start of semester tips

If you’ve never taught before or are getting used to it again:

  • Buy new socks. You probably aren’t used to standing for hours and socks can help.
  • Hydrate! Bring water to class and drink it.  You’re probably not used to talking for hours.  If you’re not careful, you’ll dry out your throat and it’ll hurt for a few days.
  • Mental checklist Be sure to check for silly things before classes - VGA adapter, power cable, slide clicker, etc.
  • As you’re starting the semester:
    • Keep tabs on the amount of time it takes to get to class. You don’t really want to be too early or just barely on time.
    • Establish a routine that allows you to “step into character”.

The previous times I taught classes as a grad school fall into these categories:

  • 101 in the Winter term (4 weeks)
  • 180, 220, or 370 in the Summer term (10 weeks)

Teaching during the regular semesters is vastly different so far.  Here are some of the initial differences:

  • 14 weeks or so
  • three 50-minute periods a week (compared to longer periods for summer) I think the 10-week courses were 90 minutes or more.  Part of my teaching style is that I like to start classes with a review of the previous class, but that means I’m losing a much larger percentage of each class.
  • larger classes There are maybe 23 or so in 220 this Spring, compared to 6 over the summer.  It’s nice to avoid pro-rated salary, but learning names and dealing with attendance is a mess.  This also makes it harder to force people into discussion.
  • people change classes I assigned a survey and lab the first day.  There were still people transferring into my class during the THIRD week. Part of that is because my section was added later in the Fall semester.
  • prereqs Part of my unique experience this semester is that the prereq was changed from C++ to Java last semester. But I’m told they still need to know C++ for further classes, so I have to teach them C++ also. After doing some surveys, I found that only 5-6 of 23 took 181 last semester (Java). The rest took it last Spring (C++), or some other course at a community college. I cringe just thinking about trying to find the common denominator.
  • lateness People (ostensibly) have classes all the way across campus. Then they get in a little late. 5 minutes late is 10% of the class wasted.