Not That Kind of Doctor - Teaching in Higher Education
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02/14/2023
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Teaching in higher education presents unique challenges, especially when transitioning from K-12 or international education systems. In this episode of "Not That Kind of Doctor," Guy and Nick delve into the nuances of teaching at the college level, exploring how different it is from other educational contexts.
We share our personal experiences, from the culture shock of shifting from K-12 to higher ed to navigating the complexities of course design and student relationships in the university setting. Whether you're a new faculty member or a seasoned educator adapting to a new environment, this episode offers practical insights and strategies to help you thrive.
đź“Ś Key Takeaways:
Understanding the differences between K-12 and higher education teaching
Strategies for building effective relationships with college students
How to adapt to the temporality of university teaching
Tips for leveraging learning management systems to enhance student engagement
The importance of collaboration and using existing resources when teaching a new course
Whether you're teaching for the first time or adjusting to a new educational context, this episode provides valuable advice on how to navigate the challenges of higher education teaching.
#HigherEducation #TeachingStrategies #NotThatKindOfDoctor #AcademicLife #ProfessionalDevelopment
How do you approach teaching in higher ed? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more discussions on academic life and beyond!
Teaching in Higher Education - Not That Kind of Doctor with Nick Husbye and Guy Trainin
www.youtube.com/@tltenotthatkindofdoctor
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- [00:00:00.000](upbeat music)
- [00:00:09.400](indistinct speech from Guy)
- [00:00:11.340]I thought it was your episode! You were starting!
- [00:00:12.830]Yeah! Oh, okay!
- [00:00:14.070]I am excited because we're gonna talk about teaching,
- [00:00:16.800]and especially teaching in higher education because,
- [00:00:20.356]there are two ways, for me at least,
- [00:00:22.410]that teaching in higher education is different
- [00:00:25.740]than what I've done before
- [00:00:27.900]and one way is,
- [00:00:30.510]most of us have taught in one format or another in K-12.
- [00:00:34.770]So, we've worked with kids, we know how to teach,
- [00:00:37.560]but schools, K-12 schools and higher education,
- [00:00:41.580]the way college works, is very, very different,
- [00:00:43.950]I feel, in some ways.
- [00:00:45.900]In other ways, teaching is teaching,
- [00:00:48.450]and the second aspect, and that's definitely for me,
- [00:00:51.360]is that I actually came from another country.
- [00:00:56.400]I've talked about this before,
- [00:00:57.780]from Israel, and so for me,
- [00:01:00.720]the transition was also between
- [00:01:02.940]the way higher education works in other countries
- [00:01:05.850]and the way it works in the United States.
- [00:01:07.680]It feels very different.
- [00:01:10.770]There's the added difference in culture and in language
- [00:01:14.670]that is making things considerably more difficult.
- [00:01:18.030]There's accent, a student one's-
- [00:01:22.020]Are you talking about mine?
- [00:01:22.920]Yes, I am talking about yours,
- [00:01:24.750]and one of my students once told me that,
- [00:01:27.810]delightfully by the way, told me that I sound like Gru,
- [00:01:31.135](hosts laughing)
- [00:01:32.990]and so, and I'm like, okay, I don't know what to do
- [00:01:38.040]with that, but, so those are real challenges
- [00:01:42.150]when you start teaching in higher education
- [00:01:45.420]and your students feel comfortable saying things like that
- [00:01:48.300]and I had a great relationship with that student,
- [00:01:50.760]so it was fine,
- [00:01:51.660]but it is in the back of our mind as we're thinking
- [00:01:57.090]about what does it mean to teach in higher education.
- [00:02:01.620]How was your first experience teaching?
- [00:02:04.020]Well, before we go into that-
- [00:02:04.946]Okay. Okay.
- [00:02:05.779]We should probably say-
- [00:02:07.050]Uh-huh.
- [00:02:07.883]Today on "Not That Kind of Doctor,"
- [00:02:09.990]we're talking all about teaching and the shift
- [00:02:13.230]from teaching sometimes in elementary
- [00:02:16.590]or secondary contexts into higher ed.
- [00:02:20.040]I'm Nick Husbye.
- [00:02:21.390]I am an associate professor
- [00:02:22.650]of elementary literacy education here at UNL.
- [00:02:25.710]I'm Guy Trainin, and I'm a professor of literacy
- [00:02:29.760]and innovative learning technologies
- [00:02:32.100]here at UNL, and this is-
- [00:02:34.110]Oh, look at you adding things on.
- [00:02:36.000]Yeah, I know!
- [00:02:37.159]And this is "Not That Kind of Doctor!"
- [00:02:39.300]Thank you, and so now-
- [00:02:41.640]And now.
- [00:02:43.110]How was it?
- [00:02:44.160]How did you happen to teach
- [00:02:45.600]the first time in higher education?
- [00:02:47.610]So, teaching was part of the financial aid package
- [00:02:53.040]that I was given from the institution that I studied at.
- [00:02:56.010]So, Indiana University was like, hey,
- [00:02:59.310]you're gonna be a teacher within our program.
- [00:03:04.410]They called us associate instructors,
- [00:03:06.120]and I was in the unique situation of,
- [00:03:12.990]I taught within the special education program,
- [00:03:16.140]so I was the literacy generalist-
- [00:03:18.390]Mm. Okay.
- [00:03:19.223]For the special education program.
- [00:03:21.060]So, I was split between these two departments.
- [00:03:24.120]There was literacy culture and language education,
- [00:03:27.420]rest in peace, and special education,
- [00:03:31.380]and so there was only one of me.
- [00:03:34.020]There was only one of me doing that particular job,
- [00:03:38.250]working with that particular population
- [00:03:40.470]of pre-service teachers.
- [00:03:42.450]So, there was this lovely challenge of what is it like-
- [00:03:51.923]Uh-huh. To be dropped into
- [00:03:54.736](Nick laughing)
- [00:03:55.860]a course for the first time
- [00:03:58.380]and not really have much support.
