23 Practical Strategies to Help New Teachers Thrive

The college classroom can be an isolated place. College instructors can spend many terms without knowing how other instructors handle problems, or if their own approach is the most effective one. When you are new to teaching, you’re even more in the dark because you’re encountering everything for the first time.

As a new college instructor, you probably have many questions.

• How do I write a strong syllabus, then stick with it in the classroom?
• How do I strike the right balance between high-stakes and low-stakes assignments?
• What is the best way to start and end each class?
• How can I manage my students and my workload so I can stay enthusiastic for years to come?

For the new college teacher, it is best to learn from those who have been there. In the latest Magna Publications white paper 23 Practical Strategies to Help New Teachers Thrive, you will discover the tips and techniques that have proven successful for experienced faculty and explore how to use these in your own classes.

This 45-page white paper takes a step-by-step look at some of the strategies used by successful college teachers, with examples and take-aways for your own classroom.

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In this white paper, you will learn:

• An introduction to foundational theory of pedagogy
• How to write an effective syllabus
• How to write learning goals
• How to pace your course
• Metaphors for viewing your own role in the classroom
• How to structure assignments
• Tips for classroom pacing
• How to grade efficiently
• How to keep students interested and involved
• How to protect your own “off-time”
• Ways to deal with compromise in the classroom
• Who to go to for help
• How to stay active and enthused for an entire career

You will also receive a comprehensive list of resources for future reading and study, as well as a sample syllabus to use as a model.

Who will benefit?
This report will give you a wealth of ideas to improve your teaching and is written for new college instructors as well as experienced ones, including:

• New instructors
• Experienced instructors looking for new approaches
• Deans and department chairs supervising new faculty

Cost

You can download the PDF of this white paper, or get the print version mailed to you.

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A Campus Access License is available for an additional $200. It allows the purchasing institution to load the white paper onto the institution’s password-protected internal web site for unlimited access by members of the campus community.

23 Practical Strategies to Help New Teachers Thrive is based on a presentation delivered by Ike A. Shibley, Jr., an associate professor of chemistry at Penn State Berks, a small, four-year college within the Penn State system. He teaches chemistry, philosophy of science, and bioethics classes, and he has won both local and university-wide awards for his teaching. His research involves pedagogical approaches to improving science instruction at the college level.

College teaching can be a long and rewarding career. This white paper will help you address the challenge of the classroom and remain effective and enthusiastic for years to come.

1. Let go of the guilt. In any given online class, there may be a soldier logging in from Iraq, a student located three time zones away, and a night owl who concentrates best at 4:00 a.m. As a result, the online faculty member likely will receive questions or comments at any time of the day or night.

The desire to serve students, and online educators’ subconscious need to justify their work-at-home existence, leaves many online faculty feeling guilty if they don’t respond to students right away. It’s time to let go of that guilt.

2. Set your working hours. Kelly urges all online faculty to set working hours and obey them. “This [problem] is common to telecommuters; we try to fit in work around everything else,” she says. But instead of continuously checking email, grading papers, running errands, and doing laundry, Kelly suggests carving out set blocks that are just for work.

These blocks may not correspond directly to a standard office work day, for example you may have day when you need to teach one synchronous class in the morning and another in the evening. However, on these days, it’s important to schedule time in the afternoon for non-work-related activities.

3. Manage your time, and learn to explain to others. Part of the secret to the work-life balance is better time management. However, even when online faculty manage their time well, they often have trouble explaining their position to administrators, and vice versa. Questions about time management are often heard as complaints about workload or requests to work harder; learning to communicate with one’s colleagues is often a big hurdle to handling time effectively, Kelly says.

4. Be proactive. If online faculty do not learn to set boundaries, they risk the sort of burnout that could drive them out of the online classroom altogether. While it’s important for administrators to make it clear that a commitment to teach online is not a monastic oath to have no life other than a virtual one, Kelly also encourages online faculty to take charge of their own time.

A critical step to doing so involves managing students’ expectations by explaining instructors’ availability and communication policy upfront. Students, she says, generally understand as long as the online faculty member obeys his or her own promises about check-in times and response turn-around.

Adapted from “Setting Boundaries: Four Tips for Managing Your Time Online and Not Letting Your Work Consume Your Life,” Distance Education Report, August 1, 2007.

In the online seminar 15 Survival Strategies for New College Instructors, Dr. Peter M. Saunders, director of Oregon State University’s Center for Teaching and Learning, outlines 15 effective teaching strategies that address some of the common pitfalls facing new higher education instructors

The Syllabus as a Classroom Management Tool

“If you ask me to pick the single most critical issue that new instructors should focus on, it would be classroom management, “ says Saunders, “because without a solid management system in place, all the good work one has done preparing for teaching can unravel right before your eyes.”

