an odd question and a picture

[TheLorax]

I know that no one on this site knows me or is under any obligation whatsoever to respond to this in any sensible fashion, but I’m asking it anyway.

For a brief bit of background I have signed up to teach a class at a community college here in town. I’ve been kicking around the idea of teaching since grad school, but this is my first foray into the profession. Not that I am normally risk adverse, but I am dipping my toes into the cold, icy waters by taking on exactly one night school course.

It’s my way of converting what has been a career rife with layoffs, transfers, and the current dead end office job that I took because I needed a job into a master plan to attain a wide variety of experience in the profession so that I can bring more of a real world perspective into the teaching profession.

Doesn’t that sound good?

Also, it has been my lifelong dream to be eccentric. The way I figure it, there are only two ways to achieve true eccentricity as opposed to being “odd”. One is to be shamelessly wealthy and the other is to be a college professor. I have long since given up on shameless wealth so I had to opt for curtain #2 into order to achieve my goal.

I find that I am very concerned about how well I perform as a professor in this first class. I’m sure that I will learn and adapt my methods to what works, but if I do this, I want to be the best damn professor these people have ever had and I fear that I may be short changing the first class or two while I experiment with getting my swerve on. (so to speak) I am staying very mindful of the fact that if nothing else, every single person sitting in that classroom this fall will be there to improve their lives. I respect that and I don’t want to let them down.

yes yes yes idealism that will be squelched by the system but allow me my loftiness

What I would like to know is if there is any one thing good or bad that a professor you had did that stuck in your mind?

example: returned tests quickly, learned everyone’s names, performed slight of hand tricks (ok I can’t do that, but I can juggle)

Also, what should I have them call me? I am an informal person by nature (cough hippie cough) and I don’t think I would be comfortable going by my last name. I’m pretty sure that there will be people in the class older than I am and for damn sure I am not comfortable with someone older than I am calling me by my last name. On the other hand, I have heard noise from a few people that having my students call me by my first name will undermine the respect level in the classroom. I don’t so much buy that because out in the business world where I normally live everything is first name basis and I don’t see any loss of respect as a result of this. I may just go with “professor chaos”.

Sorry, this is getting egregiously long.

Anyway, as a means of comic relief, here is a picture I drew. I started drawing about 6 months ago when I let some friends convince me that “anyone” could learn to draw. This is my version of The Portrait of Dr. Gachet originally painted by that hack VanGogh. The important thing is that I enjoy it and it keeps me from snacking on crap I shouldn’t be eating in front of the tv at night.

[Happy Monkey]

Try and make it seem like your class is an exclusive club. Not explicitly, more informally. When I look back at my favorite classes, they all seemed like a club.

Unfortunately, I can't think of what it was about them that created that feeling, so you're on your own.

[DanaC]

If it's a mixed agegroup you are dealing with then I would advise using whatever form of adress you'd be comfortable with in any other mixed age company. Give their work the attention it deserves ( ie mark their work and include notes on what theyre doing right and what they are doing wrong. )....If theres no issue of forced attendance( ie highschool) I dont really see a need for formal powerstructures. You are there to impart knowledge on a matter about which they have sought to learn more

Good luck. *smiles* remember when you are shuffling around some dusty library in academia trailing awed and amused students behind you, tip the ash out of your pipe before you put it back into your ample pockets.

[glatt]

The most important thing for me as student, was having professors who were excited by their subject matter. When they were excited, it made it more interesting to me.

You should grade tests promptly. It's nice to learn all the names, but that depends entirely on class size. But those things are secondary.

Know your subject. Be excited by your subject. Present your subject in a logical way.

The professors I hated were the ones where I was taking an intro class. The profs usually were excted about some specific area of their field and didn't want to be teaching an intro class to a bunch of people that were mostly not going to major in their department. They just phoned it in. Sometimes, they would jump around as they explained things. They didn't teach in a logical order, because they hadn't really prepared for classs. Don't be like that.

[Pete]

Hey Lorax, Kudos on taking the plunge. I suspect you'll be a great teacher because you want to be. The best thing I saw a professor do was in a beginning programming class. He was actually just a Graduate Assistant but that's beside the point. He asked us to write directions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich explaining every detail as if the person making it had no prior knowledge base. Then he brought in the bread, penut butter, jelly, and a knife, chose a few examples and proceeded to make a mess. I don't think we actually learned that much (important lesson about programming but fairly easy to grasp) but it set the tone for the class.