- [00:04:00.990]Uh-huh.
- [00:04:02.460]Not because that was designed that way,
- [00:04:04.860]but because I was literally the only,
- [00:04:07.860]there was one section every semester.
- [00:04:09.900]I was the only person teaching in that section.
- [00:04:14.850]So, it was an experience in getting an idea
- [00:04:23.610]of what's been done in the past,
- [00:04:26.730]what needs to be done in the future.
- [00:04:28.740]When you're working in a teacher education program,
- [00:04:31.050]you're always thinking about, like,
- [00:04:33.030]how do I need to prepare students
- [00:04:34.890]to actually teach in classrooms?
- [00:04:36.870]What does that look like?
- [00:04:38.610]Layered on with the additional special ed kind of focus
- [00:04:43.290]that those particular students had,
- [00:04:46.560]so it was like,
- [00:04:52.560]it wasn't like sink or swim.
- [00:04:54.570]I definitely had some water wings,
- [00:04:56.370]but anyone who's had water wings knows
- [00:04:59.340]that that's sometimes not enough.
- [00:05:01.320]Yeah. (Guy chuckling)
- [00:05:02.490]And so, yeah, it was an experience.
- [00:05:06.630]How about you?
- [00:05:07.463]How did you
- [00:05:09.110]come into teaching? So for me,
- [00:05:11.010]and I'm talking about teaching in the United States
- [00:05:13.290]because I did actually teach in Israel in higher education,
- [00:05:17.160]so, and that's not unusual.
- [00:05:19.380]Quite a few of,
- [00:05:20.213]at least the students that we have here at UNL,
- [00:05:23.790]when they come as graduate students,
- [00:05:25.642]the international students have had some,
- [00:05:28.860]or maybe even a lot of higher education experience,
- [00:05:32.670]but higher education in different countries works
- [00:05:34.800]in very, very different ways,
- [00:05:37.350]and so this is something that I have thought about a lot,
- [00:05:46.710]okay, a lot as as I've made that transition,
- [00:05:51.570]but helped other students make that transition and that is,
- [00:05:54.870]the culture is very different.
- [00:05:56.400]The student expectations are very different.
- [00:05:58.440]So, in many other countries, for example, students,
- [00:06:01.650]it feels more like we are used to in K-12.
- [00:06:04.230]Students get their marching orders
- [00:06:07.168]and really conform quite extensively.
- [00:06:11.970]In Israel, for example,
- [00:06:13.410]the credit load is considerably higher
- [00:06:15.712]in any given semester,
- [00:06:18.360]more like 20+ credits, and things like that,
- [00:06:22.620]so there are very different expectations
- [00:06:25.200]from that perspective and that's
- [00:06:27.574]a challenge in the transition.
- [00:06:29.910]I actually started as a TA,
- [00:06:32.220]and then I taught the same class I TA'd,
- [00:06:34.680]so that was a much easier transition into the way
- [00:06:39.780]that we kind of think about higher education
- [00:06:46.950]and how to teach a class, much easier than yours,
- [00:06:50.220]I think, in that I've seen somebody else teach it more
- [00:06:54.240]than once actually, and then finally, I got to teach it
- [00:06:57.540]and play a little bit with the variables and for me,
- [00:07:01.560]one of the first things that I've done, and I've done that
- [00:07:03.870]even when I came to UNL and I taught the literacy class
- [00:07:07.470]for the third time, for the first time,
- [00:07:10.530]I really stuck more or less to somebody else's curriculum
- [00:07:14.580]as much as possible-
- [00:07:15.720]Uh-huh. For the first time
- [00:07:17.190]and after that first time,
- [00:07:19.890]I was able to see what works for me,
- [00:07:21.750]what doesn't work for me, what do I want to change.
- [00:07:24.240]So, if there is something to be learned from that,
- [00:07:26.760]at least for me, is if there's somebody else teaching that,
- [00:07:30.840]if there's a structure to support you, embrace that.
- [00:07:33.870]Do not try to rewrite everything and say, I know better,
- [00:07:37.680]and you may, I know everything that needs to happen.
- [00:07:41.520]It's actually much better to take something and go with it
- [00:07:47.190]and then realize what works and what doesn't work.
- [00:07:50.850]Right.
- [00:07:51.683]Like, you can't redesign everything
- [00:07:55.350]within three weeks, right?
- [00:07:56.670]That's not-
- [00:07:57.690]Yeah.
- [00:07:58.523]How that happens.
- [00:07:59.356]Like, you pick certain things that you change
- [00:08:04.500]and shift from semester to semester to semester,
- [00:08:08.310]which is slightly frustrating.
- [00:08:11.490]Yeah.
- [00:08:12.323]I think it speaks to the,
- [00:08:14.970]one of the things that really was a mind shift for me was
- [00:08:19.860]the temporality of teaching in higher education.
- [00:08:24.150]Uh-huh.
- [00:08:24.983]Coming from being a self-contained first grade teacher,
- [00:08:30.390]I saw my kids every day.
- [00:08:31.650]Yeah.
- [00:08:32.483]Right?
- [00:08:33.316]So, like, there's something about being able
- [00:08:35.640]to pick up those threads
- [00:08:37.620]of learning from the previous day and extend them
- [00:08:40.260]into the next whereas in university teaching,
- [00:08:46.680]I may only see my students once a week.
- [00:08:48.840]Yeah.
- [00:08:49.673]Right?
- [00:08:50.506]So, like, what do I have to do differently in order
- [00:08:55.320]to connect those experiences?
- [00:08:59.910]Because I don't see them for six days.
- [00:09:01.410]Like, there's six days in between me seeing my students,
- [00:09:05.520]and what does that mean for my teaching?
- [00:09:09.330]So, that temporality was tricky-
- [00:09:15.240]Uh-huh.
- [00:09:16.410]As well as like,
- [00:09:19.260]how do we actually reach our students?
