Hi everyone! My name is Ren Maloney and I am a graduate assistant at the IU Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL), as well as a current PhD student in the rhetoric program in the IUB English department. I’ve been teaching first-year composition for the past four years, and starting next semester, I will be teaching public speaking.
This running blog tag, “The Graduate Grapevine,” will be dedicated to opening conversations surrounding and proposing solutions to common graduate student experiences. We will discuss teaching challenges, activity planning, how to schedule your own time, creating a syllabus for the first time, and other topics. A new post will be up every month, so keep an eye out.
Welcome to the vineyard, everyone!
****************
During my first year in my program, I have spoken with friends, colleagues, and professors about my teaching, and after hours of thinking and planning and obsessing over my courses, here’s what I’ve come up with: sometimes, it’s OK to use duct tape.
As a new graduate student, it is impossible not to feel immense pressure to do your best. Our student lives demand a constant attention to readings and exams, our home lives demand that the laundry be done, and the groceries be bought, but the most intense expectations can be those of our teaching lives, which demand hours of planning and prepping that we might not always feel like we have the energy to give. How do we balance the responsibilities that we have taken on? What’s gotta give?
Books such as What to Expect When You’re Expected to Teach are great for graduate students willing to seek out additional readings. Here’s what I can say as far as a short summary of the book: not every day is going to be perfect. Some days, you’re going to have to use “duct tape—something to help hold it all together” (10). Some days, you will teach the best lesson plan you have ever come up with and your students will stand on their desks in a poetic salute to your teaching capabilities. Teaching is a mixed bag.
The most important thing to remember is that teaching is not an innate talent. It is something learned over time, with much practice. Go easy on yourself. If you’re worrying that you are not doing a good enough job, that’s a good sign that you are doing a good enough job. While I know that you are doing great, here are a couple of recommendations to get through your duct-tape days:
- Make a game of it! Sometimes pulling yourself out of a rut means making learning fun for both you and your students. In a recent study on the effectiveness of gamification in the higher education classroom, it was found that undergraduate students had increased motivation and a greater understanding of learning outcomes when their instructors used gamification techniques (Buckley et al 5-6).
- Pressed for time? Try using online games as an easy way to lesson plan with intention while not having to plan it all yourself. Some of my favorites include Get a Life, a life simulator that lets students make choices for their characters that impact their career (great for a first week activity or introducing the significance of your field), and The Stock Market Game, a stock market simulator that explains the intricacies of trading stocks and mutual bonds (great for learning outcomes surrounding strategy, finance, and planning).
- Use a resource on campus. If you can’t think of anything to do, let someone else do some thinking for you! Research shows us that student engagement with the campus outside of the classroom leads to favorable impacts on student learning outcomes acquisition (Carini, Robert M., et al. 2006). In a study conducted by the Ohio State University Center for the Study of Student Life, it was found that in addition to positive correlations with “academic performance, cognitive development, well-being, leadership and multicultural awareness,” the more involved a college student is on their campus, the more hirable they become upon graduating (Ohio State University). Check out events going on across campus for inspiration on what to do with your students. Have a writing consultant come speak to your students about writing and research or have students attend an event on campus as their engaging activity for the day as a way into community-engaged learning!
- If you need help planning an activity or sorting through how to engage your students, take a look at CITL’s Teaching Resources or make an appointment with a CITL consultant! For more class ideas, read my previous blog post on field trip spots: Quick-Tip: Field Trip! Taking a Page from the Ms. Frizzle Handbook
- Trade lesson plans with your fellow graduate instructors and create lesson plans in your off time! When you are busy during the semester, you can have a couple of lesson plans ready to go. Once you have taught the same course a couple of times, you will have a wealth of materials that you can update and use again. Be sure to save your lesson plans somewhere safe that you can access!
To finish our introduction to the grapevine, I interviewed graduate students at IUB’s campus who have taught within the last year to ask them about advice they might have for new teachers who are teaching in the vineyard for the first time. Here’s what they had to say:
Q: What is something you wish you had known before you began teaching?
“As an international graduate student who may feel nervous about teaching for the first time in the States, you have to keep in mind that you are here for a reason. You have something to teach first-year undergraduates, whether or not you think that that’s the case. I wish I had been aware of this before my first semester teaching—would have made things far less stressful.”
– (Alp P., 3rd year PhD student)
Q: What is something that surprised you about your first year teaching?
“I was surprised that students respected me when I said, “No.” As a young woman, I’d been afraid that students would try to walk all over my authority. But the first time I had a student come to office hours to challenge the mediocre grade he’d received, I responded by walking him through the places where he’d variously succeeded and failed in the assignment. Not only did he then respect the grade, he realized I was actually on his side, a useful resource–he became a major participant in class discussions, and would come to office hours before assignments were due. Similarly, when I told students in discussion that they were wrong in some way–they misdefined vocab, spoke out of turn, gave an incomplete answer–I found that they then trusted me more when I told them what they were doing well. I realized that while students don’t enjoy being wrong (and who does?), they do genuinely want to improve, and that requires honesty and transparency from me as I evaluate their work.”
– (Sara L., 7th year PhD student)
Q: What is something that excites you about teaching at IU?
“I am excited to see students deepen their own thinking. Personally speaking, I like the concept of “evolving a thesis” in W131. It is a methodology of developing a thesis; students, after coming up with a working thesis, are encouraged to look at primary texts to find evidences or details that contradict or complicate their initial thesis. This helps students look at a certain object from different angles and add more nuances to their writing. The method helps students come up with interpretations that surprise even themselves. That is usually the most exciting moment for me.”
– (Yuma M., 3rd year PhD student)
Q: What would be your one recommendation or piece of advice for a new graduate instructor at IU?
“Show your care for your students — let them know it. The more affection you give, the more they will appreciate it. Every class is different and every class you needs different strategies, but every student is keen to notice your fear, your affection, your worries, and your joy. You are not the best teacher and they are not the best students, but perform as the best teacher, invite them into your play — let them perform as good students with you.”
– (Daeun K., 2nd year PhD student)
You’ve got this. Go get ‘em.
*****************
Any suggestions for “The Graduate Grapevine” blogposts can be sent to citlgrad@iu.edu with the subject line ‘The Graduate Grapevine Blogpost Suggestion’ or you can comment on this post! If you want your question answered, don’t hesitate to reach out!
References:
- Buckley, Patrick, et al. “Game On! Students’ Perceptions of Gamified Learning.” Journal of Educational Technology & Society, vol. 20, no. 3, 2017, pp. 1–10. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26196115.
- Carini, Robert M., et al. “Student Engagement and Student Learning: Testing the Linkages.” Research in Higher Education, vol. 47, no. 1, 2006, pp. 1–32. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40185882.
- “Involvement in College Matters.” Center for the Study of Student Life, The Ohio State University, https://cssl.osu.edu/research-projects/involvement-study.
Leave a Reply