My step-father is a biology teacher at a community college and frequently brought the students home to make pancakes or bread and discuss the properties of yeast. He always got good reviews for that.

BTW - I like your drawing. at first glance I thought "Hey, that looks kind of Van Gough-ish". I guess you achieved your goal.

[DanaC]

Your stepdad sounds like a brilliant teacher

[Beestie]

I think what makes a professor good is wanting to be good and caring for the students' progress. Remembering students' names can make quite a positive and lasting impression. If the class is really large, ask the students to take the same seat every time and make a chart with their names on it (that only you can see).

Other things that impress are having a solid agenda for the class, not allowing discussion to just wander away and off the subject, calling on students to participate, making clear assignments and making it clear what is required to do well in the class - defining the objective(s). I always thought the worst thing was when the prof hadn't thought things through and just rambled through the semester.

As far as the name goes, professor [insert last name here] is a can't miss.

Sounds exciting - I'd love to do that at some point except that the stuff I really enjoy I don't know enough about to teach and the stuff I know enough about to teach really isn't all that fun.

[Clodfobble]

On the subject of names...

I had a couple professors insist that we call them by their first names. I did indeed respect them less, not just because it got rid of any authority but also because it seemed to me they were trying too hard to be my friend, which inherently made them sort of lame, you know?

I think if you tell them you're Professor Whoever, but explain that you feel slightly stiff with that name so anyone who wants to can call you Professor Chaos instead, that would loosen things up but not make you look desperate to hang out with your students. And if you're lucky, a smartass-class-clown type will actually use it and it'll stick.

What subject are you teaching?

[TheLorax]

Thanks everyone, these are all good suggestions.

I’m teaching accounting, one of those horrible introductory survey courses that everyone in business school is forced to take. I went to UNC and also found the same issue that glatt described where the full professors view undergraduates as in the way of their brilliant research. I hated trying to get help during office hours and having to start the conversation with “hi I’m in your 9:00 class…” My favorite professors were grad students who still remembered what it was like to be on the other side of things.

[Slartibartfast]

I have had a number of great professors, and it is hard to isolate what made them great, they were all so different. Some commonalities are that they were all enthusiastic. They knew their material well. Their lessons were organized and not all over the place- you can overdo this point, if you are too organized the lesson becomes too rigid.

Humor helps, you don't have to be a stand-up comic, but at least don't take youself too seriously.

And never talk down to your students.

[Beestie]

Originally posted by TheLorax

I’m teaching accounting...

I remember the first day of my first, last and only accounting class. The professor was going over how things would work and, at one point, conveyed the following:

Professor: "You know how some professors will make the answer to a problem a nice even number to let you know you got the correct answer?" he asked wryly.

Class: "Yes, professor!" they responded with gleeful, yet-to-be-crushed enthusiasm.

Professor: "I don't like giving that comfort." he replied matter-of-factly.

**sound of 48 people all swallowing at the same time**

I suggest not starting things off in a similar manner.

[OnyxCougar]

My favorite professors were the one that applied what they were teaching to real life. It's fine to teach me something, but show me how I'm going to apply it.

Also, they were honest. If they didn't know one specific aspect of the subject, instead of coming with something to try to save face, they said, "well, I don't know." and that made me trust him more, because I knew that if he was telling me something, it's because he knew about it. If he didn't know he'd tell me.

Also, my favorite Spanish teacher in highschool did the old "you can only speak Spanish in this room" thing, which was a pain when we had to figure out how to go to the bathroom. BUT, he also brought in empty food boxes and cans, calling them their Spanish names and pronounciations, so that we understood the difference with (again) real life application. I aced that class until I moved to a different state, and the Spanish teacher taught out of the book. I failed that part.

Don't read your material to your students. Give them reading assignments from the book, then discuss the material, don't just re-read the book to them. Make the subject come alive, and they'll remember it (and you).