- [00:09:23.160]Like, what are, we talk about pedagogy a lot
- [00:09:27.660]in teacher education, usually
- [00:09:28.869]for elementary and secondary students,
- [00:09:31.650]but what do those pedagogies look like for adults?
- [00:09:34.530]Right? Like, how do you actually foster a discussion?
- [00:09:38.220]Yeah.
- [00:09:39.690]When they all look at you like deer in the headlights.
- [00:09:42.690]And you start realizing that they have not read anything
- [00:09:45.600]and so there's not much happening right there
- [00:09:49.410]and you've gotta have some strategies.
- [00:09:51.030]So, from that first time teaching,
- [00:09:53.190]what were the biggest lessons you took?
- [00:09:59.460]So, I think the biggest thing for me was
- [00:10:08.040]how much I had taken from my own undergraduate experience.
- [00:10:13.200]Like, I was teaching courses that were very similar
- [00:10:15.840]to the coursework I took-
- [00:10:17.490]Yeah.
- [00:10:18.323]As an undergraduate, and so Lordy talks about
- [00:10:24.510]how pre-service teachers,
- [00:10:27.000]while they're in a teacher education program, and we say
- [00:10:30.270]they're learning to be teachers,
- [00:10:31.230]they've been learning to be teachers for a really long time,
- [00:10:35.700]and so it was this weird layer of, oh,
- [00:10:40.200]I've been learning to be a teacher/educator
- [00:10:42.330]for a really long time because
- [00:10:45.805]that was part of my undergrad experience,
- [00:10:49.410]and so thinking back to what my experiences were
- [00:10:55.290]as an undergraduate and the things that didn't work for me,
- [00:10:59.430]but also the things that did work,
- [00:11:01.650]and trying to figure out why.
- [00:11:03.240]What were the mechanisms under which my professors
- [00:11:09.960]were operating and utilized that made
- [00:11:13.500]that particular learning experience work or not?
- [00:11:18.420]So, throughout that entire process,
- [00:11:22.530]like, going back over, like,
- [00:11:24.510]journals my 22 year old self had written-
- [00:11:28.110]Uh-huh.
- [00:11:28.943]Like, this is what happened in class today
- [00:11:30.270]and it didn't work,
- [00:11:31.103]la la la la la, like, but trying to figure out, like,
- [00:11:33.570]why didn't things work and what did work and identifying,
- [00:11:40.530]there are certain things I can do to get students engaged
- [00:11:47.580]in my coursework, to engage in the content,
- [00:11:50.160]particularly around teaching reading, teaching writing,
- [00:11:55.230]and so that was the first,
- [00:11:57.780]that first semester, as I'm flailing around with my,
- [00:12:01.890]you know, water wings, I was like, oh,
- [00:12:07.770]these are some of the things that I can do
- [00:12:09.330]and how do I build upon those
- [00:12:10.620]and how do I expand upon those?
- [00:12:12.000]So, it was a lot of trial and error,
- [00:12:14.880]a lot of experimentation in different ways
- [00:12:18.360]'cause it's a different population.
- [00:12:20.010]Yeah, and for me, at every instance where I started again,
- [00:12:27.501]I had to watch others and have a lot of, I was lucky enough,
- [00:12:32.310]unlike you in your first one, for example,
- [00:12:34.980]when I came to UNL, I taught,
- [00:12:36.720]but there were two of the same class being taught
- [00:12:39.990]at the same time.
- [00:12:41.070]So, for the first semester,
- [00:12:42.690]I collaborated with Kathy Wilson who was here, and we,
- [00:12:46.830]I used her syllabus so we could lean on each other,
- [00:12:51.480]and she walked me through some of the moves
- [00:12:54.360]and some of the options
- [00:12:56.040]and that's where I learned what worked for me
- [00:12:57.750]and what didn't work and that's where I started diverting,
- [00:13:00.330]but that's how it started, and again,
- [00:13:03.060]starting as a TA helped me see somebody else teach,
- [00:13:06.570]and in that case, see what moves really worked well
- [00:13:09.720]and what moves were going nowhere
- [00:13:11.610]because when you are sitting there
- [00:13:13.080]and being a TA, you have the opportunity to observe
- [00:13:17.160]how students react and really have some time to think.
- [00:13:21.420]If that doesn't happen when you're teaching,
- [00:13:23.340]you've got to debrief either with somebody else,
- [00:13:25.320]or even on your own by journaling,
- [00:13:28.140]to think about what has happened,
- [00:13:29.790]what worked, what didn't work.
- [00:13:31.590]One of the things that I've learned
- [00:13:33.030]in the first time I taught on my own is that,
- [00:13:36.840]and it sounds trite and it sounds obvious,
- [00:13:39.930]but creating really good personal connections
- [00:13:43.470]and a relationship with your students is crucial,
- [00:13:46.980]and the piece that I didn't understand
- [00:13:48.930]is that temporality piece,
- [00:13:50.220]and that is that seeing them once a week makes
- [00:13:53.610]that relationship-building a lot more important
- [00:13:58.380]because if you see,
- [00:14:00.300]if you miss something in the building of relationship over
- [00:14:04.500]the first few weeks,
- [00:14:06.210]you may have lost them for the semester.
- [00:14:08.310]They may learn something, but it'll be rough going.
- [00:14:11.610]There'll be a lot of resistance and it's harder
- [00:14:14.580]to carry them to do the hard work that they need to do
- [00:14:17.820]whereas, if you build the relationships early,
- [00:14:20.250]then they trust you enough to go with you
- [00:14:22.620]wherever you are going and wherever you want them
- [00:14:25.378]to go and really do, again,
- [00:14:28.920]it's about hard work and hard work is always hard and you
- [00:14:33.003]are, there's always resistance.
- [00:14:34.590]So, it's something to think about in the back of your mind
- [00:14:37.350]is how do I establish relationship knowing
- [00:14:39.780]that I will see them
- [00:14:40.890]and then not see them for a week-
- [00:14:43.140]Uh-huh.