Indeed, for new college educators to survive and flourish, one of the most important things they need to do is consistently establish and manage student expectations and behavior. The syllabus is a way to help accomplish this, Saunders says. Not only is the syllabus an informational tool that answers the key “Who, What, When, Where, Why and How” questions that students have about a class, but it can be transformed into a powerful class management tool that sets clear expectations for workload, learning outcomes, learner behavior and responsibilities, deadlines, grading, late assignments and assessment.

“As instructors, we forget just how confusing it is for students who travel from class to class and encounter differences and inconsistencies,” says Saunders, noting that it’s important to not only communicate your expectations but to frame them in such a way that students understand the rationale behind the behaviors you’re requesting.

For example, to communicate the expectation of a positive learning environment, the following language is appropriate: “As your instructor and as a student in this class, it is our shared responsibility to develop and maintain a positive learning environment for everyone. Your instructor takes this responsibility very seriously and will inform members of the class if their behavior makes it difficult for him/her to carry out this task. As a fellow learner, you are asked to respect the learning needs of your classmates and assist your instructor to achieve this critical goal.”

Effective Teaching Strategies for New Instructors

Using the course syllabus as a classroom management tool is just one of the 15 strategies Saunders discusses in the 90-minute seminar, 15 Survival Strategies for New College Instructors. Other strategies for surviving those first couple of years include smart approaches that will help new higher education instructors:

• Create a safe environment and emphasize time on task
• Understand when technology should be used and when it should be avoided
• Motivate learners with the power of peer pressure and peer admiration
• Integrate teams into small and large classes
• Provide feedback to student learning without excessive, time-consuming grading

“One piece of advice, you can’t integrate all of these at once,” says Saunders. “Integrate them slowly and at the rate that you feel comfortable with them.”

15 Survival Strategies for New Instructors

There’s so much to wrap your hands around when you begin teaching: content, delivery methods, use of technology, student engagement, classroom management, and learning environment. It’s no wonder new instructors get overwhelmed.

Sure you know your content inside and out, but unless you understand and implement effective teaching strategies, strategies you probably have very little training on, you won’t be very good at conveying that knowledge to your students.

Don’t fall back on the only method you’re familiar with – lecturing.

We’ll get you track with some solid teaching and classroom management strategies that you can implement right away.

Dr. Peter M. Saunders outlines 15 practical strategies for instructional success, and ways to overcome some of the more common pitfalls facing higher education instructors.

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Without these strategies, all the good work you’ve done in preparing for a teaching career could unravel right before your eyes. The seminar will guide you on the skills you need to succeed in the classroom, such as interacting with students, providing feedback, time management, integrating technology, and handling the required paperwork and politics inherent with teaching.

The ideas presented in the wildly popular 15 Survival Strategies for New Instructorswill work for any size class, and will help you to set clear expectations for your students and motivate them to succeed.

Watch this seminar for tips on how to:

• Set learner expectations through a well-crafted syllabus
• Create a safe environment and emphasize time on task
• Identify when technology should be used and when it should be avoided
• Motivate learners with the power of peer pressure and peer admiration
• Integrate teams into small and large classes
• Provide feedback to student learning without excessive, time-consuming grading

This seminar contains valuable information for:

• New instructors
• Graduate teaching assistants
• Seasoned faculty
• Mentors of new instructors
• Graduate student advisors
• Faculty development personnel

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1) Multiple Intelligences. Howard Gardner’s groundbreaking book on multiple intelligences (MI) changed education by documenting that people learn in different ways. By introducing concepts like visual, spatial and bodily kinesthetic learning, MI made clear that only with a variety of teaching methods can instructors reach all learners. See Gardner, H. Multiple Intelligences (1993) and Intelligences Reframed (1999).

2) Assessment. College professors know that they must assess learning, a process they tend to loosely associate with exams or papers that test knowledge. Yet assessment and testing are not synonyms. K-12 teachers are taught to use three different kinds of assessment:

• Early assessment—the informal information about students gathered through observation early in the semester, which provides practical knowledge about students and helps with course planning;
• Instructional assessment—the circular process whereby teachers plan instruction, assess their teaching (based in part on student work, responses, attitudes, etc.), and use that feedback to revise instruction; and
• Official assessment—the traditional process of giving exams; assigning papers; and, ultimately, grading student work.

