Time Off
What do teachers and professors do in our “time off”?
Well it depends on what we’re taking time off from. It’s currently the week before the teaching semester officially starts, but I’ve been working on this unofficially for months. What type of preparation do we need to do before a single student shows up to class?
Let’s dig a little deeper - a teacher’s day in the life leading up to the start of semester.
Conferences & Collaborations
University Teaching is largely (for the moment at least) an in-person face-to-face experience, so travelling to conferences during the semester is very difficult for teachers to manage. As soon as my exam marking is finished, I’m planning travel and organising conferences to attend in person to disseminate my work and establish new collaborations.
Pre-emptive Planning
Even though I’m physically away from my office at the moment, online accessibility is the gift (and curse) that keeps giving. The planning for the semester ahead is all done online, and the requests and queries will keep coming in while I’m travelling. I can just ignore all the emails (temporarily), but staying organised and having a systematic strategy to deal with things in the moment has always been more productive for me:
What learning activities will work best for your students and your teaching? Will it all be lectures, or will you integrate more active learning through tutorials and workshops?
How much control do you have over timetabling (in my case, very little), and how does this change your choice of learning activities?
How will you assess your students, and will the exams be online or in person? How much should each assessment item be worth, and when should they be due?
If I have thought about each of these things ahead of time for every course I’m teaching into, I can respond to any incoming queries or requests pretty quickly.
The Bottleneck
Not all items on the to-do list are equal, and the biggest bottle-neck in teaching is online learning. We can no longer assume students will physically attend all our classes, and teachers need to have the skills to establish a self-directed online learning environment.
Instead of being overwhelmed by all the options, choosing one specific skill to add to your online teaching toolkit every semester is a more sustainable professional learning strategy. Perhaps start with making your powerpoint slides as clear and cohesive in their visual design as possible. Next semester work on writing multiple choice questions that are easily adaptable for online quizzes in your learning management system. Then look into online assessment tools, and which ones your institution supports.
Running a YouTube channel has helped me a lot in creating online versions of my in-person classes, but I still have a lot to learn. Slow and steady wins the race.
This vignette is a small window into what teachers do in our “time off”; I’m planning classes, writing this blog, and editing videos, all while travelling to a conference.
This preparation is ultimately what lets me do the best part of my job - to connect with a new class of students every semester.
Jack.