- [00:14:43.973]And so really planning the first few interactions
- [00:14:47.520]to set things on a clear course
- [00:14:49.770]and providing enough structure for them to understand
- [00:14:54.360]where the course is going so there's a sense of purpose.
- [00:14:58.920]Yeah, and I think
- [00:14:59.753]there's two things that are important to touch upon there,
- [00:15:03.900]like the hot take-
- [00:15:10.830]Uh-huh.
- [00:15:11.663]Potentially, but I always cringe a little bit
- [00:15:15.930]about when I hear like, oh,
- [00:15:18.090]relationships are the most important things,
- [00:15:21.270]and I think what often gets missed when we talk
- [00:15:26.100]about relationships, in particularly education,
- [00:15:32.010]is it's a particular kind of relationship.
- [00:15:34.110]Yes.
- [00:15:34.943]Right?
- [00:15:35.776]Like, one of the things that you have to do
- [00:15:37.440]as the instructor, or as the teacher, is demonstrate that,
- [00:15:45.600]or not necessarily even demonstrate,
- [00:15:47.670]but just establish the fact
- [00:15:51.510]that you have particular knowledge of particular skills
- [00:15:57.270]and you are going
- [00:15:58.103]to spend this class time investing in the students
- [00:16:01.170]that you're working with so that they leave your course
- [00:16:06.750]a better person when they walked in.
- [00:16:08.160]Like, every class session,
- [00:16:10.830]they should leave that class session slightly changed.
- [00:16:16.770]Yes. Right?
- [00:16:17.603]And I sometimes feel like that gets left out.
- [00:16:20.940]Like, I know my students' names. I know birthdays.
- [00:16:25.410]I know favorite books.
- [00:16:26.550]Like, there's stuff that I'm getting from them,
- [00:16:29.070]but the most important part of that relationship
- [00:16:32.280]is that they know that I have particular experiences,
- [00:16:39.360]particular knowledge, that I'm gonna work diligently
- [00:16:43.500]with them to make sure that they grow in those areas,
- [00:16:47.970]and there's this investment, right?
- [00:16:49.942]Back and forth. And so for me, yes,
- [00:16:52.110]and it's good that you pointed that out because for me,
- [00:16:55.437]the relationship is really the relationship
- [00:16:57.780]while doing the thing itself.
- [00:16:59.670]So, while practicing how to teach literacy,
- [00:17:03.420]I'm not building relationships to just build a relationship.
- [00:17:07.230]We're not spending whole class sessions
- [00:17:09.180]just sitting together, talking about our lives.
- [00:17:12.420]We are using the materials, whatever they're reading,
- [00:17:15.750]whatever we're doing, to create that layer of trust.
- [00:17:20.490]So, it's not outside.
- [00:17:22.110]We're not just pausing on content and saying,
- [00:17:25.350]we're just going to be nice to each other.
- [00:17:27.780]I agree with you completely,
- [00:17:28.920]but there are strategies to do that
- [00:17:30.570]while discussing pertinent issues,
- [00:17:33.990]so, but you do have to put more time and effort to into it
- [00:17:37.680]and actually, because the relationship is really linked
- [00:17:41.970]to content, you have to plan carefully
- [00:17:43.920]because it can't be devoid of content
- [00:17:45.510]because students immediately get the sense
- [00:17:48.450]that we're not actually doing any work that moves us forward
- [00:17:51.780]and they start resisting, rightfully so,
- [00:17:54.030]because if they're in teacher education,
- [00:17:55.560]or whatever they're learning really,
- [00:17:57.319]they are there to get better.
- [00:18:00.390]They are there to learn how to do something.
- [00:18:02.580]In our case, we both teach literacy
- [00:18:04.500]and they really want to know
- [00:18:05.790]how to teach reading and writing.
- [00:18:07.290]Uh-huh.
- [00:18:08.123]They know that is a critical feature,
- [00:18:09.660]so if we don't immediately start with that
- [00:18:12.360]and build the relationship while doing that,
- [00:18:14.760]they start immediately feeling like we're wasting their time
- [00:18:18.450]and ours, and so the layer of expertise and the,
- [00:18:22.410]it's gotta be about what are you teaching me?
- [00:18:25.350]Right.
- [00:18:26.183]I mean, and that's the important part
- [00:18:27.540]of that relationship-building, right?
- [00:18:29.160]Like, you need to establish that you have something to give
- [00:18:33.450]in this relationship.
- [00:18:34.720]Yeah. I feel.
- [00:18:35.889]The other piece that I wanted to to come back to is, like,
- [00:18:39.450]this temporality piece because that was something
- [00:18:43.560]that I really had to get my head wrapped around
- [00:18:47.100]that, and thinking about what tools I have available to me.
- [00:18:52.620]So, like, I spend a lot of time planning for class.
- [00:18:58.170]I'm on an overload this semester and it is, like,
- [00:19:01.230]my time is blocked out right now.
- [00:19:05.183]That's part of the reason why I look like I should be
- [00:19:08.160]in the background of a "Duck Dynasty" episode.
- [00:19:10.650]If you were to see me after noon today, totally different.
- [00:19:15.329]It's gonna look totally different,
- [00:19:16.860]but, you know, when you got classes to plan,
- [00:19:21.180]trying to get into the barber is not a helpful thing,
- [00:19:24.300]but, like, the leveraging my learning management systems-
- [00:19:29.160]Uh-huh.
- [00:19:30.150]And leveraging them in ways that make sense to students.
- [00:19:36.750]So, what are some examples of how you leverage it?
- [00:19:40.020]So, some of the examples of how I leverage my LMS
- [00:19:44.940]is, you got these all last semester-
- [00:19:48.483]Yep. So, sorry.
- [00:19:50.250]One of the things
- [00:19:51.210]that I really like to do after class is I always schedule
- [00:19:55.470]an announcement that goes out to students.
