One of the most interesting things that can happen to instructors is to have the opportunity to teach a new class. I’ve been granted that opportunity for the upcoming semester and I’m very excited. Unlike teaching a course that you’ve taught before (something that is very common) a new course gives an instructor the opportunity for drastic change, and sometimes change is needed. New courses also offer an instructor the ability to bring more of their own interests, personal insights, and unique combinations of research into a course. So, dear readers, I’ve already started working on my upcoming class.
I remember being a high school or grade school student and longing for the bell to ring so that I could go and learn about something different. This is the same feeling I get when I’m able to begin work on another course. Like many things, however, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. While the course is new for me it has a history with other professors. The content itself is completely open to change but the best thing you can do is to learn from other people’s mistakes. So, when I found out I was teaching this class I immediately contacted the other instructors. They’ve since sent me previous lecture topics, handouts, and tests. While I don’t intend to use their materials they do point to a direction I might want to take when teaching. This is important for students to understand.
All courses (or at least the better ones) have some type of structure to them. If you figure out that structure you’re typically going to be ahead of the game. How does the course start? How does it end? While you won’t completely understand these things until the very end of the course you can get a pretty good idea by looking at my favorite document: the syllabus. If you haven’t fully grasped the syllabus yet you will. As I return to teaching mode I’ll likely be ranting about the syllabus again (as I have previously). It’s important for you to understand the syllabus and to utilize it for all of the value it provides. On that note I’m back to working on mine.