Now, accounting, well, I'm not sure what you'll be able to do to make that "come alive" as it were, but then, I remember in highschool accounting, the course included a "packet" of work that was to be completed throught the semester. It was for a fictitional business, and had reciepts and checks and a bunch of stuff, and you had to put all the entries in the right place, apply depreciation, write the reports, attach the tapes to everything and hand the whole thing in. (This was not the computer accounting course...) I really enjoyed that approach, because it applied what I was learning in the book to this business, and I had to compare everything along the way to make sure it was right. What could have been a dry, interminable leap into boredom turned out to be a really fun class. Maybe something like that would be effective for college level.

And as far as the name thing, Professor (whatever) is fine, they'll prolly just address you as "Professor" anyway, unless you have a really difficult last name, in which case, they may want call you "professor (first initial of last name)".

I have taught in college, so here are some of my thoughts for what they're worth. When I first arrived on campus to take up my new position, I found a fancy name plate attached to my office door. I immediently took it down and scrawed the name "Bill, the Cat" (of The comic strip Boom County) in its place. My students were welcome to call me by my first name and did so.

My best college classes were the ones where the professor let the class know what s/he expected them to accomplish and set out the goals of the course on the first meeting. I hated the classes that were unrealisticlly difficult. I was in one organic chemistry course where the professor flunked 70% of the class because we couldn't perform up to his unrealistic standards. Conversely, I hated classes where the prof didn't believe in grades and gave everybody an "A," even those who flunked every exam. When I taught, I tried to make the class an inter-active one, where students were encouraged to give input and ask questions. There was no such thing as a stupid question, and I told my classes this at the start. I always admired when a professor admitted to having been wrong about something. If a student caught me out on some point, I would admit this. My honesty seemed to get me more respect rather than less. I encouraged my students to come see me during office hours if they were having a tough time, and I tried to let them know that I had complete faith in their ability to do good work. However, if they continued to flunk exams or not turn in papers, I would give them a low or failing grade. It was a wonderful experience, and I think I learned far more from my students than they ever did from me. Good luck and have a blast next fall!

[TheLorax]

marichiko – ah fond memories, or rather memories of a class I took my senior year and had to have to graduate. It was taught by the dean once a year. I had a whopping 33 average because the tests were so unbelievably hard. We all thought we were failing and he refused to discuss grades. I was resigned to taking it again and ended up getting a B in the class.

I seem to be getting a great deal of latitude from the college as to what I want to do. I have to cover the first 9 chapters of the book and that is all they’ve really told me. I thought there would be standardized tests but nope. There is a great deal of emphasis on taking roll for funding purposes, but so far I have not heard any noise about grading on a curve.

I think I’m going with homework for 10% of the grade, 5 tests (drop the lowest grade) for 80% and another 10% pass/fail thing that would be each person leading a 5 minute discussion at the beginning of each class in some current event that has something, anything, to do with accounting or business.

That last part was just to make the math work out better and because I saw that most of the other instructors require a one-page paper on a current event and I don’t think I’m quite up to grading papers yet.

[smoothmoniker]

This last year I taught a few classes at a local university here in LA as part of their commercial music program. They sought out people who were working in the music industry professionally, and talked us all into giving up two days a week to come teach kids how to do what we do. It was a blast.

One thing that my students said they appreciated was the depth and organization of the syllabus. I mapped out the entire semester ahead of time (i knew I wouldn't have time mid-class to be planning on the fly) and gave them a course calendar of what each lecture would be on, when the reading was expected by, which assignments were due when, and what dates the tests were on. I also made it available on the website as a Calendar import, so they could drop it into Outlook or their PDA.

One thing that worked to my advantage was to set up a little bit of an "Us and Them" vibe with the students. At the beginning of the semester, I told them that my worst nightmare would be to walk into Guitar Center and see them shilling Mexican Stratocasters to junior high kids, so I was going to hold them to the same standards that I would hold my production assistants, my arrangers, and my engineers to. Not all of you will pass, because not all of you have the skills or the drive to do this professionally, but for those who do, you'll leave this class ready to work at a pro level.

It upped the ante for the whole class. I tried hard to make it a flunk-out course, set the exam and project standards really high, and the class average for this last semester was still 88%. I've even hired two of the students to tech for me on a project this summer.

So, there ya go. Whatever. Have fun. Be an ass. Be pompous, long-winded, lacking in personal hygiene, use puns, and insist that khaki pants go with vans skateboarding shoes. Try to revive archaic language, and insinuate that only people with extremely high intellect will understand your sense of humor. It is, after all, your lark, not theirs

-sm