- [00:19:58.710]So, it's essentially just an email through the LMS of, hey,
- [00:20:02.370]this is what we talked about today.
- [00:20:04.350]Here's what we're gonna do next time that we meet.
- [00:20:07.350]Here's all the links that you need to everything.
- [00:20:11.790]Looking forward to this.
- [00:20:13.080]Here's what's coming on the horizon. See you soon.
- [00:20:16.110]And so that gets them,
- [00:20:20.190]that keeps me in their inbox
- [00:20:23.160]even though they're not seeing me and I do this
- [00:20:25.740]with even my classes that I meet once a week,
- [00:20:28.830]like, my doctoral seminar right now,
- [00:20:30.480]we meet on Monday nights.
- [00:20:32.520]I annoy them in their email on Thursday just
- [00:20:34.920]to be like, hey, it's me.
- [00:20:36.900]Hi. I'm the problem.
- [00:20:38.310]It's me. Here's all the assignments that I gave you.
- [00:20:42.150]Aren't you glad you took this class?
- [00:20:44.460]You know?
- [00:20:45.293]So, and that helps kind of remind them that-
- [00:20:51.412]Uh-huh. Hey, this is a thing.
- [00:20:52.410]Yeah.
- [00:20:53.340]Where are you at?
- [00:20:54.173]What are you doing?
- [00:20:55.006]And it also invites them to, like, ask questions-
- [00:20:58.440]Uh-huh.
- [00:20:59.273]Around that.
- [00:21:01.530]The other thing, so one big change that I made this semester
- [00:21:06.900]was I realized that I spent a lot of time creating these,
- [00:21:13.980]like, hyperlinked Google Doc schedules for students
- [00:21:17.801]and they don't reference them.
- [00:21:22.320]Uh-huh.
- [00:21:23.153]The only thing that they reference is their Canvas.
- [00:21:25.350]Yep.
- [00:21:26.220]And so, I kept getting feedback from students around,
- [00:21:30.210]well, where do I find that?
- [00:21:32.200]I don't understand where we are,
- [00:21:34.080]and I was like,
- [00:21:34.913]did you check the schedule?
- [00:21:35.760]And they're like, it's not on Canvas.
- [00:21:36.780]I was like, no,
- [00:21:37.613]the schedule's right here,
- [00:21:38.550]but they were talking about the Canvas schedule-
- [00:21:41.010]Uh-huh.
- [00:21:41.843]And so this semester,
- [00:21:44.070]like everything is. Even the schedule.
- [00:21:46.590]Canvas, everything is right there.
- [00:21:49.530]I still did my Google,
- [00:21:50.880]but I didn't spend as much time, like,
- [00:21:55.230]tricking it out as you might say,
- [00:22:00.030]and I've also been playing with
- [00:22:04.080]when things become visible to students-
- [00:22:06.810]Yeah.
- [00:22:08.040]So that things don't become visible.
- [00:22:12.240]Like, not everything is visible
- [00:22:14.190]and I've kind of staggered when things get visible
- [00:22:18.120]so that they're just thinking about me.
- [00:22:21.930]Think about me! This feels a little bit like a Netflix,
- [00:22:25.470]like, I need you to think about me.
- [00:22:28.440]So for me, one of the ways I do that,
- [00:22:32.087]and I've learned from you to do the announcements
- [00:22:35.610]and to use, to leverage those.
- [00:22:37.769]One of the other things that I use is,
- [00:22:40.680]especially after assignments, I put together
- [00:22:44.970]very short videos that are a response
- [00:22:47.100]to, here are the three
- [00:22:48.456]most common problems in this assignment.
- [00:22:51.990]So, it is not individual feedback.
- [00:22:54.630]It is general feedback,
- [00:22:56.040]but again, it keeps me in their inbox.
- [00:22:58.470]They see me, especially for classes that meet once a week.
- [00:23:01.740]They see me.
- [00:23:02.573]There's another moment and they can get feedback quickly on
- [00:23:06.420]an assignment, even if they have not had time to look
- [00:23:09.840]at my specific feedback to their assignment.
- [00:23:15.397]One word about video,
- [00:23:18.720]and we're making video here,
- [00:23:19.860]but it's a little bit different when I make
- [00:23:21.630]those kind of videos.
- [00:23:22.560]These are videos I do at home in front of the computer,
- [00:23:27.270]after the pandemic, on Zoom, and I just shoot straight
- [00:23:31.560]and if I made a small error or something is a little bit
- [00:23:34.800]off in the way I say it, it's fine.
- [00:23:37.009]It would've happened in class that way as well,
- [00:23:39.930]so I'm not concerned.
- [00:23:41.100]I do not edit them unless there's a huge need for that.
- [00:23:44.670]I'd rather re-shoot a three to five minute video
- [00:23:47.430]than start editing because editing quadrupled the amount
- [00:23:51.270]of time you are gonna use on that.
- [00:23:52.830]It's not worth it.
- [00:23:54.227]You can upload this into a learning management system,
- [00:23:57.630]or LMS, or you can actually,
- [00:24:00.450]and I put mine on YouTube just because it's easy
- [00:24:02.910]and then I can embed it anywhere and I can keep it,
- [00:24:05.460]not that I do anything with it,
- [00:24:07.800]although there is a repetitiveness to comments
- [00:24:10.350]about assignments you use in classes over and over again,
- [00:24:14.010]but still, I usually make a new video,
- [00:24:17.250]and so that's another way to keep that in line.
- [00:24:22.650]Yeah, and the the video thing, I find,
- [00:24:26.370]is also very helpful.
- [00:24:27.590]Yeah. And I'm of the same ilk
- [00:24:29.040]where, like, if it's less than five minutes,
- [00:24:31.050]I'm not gonna worry about editing.
- [00:24:32.490]Yeah, and it will take over your life
- [00:24:37.350]if every video makes-
- [00:24:38.610]Yeah. I mean, I think about durability there.
