Welcome back to Murphy Hall to all adjuncts (as well as faculty). We are delighted to have you with us, sharing your time and professional wisdom with our students.
The next week will be all about getting acquainted with your students and figuring out how to settle into the courses you've been no doubt planning for a while.
Yet no matter how detailed the syllabus or how planned the semester, walking into the class that first day can be as nerve-racking as it is exciting. It's nice to have a few reminders of what's important about that initial interaction. It's particularly useful to familiarize yourself with new policies that signal to students you are a sensitive, aware instructor.
In that spirit, here are a few tips for a helpful first week, some pulled from previous ProActive Teaching entries and others offered from recent developments:
Learn about your students
Do all you can to learn about your students before entering the class. This is not a hard task (if you can navigate through the U's system to get there). Here's how: If you go to your MyU listing of courses, and click on Class List, you will see a label called Related Content in the upper right corner of the screen when the list appears. Click on that and down will come a menu giving you some great options for learning about your students. (See below for a sample.)
- "Photos" are a great start. Click on that, and print the photos too for a nice template to bring into class.
- "FERPA "information will also tell you if a student does not want certain data, such as email addresses, made public. That's important because you need to be sensitive to it when sending out class emails. Some students don't want information shared even to classmates. If that's the case, you need to bcc all class communications.
- Under "Emails" you can find out all that contact information yourself, however, and other information, such as a student's major, minor and year in school to help you learn about the student.
- The "Pronouns" tab is new this year. It allows students to indicate their preferred pronouns -- he, him, his; she, her, hers; etc. Not all students have taken advantage of this option, but some have. The university strongly urges you look at this section and that you respect the pronoun preferences students indicate.
Create meaningful first-day interactions
As Professor Kathy Hansen noted last year in a blog entry here, it's useful to introduce yourself to the class in meaningful ways -- not "favorite food" kinds of questions, but discussions that give you insight into the students' needs and expectations. “They’re adults,” she says. “They’re in class to learn.”
On her first class days, she will ask students substantive questions designed to reveal their academic motivations, such as: What led them to study this field? Or what will help them succeed in this course? For more insight into Hansen's teaching wisdom, see ProActive Teaching's previous post Teaching from Day One offering her guidance on discussions as well as her tips on reviewing the HSJMC course profiles and giving students syllabus quizzes to ensure they know what's ahead.
Be sure you understand and convey important policies
You have been given orientation materials about university policies on attendance, academic misconduct, grading, instructor responsibilities as well as sexual harassment, diversity, equity and inclusion, disability, mental health, conflict resolution, academic misconduct and the HSJMC writing expectations.
It's very important you be sure those are included in your syllabi, which is a contract with your students for the semester. If you have any questions about this, you should contact the student services office. The syllabus boilerplate will include all of these. For a lively discussion of syllabi boilerplate -- just the subject you were seeking! -- see here.
Be prepared for disability accommodation letters
You might not get one, but if you do, you should be prepared. The good news is that ProActive Teaching has an entire blog entry ready to help you navigate the process. So keep this ready. If the need arises , click here to learn about Disability Accommodation Letters: Compassionate and Clear Responses.
Reach out to us for help.
We are here to support you. Remember, you can rely on Rebecca Rassier in the student services office for any issues about waitlists or registration questions. Julie Golias is the one to lean on for administrative matters, such as keys, copiers, email addresses, supplies and other matters.
And don't forget to knock on my door if you need to chat about a teaching matter. I'd love to talk. You can also look forward to teaching chats in this occasional blog. If you have any questions or a suggestion for what you'd like to read in this blog, please contact me at ggolden@umn.edu.
Happy first week!
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