Welcome,
If you have just been appointed to teach at a college, you are in the right place for some basic survival information. Breathe, you can do this!
1. Once you know what class you are teaching, email your department office or chair and request a copy of the syllabus from the previous semester. This is your template to start your own syllabus. Read and edit carefully the dates, office hours, classroom number, location, teaching modality, etc. and make sure you edit for grammar and sentence structure.
2. Start with the end in mind. What do you wish to accomplish during the semester? Review your syllabus to articulate clearly what, when, where and how you intend to achieve your goals. If you are not sure of these answers, then you can be assured your students will be confused as well. This will cause you headaches. Say what you will do and do what you said you will do! Your syllabi will become your "go to" document. Student disputes are often a result of unclear structure and expectations, therefore, take time to set clear guidelines, due dates and expectations before your first day of class.
3. Find out what textbook you are to use and get in touch with the publisher. This information will be available from your department admin via email. It takes about 2 weeks to get access to the publishers' materials, so start the process early, it may be beneficial to copy your department chair or admin when communicating with the publishers rep. Note, each publisher has assigned representatives to college/departments who will verify your hiring information before giving you access to the teaching materials with an assigned faculty account.
a. Use your account to download the textbook, standard subject matter learning objectives, course description and chapter overview.
b. Download the Lecture PowerPoints, these can be customized to fit your style of teaching.
c. Download the test item files, most of the publishers will provide multiple choice and essay questions by chapter, for the textbook. Fortunately or unfortunately, many of the question banks remain unchanged even with newer versions of the textbook used in class. It is your responsibility to verify if the questions in the test bank are relevant and if you have covered the subject matter in your lecture, before creating your exams.
4. Go to campus a few days early, check out your classroom location and technology, I highly recommend turning it on and becoming acquainted with the process of presenting your first PowerPoint slides or Syllabus. Reach out to your college IT department if you need help. You will need your college login, password, as well as your mobile phone to authenticate your login. Remember, there are no dumb questions, except the one you did not ask! Most colleges offer asynchronous online courses on the technology and learning management systems (LMS) used on campus. Ask your department administrator for assistance to find the information you need.
Lastly, breathe, you can do this! If you are nervous, know that it is normal, having a few jitters just shows that you care. Planning and preparing for your first class is important. To calm your nerves you can start with introductions, say a little bit about yourself, keep it relevant. Students want to know how to relate to you. Show your accomplishments, but also show that you are human and that you have empathy and understand their situation. Let each student introduce themselves, I provide a PPT slide as a prompt so students know what to say (students name, nickname, major, a fun fact about them, why they are taking this class etc.). Like you, they are also nervous, so ask who would like to start with the introductions. By the end of the introductions you will have calmed your nervous system to some degree, and now you can get on to the most important task at hand: the syllabus.
When presenting the syllabi, I use the full screen mode and increase the zoom % so students in the last row can read clearly. Once you are done with the syllabus presentation ask students if they have questions. Incase there are questions you cannot answer, you can always say that you will get the answer during the next class. Even Professors do not need to know it all, "let me get back to you on that one" works just fine.
As you can see, we are learning as we teach.
- Teach2Learn 😃
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