- [00:24:40.990]Is it a video that I'm gonna use class after class
- [00:24:43.470]after class after class?
- [00:24:45.000]If that's not the case,
- [00:24:47.280]then I don't worry about it being too terribly polished.
- [00:24:50.490]Yeah. But if it's, like,
- [00:24:52.830]videos about letter/sound generalizations-
- [00:24:55.360]Yeah. I'm gonna spend
- [00:24:56.280]a little bit more time on that-
- [00:24:58.260]Uh-huh. Yeah, for sure.
- [00:25:00.000]And making sure that comes together, but
- [00:25:01.234]if it's feedback, whatnot,
- [00:25:05.490]I kind of let go of the perfectionism.
- [00:25:09.420]I do also, I would love to know about your videos.
- [00:25:11.970]Sorry, this is an aside. Yeah.
- [00:25:13.920]This is an aside, but I always find it interesting.
- [00:25:19.320]Here's another tip. Track your teaching.
- [00:25:21.840]Track what works.
- [00:25:23.310]Track how students are responding to assignments.
- [00:25:26.820]Do assignments do what you want them to do?
- [00:25:28.620]Like, what are the objectives of your course
- [00:25:30.360]and how are you measuring them?
- [00:25:31.920]But, like, as I track assignments that I've used year
- [00:25:36.540]after year after year, semester after semester
- [00:25:38.340]after semester, I share that feedback-
- [00:25:41.370]Uh-huh.
- [00:25:42.203]Before they do the assignment.
- [00:25:43.710]Yeah.
- [00:25:44.543]Like, here's what other students,
- [00:25:46.140]when I've used this assignment in the past,
- [00:25:47.970]here's what other students have done.
- [00:25:50.670]See if you can avoid these pitfalls.
- [00:25:52.683]Yes. Yes. Collecting that.
- [00:25:54.450]The other thinking about the assignments
- [00:25:56.400]is always on my mind as you're thinking about,
- [00:25:59.220]am I reaching my goals?
- [00:26:01.117]Do I need that assignment?
- [00:26:03.030]Uh-huh.
- [00:26:03.863]I am a huge proponent of 'less is more' in assignments-
- [00:26:08.250]Uh-huh.
- [00:26:09.083]Because it makes your life manageable,
- [00:26:10.470]especially if you're teaching multiple courses
- [00:26:12.420]that quickly takes over your lives,
- [00:26:14.370]and there are periods where you suddenly disappear
- [00:26:16.890]because you've got so many assignments, and in my case,
- [00:26:19.560]they get backlogged and then you get anxiety,
- [00:26:22.860]and that whole thing, avoid that,
- [00:26:24.930]and one of the ways to avoid that is avoid two things.
- [00:26:27.510]One is avoid having too many assignments.
- [00:26:29.880]So, if you're taking somebody else's curriculum,
- [00:26:32.940]avoid the urge to add anything
- [00:26:35.400]to it, especially in assignments.
- [00:26:37.470]Maybe take something away,
- [00:26:38.550]but definitely avoid adding at the beginning,
- [00:26:41.610]and then, after every time you teach, you wanna think,
- [00:26:45.030]did they do what I wanted,
- [00:26:46.380]was it too much?
- [00:26:47.490]Uh-huh.
- [00:26:48.608]And how can I make it more streamlined?
- [00:26:52.410]You need assignments.
- [00:26:53.340]You need to know that students are learning,
- [00:26:55.800]but there's a point where it becomes too much,
- [00:26:57.780]and especially between semesters,
- [00:26:59.130]it's really easy to start imagining
- [00:27:02.130]that we can do two more assignments in that class
- [00:27:06.330]because we missed and we didn't teach something,
- [00:27:09.180]and there's always something
- [00:27:10.770]that we could have taught better
- [00:27:12.030]and there are ways to get to that and assignments
- [00:27:14.250]is probably the wrong way.
- [00:27:15.930]So, if you are adding assignments,
- [00:27:17.700]you gotta take something away
- [00:27:19.290]because it easily becomes unmanageable.
- [00:27:22.770]Well, and again, if you're teaching multiple courses-
- [00:27:27.270]Yeah.
- [00:27:28.103]One, you do Marie Condo the crap outta your syllabus.
- [00:27:32.100]Like, does this spark joy in terms of what this course
- [00:27:36.150]is supposed to do?
- [00:27:37.290]Uh-huh. Sure, sure.
- [00:27:38.123]And if it doesn't, I get rid of it, right?
- [00:27:42.450]Like, but that requires me to be very clear
- [00:27:45.510]about what my objectives are and what performance indicators
- [00:27:50.280]that I'm looking for-
- [00:27:51.240]Uh-huh.
- [00:27:52.080]And how those assignments align
- [00:27:55.350]with those performance indicators and if they don't-
- [00:28:00.480]Yeah.
- [00:28:01.560]They don't spark joy, away they go, right?
- [00:28:04.710]And being very clear with students
- [00:28:07.530]around those performance indicators, right?
- [00:28:09.420]I think rubrics get a really bad rap-
- [00:28:11.880]Uh-huh.
- [00:28:12.713]Particularly when we use them, as teachers,
- [00:28:16.710]to justify a score.
- [00:28:18.570]That's not what rubrics are meant to do.
- [00:28:20.370]Rubrics are meant to help students understand
- [00:28:23.010]the trajectories of learning and how that gets represented
- [00:28:27.270]and what we are going to be thinking about
- [00:28:30.960]as we look through their assignments.
- [00:28:33.960]So, like, if you're using a rubric just for a score,
- [00:28:37.230]you're doing it wrong.
- [00:28:39.210]You're just, you're doing it wrong.
- [00:28:41.670]Like, that should be a student-facing tool
- [00:28:46.620]to give them an idea of-
- [00:28:48.500]Of what you're expecting.
- [00:28:49.830]Of what the expectations are-
- [00:28:52.260]Uh-huh.
