Ten Lessons from a Decade of Teaching
This month marks 10 years as a professor. In the big picture that’s not very long but a few lessons (mostly through my own failure!) from the last decade stand out. I’m sure there are other obvious applications I’ve missed or ones that might not exactly apply to you in the same way. Nevertheless, onward.
(1) Influence is not evidence of integrity. Sometimes gaining the former means sacrificing the latter. The land responds to good treatment. Come and treat it well.
(2) The material comes alive when you are alive. If you love what you’re teaching and show affection, it becomes infectious. There will always students who show no interest or will not be persuaded. Gently lead them to water and let them decide if they want to drink.
(3) In the words of Christina Lake from her excellent book The Flourishing Teacher: class prep expands to fill the time you give it. There will always be more books to read or nuggets to write for lecture. Eventually you must put it away.
Consider: what 3–4 nonnegotiable items/ideas/info/concepts/etc do you want them to know when they walk away from your lecture? Prep for that and leave the rest for the inquisitive student(s) and office hours.
(4) You know far less than you think. Students appreciate a professor that can say “I don’t know” or “That’s a great question, I don’t know the precise answer to that but I can sure find out before next week.” Many of us learn something just weeks before we teach it. That’s OK.
(5) Collegiality doesn’t happen by accident: you reap what you sow. It takes time to develop relationships and goodwill. It’s worth the curated google survey to find possible overlapping lunch times or the frequent cup of coffee on you to build collegiality. Make the effort.
(6) Mind your Margins. Some colleagues have higher capacities than you. That’s OK. Other colleagues think they have higher capacities than they really do (I frequently fail on this precise mark). Know yourself and your limits. Your thriving matters for your family, students, school, and community. Guard your good.
(7) Good discussions are discovered. Different profs have varied pedagogical temperaments and the material sometimes dictates your approach. I get that. But often discussions stall because the questions just need a little tweak or perhaps the provocative jolt. Take the time. It’s worth it.
(8) Honor your pedagogical forebears but feel free to forge your own path. That is, you don’t have to teach way you were taught. Perhaps your mentors were lecture heavy but you recognize your abilities lie more in facilitating discussion. You can arrive at the same conclusions in different ways.
(9) The classroom and scholarship work best when they work together. I originally had this as “The classroom feeds your scholarship” but a few colleagues rightly corrected me by saying that in reality it’s “classroom feeds scholarship and vice versa.” They’re exactly right.
(10) Institutions matter. Yuval Levin describes institutions as “the durable forms of our common life.” Institutions strengthen a common good by inviting formation by patience instead of performative posturing. Our lives and the work we do have a purpose but they often arrive at different times and different ways. Institutions require patience and committing to building beauty takes the courage to wait. We need more institutionalists.
Honorable Mention: Students will often underestimate their abilities. Part of your role is getting them to see they are more capable than what they imagine and they must see correction is not failure.