3) Lesson Plans. K-12 teachers prepare formal lesson plans as a teaching and learning framework, and a road map for getting there. Successful lesson plans have five components:

• Goals: “Why am I teaching this lesson?”
• Objectives: “What should students know or be able to do after this lesson?”
• Materials: “What supplies, media, and other equipment do I need to teach the lesson?”
• Teaching activities: “What will take place during today’s instruction?”
• Assessment: How will I know students have met these goals and learned the material?” See Airasian, P. Classroom Assessment, 2005.

4) Special Needs. Each year, beginning students arrive on campus with a history of diagnosed (and undiagnosed) learning challenges. Most college professors have little, if any, experience working with special needs students and can be quick to judge a weak student as failing rather than struggling to learn. K-12 teachers are trained to recognize, diagnose, and support a wide range of learning disabilities. They are also versed in the theories of cognition, memory, and differentiated instruction. Faculty can take steps to support these students without sacrificing standards. See Levine, M. A Mind at a Time, 2002.

5) Student Aspirations. Teaching and learning thrive when the conditions are in place that support student aspirations. When student-faculty relationships are strong, and curriculum is rigorous and relevant, students are more engaged, retain more information, and transfer what they learn to other areas of life. Education takes on a purpose that increases student confidence and achievement.

Excerpted from “What College Professors Can Learn from K-12 Educators,” written by Sara E. Quay, Anthony Pastelis, Kathleen McLaughlin, and Elizabeth Cain. The Teaching Professor, November 2006.

After adopting some simple strategies, I find that the job I do today is much more effective and enjoyable than when I began my current leadership position. In this article I will share some key time management principles that you can implement on your own.

Tracking Your Time Effectively
If you ever wondered why you never seem to have enough time, then I recommend that you take some simple steps to find out. For most academic leaders, recording a time log for one or two weeks will suffice as an initial assessment. The time log can be recorded using a notepad and pen, but an electronic spreadsheet may be more effective if you have a computer easily accessible through most of your day.

At the end of each day, review your time log and write yourself some notes in the margin on each activity you did during the day. Consider the benefits of each activity and how you might have gone about achieving the same results more effectively.

One goal of the time log exercise is to draw a profile of your daily or weekly consumption of time on various types of tasks/activities. Once you have completed your time log for your initial period, you will need to do some simple analyses on it by grouping tasks into categories that describe the jobs you do and tallying up the hours spent on each.

Creating a Time Management Plan
After reviewing your time profile, you will likely realize that there were important tasks that you did not complete, and others where many hours were spent without measurable achievements. If that is true, consider how much time you should have spent on each category to be most effective. I refer to this exercise as creating a time budget.

Split your budgeted hours among your categories, and use that as a plan for how you intend to spend your next week at work. I recommend keeping score of how many hours you actually spend. I have developed an Excel spreadsheet specifically for that purpose, but it can be done in a less formal fashion.

Prioritizing Tasks
There always will be more tasks on your “to-do list” than you will have time to do. One of the key principles of time management is to prioritize tasks on the basis of the following criteria:
• Importance
• Urgency
• Payoff
• Effort needed

Tasks should be considered important either because there is a high payoff from doing them or, conversely, a negative consequence from not doing them. I personally use a scoring system each morning when I review my “to-do list.” Tasks are scored on a scale from 1 to 5 in terms of importance and urgency. Routine tasks are usually managed separately from this list. Each day, I block out times to handle tasks such as checking and responding to email, returning phone calls, and typing or dictating simple memos.

Benefits of Time Management
All academic leaders will benefit from implementing time management techniques and continuing to identify areas in which improvements can be made. The reward for doing so is getting the important jobs done in a timely fashion without having to sacrifice your personal time by putting in endless extra hours on evenings and weekends.

References
Bond, W.J. (1991). 199 time-waster situations and how to avoid them. Hollywood, FL: Fell Publishers.

Covey, S. (1990). The 7 habits of highly effective people. New York: Fireside.
Crandell, G. (2005). Time management for more effective results. The Department Chair, 15(3), 11-12.

Douglass, M.E., & Douglass, D.N. (1980). Manage your time, manage your work, manage yourself. New York: Amacon.

Gmelch, W.H. (2004). Choosing the path of academic leadership: How to survive and stay alive. Proceedings of the 21st K-STATE Academic Chairpersons Conference.

Hansen, C.K. (2007). Effective time management for academic leaders. Proceedings of the 24th K-STATE Academic Chairpersons Conference.

McKenzie, A. (1990). The time trap. New York: Amacon.

Christian K. Hansen is chair of the Department of Mathematics at Eastern Washington University.

Excerpted from Academic Leader, June 2008.