- [00:28:53.190]And that's really been helpful for me
- [00:28:59.010]around giving feedback on assessments
- [00:29:02.670]'cause I'm less concerned about, like, what's your score,
- [00:29:05.790]though students will be very concerned about their score-
- [00:29:07.740]Yes.
- [00:29:09.810]And more about how do I level you up.
- [00:29:13.860]Like this is, and being very clear with a rubric around,
- [00:29:18.930]here's how I'm describing it,
- [00:29:20.700]here's how this has looked in the past,
- [00:29:22.650]and really unpacking with students
- [00:29:24.360]the ways in which that particular indicator
- [00:29:30.840]can be manifested in an assignment, so that you know,
- [00:29:35.250]as an instructor, what you're looking for,
- [00:29:37.050]and students know kind of the demonstrations that they need
- [00:29:42.450]to be cognizant of and aware of as they're doing
- [00:29:45.900]that particular assessment work.
- [00:29:47.490]And the last thing to add to that,
- [00:29:51.090]I think, is that there's some learning to be done
- [00:29:56.550]about the program you're working in,
- [00:29:59.070]and so whether you're the only one teaching that course
- [00:30:01.890]or part of a five or seven member team that teaches
- [00:30:07.620]that course, you have to understand that no matter
- [00:30:10.200]what you're doing, you're teaching in a program
- [00:30:12.540]that has multiple classes and it is not your job
- [00:30:16.320]to teach everything that is needed for
- [00:30:19.710]whatever the major is, and in our case,
- [00:30:21.660]mostly teacher education, you,
- [00:30:23.910]in that one class you're teaching,
- [00:30:25.740]are not supposed to teach 'em everything they need to know
- [00:30:29.670]when they go out and teach in schools.
- [00:30:32.340]So, you have to focus and you have to understand
- [00:30:34.920]what the bigger picture is and that's very hard.
- [00:30:38.700]Uh-huh.
- [00:30:39.533]Very hard when you're just entering and teaching
- [00:30:41.490]for the first time.
- [00:30:42.510]You're starting in a program
- [00:30:43.563]as a graduate student and you're teaching
- [00:30:48.360]for the first time, or you get a faculty job
- [00:30:51.150]and you're teaching in that program for the first time,
- [00:30:53.160]and that's one of the reasons that I think about clinging
- [00:30:55.950]to somebody else's curriculum first
- [00:30:58.500]because they have probably figured out the expanse,
- [00:31:01.980]and take the time to understand what
- [00:31:04.140]is happening in other places,
- [00:31:05.640]what you can build on that others have done
- [00:31:07.650]and students have experienced already,
- [00:31:09.330]and then what will happen in other places,
- [00:31:11.760]and you don't have to worry about as much because I know
- [00:31:16.140]this instinct and that is, I need to transfer all of
- [00:31:18.990]the wisdom that I got from years of teaching
- [00:31:21.780]in elementary school to you right now, in this moment.
- [00:31:25.740]It never happens that way.
- [00:31:27.630]Yeah, I mean, there's,
- [00:31:29.430]and I think also, something to be aware of as you're moving
- [00:31:36.270]into these teaching positions for the first time
- [00:31:38.760]or teaching courses for the first time is sometimes,
- [00:31:40.560]that work isn't evident.
- [00:31:42.330]Like, sometimes I don't know what has come
- [00:31:47.580]before my class, right?
- [00:31:49.230]And that's a design issue.
- [00:31:53.280]Uh-huh.
- [00:31:54.150]Right? Yeah.
- [00:31:54.983]So, like, and here at UNL in our elementary program,
- [00:31:58.050]we're really thoughtfully trying to figure out
- [00:32:02.130]where skills are being taught.
- [00:32:04.980]So, where are students learning
- [00:32:06.480]to scaffold a classroom discussion?
- [00:32:09.510]Uh-huh.
- [00:32:10.343]That's a generalizable skill that doesn't fall
- [00:32:12.150]into any one content area, but it's not clear necessarily
- [00:32:18.730]what is happening where and when,
- [00:32:21.720]and so we're really trying to thoughtfully work through
- [00:32:26.310]that, which is a start to that-
- [00:32:29.730]Yeah.
- [00:32:31.260]A start to that kind of work of,
- [00:32:34.020]I don't have to teach everything because
- [00:32:38.622]this course is part of a larger program.
- [00:32:41.880]This is but a chapter in this larger novel
- [00:32:45.120]of a story, right?
- [00:32:46.623]Of their coursework.
- [00:32:50.160]Here's my small part of it and this is how I add
- [00:32:54.420]to the greater good of the program,
- [00:32:57.120]but sometimes, it's not as well-laid out
- [00:33:00.510]as we'd like it to be.
- [00:33:01.770]Yeah.
- [00:33:02.603]You know, so, and that's where the communication with-
- [00:33:04.980]Yes.
- [00:33:05.813]Other people within your program is really important
- [00:33:10.650]because even as you are working on that design
- [00:33:15.000]and really formalizing that design, if you have at least
- [00:33:20.550]an idea of what is happening, it's really helpful,
- [00:33:24.510]like, the stuff I've been reading,
- [00:33:26.880]the stuff that students have had in the classes before mine,
- [00:33:30.360]and that really helps me build those connections
- [00:33:32.850]so that semesters aren't units unto themselves, right?
- [00:33:39.240]We're building on these things
- [00:33:40.980]and having that intertextuality.
- [00:33:43.020]I'm a literacy person,
- [00:33:44.010]so, like, of course that's intertextuality is is very-
- [00:33:47.070]And novels and all of that. Right.
- [00:33:48.780]Yeah.
- [00:33:49.613]You know.
- [00:33:50.446]And those are the metaphors,
- [00:33:51.480]but what I do want to caution is when you're teaching for
- [00:33:55.260]the first time, again, you've gotta protect yourself.
- [00:33:57.420]You're doing this for the first time.
