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Finding your style

  • Adopt a preparation style that suits you
    • If you over-prepare, limit the time by doing it closer to the class
    • If you are anxious, prepare ahead of time but “budget” the time you spend
  • Adopt a lecture style that suits you
    • Lots of PowerPoint slides with detail — give students a copy
    • An outline that you fill in

What you project matters

  • Students pick up on your attitude
    • If you care, they will be more respectful and forgiving
    • If you dismiss them, they will reciprocate
    • If you are open, they will engage
    • If you are defensive, they will attack
  • Large classes are harder
    • Get to know a subset of the students by name to break down barriers

Challenges for women

  • Openness can be interpreted as being familiar and/or easy
    • Students can try to take advantage in a variety of ways and can impact the class
    • Talking to them privately may work
  • Dressing more formally has worked for some women

Find your own style

  • Do what makes you feel most comfortable
    • Clothes
    • Presentation style
  • Listen to feedback and adjust your style, to the degree you feel comfortable, accordingly

You cannot know everything

Know that a student will ask a question to which you do NOT know the answer

Tell them it’s a great question

  • Ask them what they think OR
  • Assign it as homework OR
  • Invite them to come by after class and talk because it’s a little off topic for the day OR
  • Indicate you don’t know, but there are a number of ways to find out
    • Do a web search, find a research article
    • Ask a colleague with expertise

There will Always Be someone

  • …who is bored and looks it
  • …who drives you crazy
    • Talking, reading, sleeping, smirking
  • …who questions your authority
    • Directly or indirectly
  • …who does not follow instructions
  • …who simply does not “get it”

Keep your balance, get input, stay steady and get support when you need it!

Issues with today’s distractions

  • Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
    • All compete for your attention and are here to stay; banning computers won’t work
  • They expect your respect, you have a right to expect theirs
  • Find your own comfort level in handling these distractions
    • If they make you less effective, you can simply tell the class, these activities make me less effective and impact everyone

Examinations

  • Establish your guidelines (check with your department/institution)
    • Examples: No A/V device (no iphone, no ipods, no headphones, nothing electronic)
  • Determine the grading policy
    • Go over it with any graders involved
    • Determine policy/process for re-grades
  • Decide whether to provide a complete answer sheet for the examination

Classroom needs vary

  • Mathematicians use blackboards
  • Biologists use Powerpoints
  • Chemists and physicists often use classroom demonstrations

Discover the culture of your discipline at your institution and operate within that culture

Ensuring assignment reading

  • Use on-line quizzes (probably easiest and best)
    • Variety of resources, often campus-specific
  • Pose a specific set of questions and assign them to subgroups
  • Assign topics to specific individuals

For smaller classes

  • Class engagement is more feasible
    • Lecture preparation less onerous
    • Case-studies can be used
  • Group activities engage everyone
    • Can do some of this in larger classes, too
  • Learning to write is important
    • Can use peer as well as instructor feedback

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Source:  OpenStax, Rice university’s nsf advance program’s negotiating the ideal faculty position workshop master collection of presentations. OpenStax CNX. Mar 08, 2012 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11413/1.1
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