GETTING STARTED
Getting off to a good start requires planning ahead. Well before the quarter begins, check with the course coordinator or professor in charge of the course to confirm or clarify expectations for your role(s) in the course.
Once you are clear about your teaching roles and responsibilities, here are the next things to think about as you prepare to teach:
Goals
Whether you are planning a ten-week course, a fifty-minute section meeting, or a twenty-minute office hour, it will help you and your students if you think about your teaching and learning goals. For any of these interactions with students, plan ahead by asking yourself:
- What do I want students to learn?
- What challenges to learning are students likely to face?
- How can I help students meet those challenges?
- How will I be able to tell what they have learned?
For example, as a lab assistant your goal might be to have students solve problems for themselves. With this goal, your task is to design activities that will lead students to take appropriate independent steps with an experiment rather than relying solely on step-by-step instructions in the lab manual.
You can anticipate that students who have previously worked only with carefully prescribed lab procedures may have some difficulty working in the lab more independently. Therefore, you should provide them with guidelines for making decisions as they work through the lab, and monitor students' decision-making in their lab groups in order to assess their progress.
You will need to decide in advance how to determine the effectiveness of these activities in helping students to solve problems on their own. For example, will it be apparent from their lab write-up? Or will you need to have students document their decision-making process separately from the lab manual, so you can judge their problem-solving process in addition to the final results of the experiment?
The Syllabus
A good syllabus will answer many of your students' questions about your expectations, your role in the course, and their responsibilities. Typically the syllabus includes information on learning goals, course content and materials, a time table for class meetings (including reading, assignments, due dates, examination dates, etc.), and evaluation procedures.
If you are teaching quiz sections or labs, you may not be involved with development of the syllabus for the course as a whole, but students will appreciate receiving a syllabus providing information for the portion of the course that they have with you. In your section or lab syllabus, provide clear and specific information about policies and expectations (for example, participation, plagiarism, make-up examinations, absences, late assignments, incompletes, and extra credit). Include your office location and hours so students know where and when to find you. You may also find it useful to offer "online" office hours, so students know your policies and timelines for responding to their e-mail messages.
You can find additional resources and examples on CIDR's Course Design web site: http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/DesignTools.htm
Classrooms
Check out your assigned classroom in advance to determine how well it suits your needs. Visiting the classroom can also reduce your apprehension. Because classroom space is extremely limited, it is usually difficult to change an assigned classroom. If you feel a change is absolutely necessary (you need movable chairs for your discussion section, for instance), find out which person in your department is responsible for room reservations and ask him or her to see if other rooms are available.
Note supplies or equipment you might need to order (lab supplies, audiovisual equipment, etc.) or bring to use yourself (dictionary or other references, chalk or dry-erase pens, etc.). Information about many classrooms on campus is available at http://www.washington.edu/classroom/classrooms.html