the subject line], or that clearly identifies you by LAST name. An e-mail from getsasslikewhoa@hotmail.com (true story!) will most likely go in my spam file. Most of them don’t know that there’s anything wrong with sticking with an e-mail address that reflects the truest version of their 8^th-grade selves. I’ve distributed copies of an NYT article about clueless college students not getting jobs because they have no sense of online professionalism.” (Jason Schneiderman)

· “I quit accepting emailed papers when students were inexplicably absent the day a paper was due. They get to stay home in their pj’s and get credit for a paper they finished late while everyone else had to finish the night before and attend, and now I have to print it on my dime? I think not.” (Anonymous)

· “If you [receive] insulting, demanding or innappropriate e-mails from students, just don’t respond. If you feel you must reply, reply curtly telling them to see you after class or during office hours.” (Jason Schneiderman)

And set boundaries for yourself. Your students can reach you any time via email, but that’s no reason to work more for the same amount of pay.

Stacking the Lesson Plans in Your Favor

Graduate student adjuncts are usually hired to teach entry-level, non-elective courses, meaning most of your students don’t really want to learn your material. One option for getting them interested in your presentations is to demonstrate how much they need you by turning the setup into a problem-solving situation. For instance, you can have them try to write an essay or do library research with no instructions. After they’ve failed miserably (recognizing the problem), chances are they’ll actively seek your knowledge and even ask great questions (find a solution). These are a few more time- and pain-savers:

· “Design your class time (lectures, discussion, exercise, whatever) so you are not doing the work for them, i.e. explaining/telling what they should know, but instead leading them to work through problems with you as a guide instead of a crutch. Confusion can be productive. Frustration can be as well.” (Diana Colbert)

· “As an adjunct, most of the work you do outside of the classroom is not paid: construct a syllabus and lesson plans that are realistic with your schedule (and set objectives for yourself and your students that are attainable as well).” (Kate Kinney)

· “Putting more items on a syllabus than you'll realistically get to frustrates students.” (Nancy Derbyshire)

· “Assign way less reading and spend way more time on it. This helps students learn to stop hallucinating about what they imagine is happening in a text and actually look at it, line by line.” (Kate Broad)

· “I've also learned never to play my favorite song for my class because they'll make fun of it and I'll get defensive.” (Nichole Stanford)

· “I'll second Nichole's advice not to play your favorite song, and add that, for me at least, don't assign texts that are particularly near and dear to you, because they will inevitably bore your students.” (Mia Chen)

· “In the past, I've made the mistake of hearing about a method of grading and… trying to introduce it into my course mid-semester. As it didn't arise organically from my own planning and vision for the course, I found that I wasn't always sure exactly what this exercise was supposed to accomplish.” (Dominique Zino)

· “I have trouble when I change my course too drastically from one semester to the next.” (Chris Leary)

I also recommend, since you’re probably an adjunct, holding “office hours” during class. While students work on an in-class assignment, instead of finding something to occupy your time, have each come up to sit with you at your desk for a five-minute conference to discuss a current or upcoming assignment.

Clever Ways to Avoid Awkward Classroom Moments

If you plan to incorporate a discussion format into your classroom, make provision for it early. Make sure students are comfortable with one another from simple class exercises (for instance, interviewing each other with questions you assign). Give the students the discussion questions the night before as journal questions, or have them freewrite on the discussion question for a few minutes before you pose it aloud to the group so that they’ll already have formulated thoughts.

· “Wait a few weeks before assigning group work—see how the students vibe with one another—there's nothing worse for a new teacher than having a dysfunctional group in class.” (Rebecca Williams)

· “For getting-to-know-you exercises on the first day, don't leave it to students to pair themselves up. Assign them so if there's an odd student out it's not because of peer rejection. This goes for group work as well.” (Diana Colbert)

· “I never realized it, but only half my class was participating in discussions. A prof who observed me suggested that I switch up the seating order they had created for themselves, so that I ended up making eye contact with (and thus drawing in) new people. I’ve also learned to pull aside the discussion hoarders, compliment them on how well they know the material, and ask them to help me involve other students in the conversations. That way, they get the recognition they’re craving, and they quit silencing the others.” (Anonymous)

· “Always provide for contingencies in your lesson plans. If you've got a group work assignment that depends on having done homework, what will you do with students who haven't done their homework?” (Mia Chen)

· “Sometimes students don't do the assigned reading, so I like to have short pieces ready for class discussion when that happens.” (Margaret Galvan)

· “I’ve found that [assuming students will look up references in class they don’t know] makes them hostile, because they experience it as having attention called to their ignorance.” (Jason Schneiderman)

· “What I've learned: don't ask students any questions I couldn't (or wouldn't want to) answer myself.” (Molly Pulda)

· “For classes where many of the students are under-prepared for college-level work, give examples of the kind of paper you want. Save copies of good papers to be used as examples for future classes.” Diana Colbert

· “Never continue with what doesn’t work. Stop a bad seminar in the middle and ask what your students want to talk about.” (Ashley Foster)

· “When in doubt, go outside. When my class is stagnant, I've taken to taking them outside—NYC is a great text—lots of research assignments lurking in billboards, etc. It also takes the pressure off you as the instructor for a little bit.” (Erica Kaufman)

If a class still seems uneasy with group discussions mid-semester, maybe the students are uncomfortable with your style of authority or they sense your own uneasiness. Have them break up into groups to discuss each question among themselves, and then report back to the class as a whole. Maybe you can slip into a few groups and participate where things are already flowing.

