Yesterday American University held its 19th Annual Ann Ferren Teaching Conference, named after a faculty member and former provost who has made a life commitment to strengthening College teaching. More than 250 faculty members attended. This event has become a very special gathering of the AU faculty community. It affirms and celebrates a craft that our faculty care about passionately and do very well.
In addition to helping to organize the conference, the Center for Teaching Excellence, working with a committee of faculty volunteers, is responsible for the event, I participated in a panel discussing the first year of teaching. I was scheduled to speak last and, as is often the case with panels, there was not sufficient time for me to speak, and also leave time for discussion. At a conference that emphasized the importance of participation in teaching, I though it important that we practiced what we preached. I opted to abbreviate my presentation to five minutes, but promised to post the entire set of notes on dormgrandpop.com.
This was the right choice. We had a great discussion.
My the promised notes, which may be of interest to students as well as faculty, follow.
ABOUT THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING
Faculty members are entrepreneurs as much as they are employees. You have more discretion than you think; take advantage of it and use it wisely.
AU, like other universities, has a distinctive culture and each school and college has its distinctive culture. View your first year of teaching or on a new campus, in part, as a project in ethnographic field research.
This is especially true as you begin to explore the perils and opportunities that university service and especially faculty governance provides. Paul Williams – “keep your hands in your pockets during faculty meetings.
The position of a first year faculty member, tenure track, temporary or adjunct is not a high leverage platform from which to effect institutional change.
Seeking help is not an admission of weakness. AU is an environment that is exceptionally rich in helping resources for faculty, most notably, office of the Dean of Academic affairs, University Library and, of course, the Center for Teaching excellence.
Be prepared to work long hours and to be ‘efficient.’
The skills of writing a dissertation represent only a small fraction of the skills necessary to succeed as a University Faculty member.
ABOUT THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING
Faculty members are entrepreneurs as much as they are employees. You have more discretion than you think; take advantage of it and use it wisely.
AU, like other universities, has a distinctive culture and each school and college has its distinctive culture. View your first year of teaching or on a new campus, in part, as a project in ethnographic field research.
This is especially true as you begin to explore the perils and opportunities that university service and especially faculty governance provides. Paul Williams – “keep your hands in your pockets during faculty meetings.
The position of a first year faculty member, tenure track, temporary or adjunct is not a high leverage platform from which to effect institutional change.
Seeking help is not an admission of weakness. AU is an environment that is exceptionally rich in helping resources for faculty, most notably, office of the Dean of Academic affairs, University Library and, of course, the Center for Teaching excellence.
Be prepared to work long hours and to be ‘efficient.’
The skills of writing a dissertation represent only a small fraction of the skills necessary to succeed as a University Faculty member.
ABOUT TEACHING
Students want to connect with you and they want to connect with you outside the classroom, however they are not very skillful in doing this.
Many of you may not be very skillful in connecting with students either.
Some students really want to learn and be challenged. Others, do not.
Some students will fail and not get it no matter how much time you spend and what you do.
Teaching is a skill and it can be learned. Get a couple of good books on teaching and read them. Examples are available in the Faculty Corner, Hurst 204.
Seek to constitute your classroom as a creative learning community.
Seek to constitute yourself as coach rather than referee or judge.
Use rubrics for grading.
Get feedback – especially through early or mid semester evaluations. Acknowledge it and make changes if you need to.
Keep your promises or acknowledge that you haven’t and apologize
Learn your students names.
Don’t forget the good students.
In addition to helping to organize the conference, the Center for Teaching Excellence, working with a committee of faculty volunteers, is responsible for the event, I participated in a panel discussing the first year of teaching. I was scheduled to speak last and, as is often the case with panels, there was not sufficient time for me to speak, and also leave time for discussion. At a conference that emphasized the importance of participation in teaching, I though it important that we practiced what we preached. I opted to abbreviate my presentation to five minutes, but promised to post the entire set of notes on dormgrandpop.com.
This was the right choice. We had a great discussion.
My the promised notes, which may be of interest to students as well as faculty, follow.
ABOUT THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING
Faculty members are entrepreneurs as much as they are employees. You have more discretion than you think; take advantage of it and use it wisely.
AU, like other universities, has a distinctive culture and each school and college has its distinctive culture. View your first year of teaching or on a new campus, in part, as a project in ethnographic field research.
This is especially true as you begin to explore the perils and opportunities that university service and especially faculty governance provides. Paul Williams – “keep your hands in your pockets during faculty meetings.
The position of a first year faculty member, tenure track, temporary or adjunct is not a high leverage platform from which to effect institutional change.
Seeking help is not an admission of weakness. AU is an environment that is exceptionally rich in helping resources for faculty, most notably, office of the Dean of Academic affairs, University Library and, of course, the Center for Teaching excellence.
Be prepared to work long hours and to be ‘efficient.’
The skills of writing a dissertation represent only a small fraction of the skills necessary to succeed as a University Faculty member.
ABOUT THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING
Faculty members are entrepreneurs as much as they are employees. You have more discretion than you think; take advantage of it and use it wisely.
AU, like other universities, has a distinctive culture and each school and college has its distinctive culture. View your first year of teaching or on a new campus, in part, as a project in ethnographic field research.
This is especially true as you begin to explore the perils and opportunities that university service and especially faculty governance provides. Paul Williams – “keep your hands in your pockets during faculty meetings.
The position of a first year faculty member, tenure track, temporary or adjunct is not a high leverage platform from which to effect institutional change.
Seeking help is not an admission of weakness. AU is an environment that is exceptionally rich in helping resources for faculty, most notably, office of the Dean of Academic affairs, University Library and, of course, the Center for Teaching excellence.
Be prepared to work long hours and to be ‘efficient.’
The skills of writing a dissertation represent only a small fraction of the skills necessary to succeed as a University Faculty member.
ABOUT TEACHING
Students want to connect with you and they want to connect with you outside the classroom, however they are not very skillful in doing this.
Many of you may not be very skillful in connecting with students either.
Some students really want to learn and be challenged. Others, do not.
Some students will fail and not get it no matter how much time you spend and what you do.
Teaching is a skill and it can be learned. Get a couple of good books on teaching and read them. Examples are available in the Faculty Corner, Hurst 204.
Seek to constitute your classroom as a creative learning community.
Seek to constitute yourself as coach rather than referee or judge.
Use rubrics for grading.
Get feedback – especially through early or mid semester evaluations. Acknowledge it and make changes if you need to.
Keep your promises or acknowledge that you haven’t and apologize
Learn your students names.
Don’t forget the good students.
posted by dormgrandpop at 5:55 AM
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