- [00:33:59.160]It is not your job,
- [00:34:00.600]if there isn't clarity in a program,
- [00:34:02.550]it is not your job.
- [00:34:03.466]Oh, yeah. As a graduate student
- [00:34:04.410]or a first year faculty member to fix that.
- [00:34:07.828]Oh, yeah. You do not try to fix that.
- [00:34:09.330]You try to work within the parameters that already exist,
- [00:34:12.360]try to understand them in the best way possible,
- [00:34:14.970]and then do the best possible work that you can,
- [00:34:17.550]knowing that the first time can be rough.
- [00:34:20.220]Well, and knowing that sometimes,
- [00:34:23.520]those supports aren't there.
- [00:34:24.480]Yeah.
- [00:34:25.313]Right?
- [00:34:26.146]Like, sometimes, you are literally just dropped
- [00:34:27.930]into a course-
- [00:34:30.480]Uh-huh.
- [00:34:31.313]And there's-
- [00:34:32.820]I mean, I was dropped into a course
- [00:34:37.680]in teaching special education and it was out of left field
- [00:34:45.900]and it was a summer class and I taught it and I said,
- [00:34:48.690]what is the course?
- [00:34:50.850]And they told me, "Well,
- [00:34:52.050]it's basically disability a day."
- [00:34:54.870]And we had five weeks- Seems like a calendar.
- [00:34:57.178]Yes, it was very much a calendar.
- [00:34:58.220]We were doing autism spectrum disorder on Thursday,
- [00:35:04.230]a learning disabilities and reading on Monday,
- [00:35:07.170]and that's how the course went
- [00:35:08.910]and I taught it exactly that way and I've never taught it
- [00:35:11.550]that way ever again,
- [00:35:13.140]but the first time, I just took it on
- [00:35:15.630]and so there was no support.
- [00:35:17.316]It was basically a set of PowerPoints.
- [00:35:21.030]You take it and you make the best of it.
- [00:35:22.590]You cannot fix that. It's not your job.
- [00:35:23.873]Hey, at least you had PowerPoints.
- [00:35:25.320]I did have PowerPoints.
- [00:35:26.250]Sometimes you don't even have that.
- [00:35:27.434]That is true. Right?
- [00:35:28.300]And that's an issue in and of itself.
- [00:35:31.590]So, when you are thinking about,
- [00:35:35.370]if teaching is part of your package as a grad student,
- [00:35:41.100]or when you first start as a new faculty member somewhere,
- [00:35:44.610]ask about what are the existing structures for courses.
- [00:35:49.560]Has there been the mapping?
- [00:35:51.090]Is there a common set of resources for individual classes?
- [00:35:59.760]Because you can't just assume that those are there, right?
- [00:36:02.400]Like, other institutions I've been at, oh, great,
- [00:36:05.610]you're teaching lip lock.
- [00:36:06.750]Here's- Here's the box. Yeah.
- [00:36:08.850]Here's all the articles. Everything's mapped out.
- [00:36:11.790]Here's what you can play with. Here's what you can't.
- [00:36:14.070]Here's what has to be taught.
- [00:36:15.240]Here's where you can add some stuff in of your own,
- [00:36:21.930]but that's not always the case.
- [00:36:23.370]Yeah.
- [00:36:24.570]So.
- [00:36:25.590]Alright, so, we talked a little bit about teaching.
- [00:36:28.320]We're probably going to talk about teaching again.
- [00:36:30.780]Okay.
- [00:36:31.680]There's a lot to be talked about,
- [00:36:32.970]especially about that relationship with students,
- [00:36:36.060]and which I think is worth talking about because, again,
- [00:36:40.560]that is one of those differences between teaching K-12,
- [00:36:44.730]or teaching in another country and teaching college
- [00:36:47.190]in the United States,
- [00:36:48.990]but that is for next time.
- [00:36:53.220]So, you're cutting us off here is what you're saying?
- [00:36:54.570]I am cutting us off and saying,
- [00:36:56.460]we've talked about teaching quite a bit.
- [00:36:58.020]There's a lot to process for everybody.
- [00:37:00.480]There's a lot. There's a lot.
- [00:37:02.136]I think the one last thing,
- [00:37:04.980]that maybe we don't even have to talk about,
- [00:37:06.420]but like, when you start teaching,
- [00:37:09.060]be aware of what the institution tells you you have
- [00:37:10.740]to have on your syllabus.
- [00:37:11.970]Yes.
- [00:37:13.140]Like, we don't really have to think about that.
- [00:37:14.730]We just have to copy and paste.
- [00:37:17.100]Please do that.
- [00:37:18.150]But it's always something that I kind of forget about
- [00:37:20.790]until the last minute.
- [00:37:22.350]Oh, that's a nice advice at the end.
- [00:37:24.720]Yeah. Right?
- [00:37:25.553]Well, it's just, it's easy.
- [00:37:26.386]Like, just do it. It's there.
- [00:37:27.840]It's probably somewhere. Do a Google search.
- [00:37:29.970]Ask someone. It's there.
- [00:37:31.680]All the other stuff gets a little bit messier.
- [00:37:34.830]Yeah.
- [00:37:35.663]So.
- [00:37:36.496]And the other piece is if you do have the opportunity
- [00:37:40.350]to get somebody else's syllabus to start off with,
- [00:37:43.170]you want to do that,
- [00:37:44.670]even if you change it a little bit and make it your own
- [00:37:48.060]after you teach it once or twice,
- [00:37:49.650]because there's wisdom in that syllabus as it was made.
- [00:37:53.400]It might be not exactly your wisdom, but it is,
- [00:37:56.400]there's wisdom accumulated wisdom there.
- [00:37:59.430]Yeah.
- [00:38:00.263]Alright.
- [00:38:01.096]Alright, so, we'll talk about teaching more next time.
- [00:38:04.950]On "Not That Kind of Doctor."
- [00:38:07.627]"Not That Kind of Doctor."
- [00:38:09.672](upbeat music)
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