Grading Pains

The typical trajectory of the new adjunct’s grading tendencies: (1) spending way too much time the first semester or the first year responding to student work, (2) regretting and resenting it, and (3) trying to find ways to speed up the process. Try to skip the first two steps, if you can. And be clear about your expectations in the course and with each assignment to avoid later conflict.

· “Think of (and present) the syllabus as a contract of sorts. Perhaps even ask the students to sign it. This way, you are bound to it in the same way that the students are—I find that this lessens end of semester grade change pleas. I also usually put a clause in it someplace that entitles me to ‘change the schedule as I wish’ so I am not necessarily trapping myself, just making it clear to the students that if we both do our jobs, things will be stellar.” (Erica Kaufman)

· “Provide assignment sheets for each major assignment with expectations, formatting details, and a grading rubric, if possible.” (Jessica Cantiello)

· “I never thought I'd be someone who used grading rubrics (seems so rigid), but I've started doing my grades on a point system and that makes it really easy to show students halfway through the semester where they are and to assign final grades at the end.” (Kate Broad)

· “Now I also try to tell students what skills are essential to the current assignment so that I can share with them the purpose of the activity from a teacher's perspective (and remind myself of it too!).” (Dominique Zino)

· “[I’ve learned not to take] too long to return graded work (announcing turnaround time helps all-around).” (Nancy Derbyshire)

· “I like to work up a final grade rubric, photocopy it 30 times, and fill it out for each student. Then I staple a copy of it to their final paper; if they come to get it, or if they've given me a SASE, they can see my math. Invariably, students email me with grade complaints, and it is a relief to know that I have a physical record of my math and assessment.” (Nancy Derbyshire)

· “When grading, try to open with encouraging comments. (I know it's not always easy. But you can always, at the very least, recognize the effort it took to sit down and attempt the assignment.) The goal is to keep them writing.” (David Bahr)

· “Try to grade papers in spurts. Sitting down to grade 25-30 papers at once will test your patience and make you mean.” (David Bahr)

If you’re interested in the grading contract idea, you can find a sample of one for an English composition course at adjunctlifeline.blogspot.com.

Odds and Ends:

You’ll still have to learn from your own mistakes, but here are a few more ideas:

· “Always carry chalk (or other board-writing implements) with you, for sometimes your classroom may not have them.” (Margaret Galvan)

· “Class time will invariably be too short/long.” (Tali Noimann)

· “Organize your preparation material as well as you can to save time in later semesters, and to make preparing a teaching portfolio easier when it's time to go on the market.” (Diana Colbert)

· “Don't assume that, just because you wrote something on the syllabus, students will know about it.” (Jessica Cantiello)

· “Consider keeping a blog, which students are required to check when they miss class, where you post announcements, journal questions, homework, or syllabus revisions (so you don’t have to answer the same questions repeatedly).” (Anonymous)

· “Take the time to teach basic reading and writing skills. If you assume students know how to actively read, annotate texts, frame arguments, organize their writing, etc., you'll spend time backtracking instead of moving forward.” (Diana Epelbaum)

· “Trust your instincts. If you think a student is making up a dead grandparent or the significant personal tragedy, you're probably right. If you trust that a student needs a hand, give it. If someone needs two extra days, and they've earned your trust, do it. Just follow your gut, and you'll usually be right. And when you're wrong, you'll learn.” (Rob Faunce)

The Big Picture:

Regardless of any weird moments you facilitate or mistakes you make, remember you’re still the expert in the room. Even if you lack the years, you have way more knowledge and experience with academic writing than your students.

· “It took me a long time to learn that all of us, as teachers, are individuals. We each have our own strengths. Learn to trust those strengths and don't try to be someone you are not. The students detect this, and you'll hate your job. Enjoy the process. I've met great people.” (David Bahr)

· “And remember that you'll make it through the semester somehow, even if it's not pretty.” (Mia Chen)

· “Don't get so caught up in the teaching that you forget that you are a grad student. (I think this one is really important, especially for all of us who teach too much.)” (Emily Sherwood)

· “Life is more important than your course. If students miss class or fail to turn in work, don’t shame them or get angry. Point out their options: prioritize school for now, drop the class, or at least maintain this amount of work to earn a C for the semester while still managing whatever crisis has arisen (as will inevitable happen for 2+ students).” (Anonymous)

· “Forgive yourself. The first two years of teaching are hard enough without punishing yourself for the growth process. You've got to forgive yourself and keep on keeping on. And when a whole semester goes to pot, remind yourself that you start again next semester. It's all good.” (Rob Faunce)

Finally, one more thing about adjuncts and mistakes: I encourage you not to give a lot of free labor—grading, student conferences, emails, etc.—to your classes out of guilt or obligation. CUNY gets what it pays for (part-time, underpaid, often fabulous but overworked teachers). Teach what you can, and do a great job, but don’t let the job encroach on your own studies and life. If your paid hours aren’t sufficient to equip students, it’s CUNY’s responsibility to pay for more teaching or office hours. Certainly don’t perpetuate this unfair system by throwing in a bunch of free time; let the administrators learn from their mistakes too.