Tips from the AEJMC Teaching Committee
Atypical Tips
By Kevin Williams
AEJMC Standing Committee
on Teaching
Mississippi State University
(Article courtesy of AEJMC News, March 2021 issue)
Listen. I’ve got nothing for you here. Who am I to tell you how to be a better teacher? If you see a colleague in a class do something different that excites you, then do that thing. Yet, I would be derelict in my duties if I didn’t offer you tips to improve your teaching. So here are three vapidly random things you should try.
1. Make sure you have a VPN program on your computer. This way, you can connect to the campus network from home and print out whatever you need for class the night before. When you’re running late to class the next day, at least you won’t have to deal with 20 people tying up the printer.
Of course, this is assuming you’re still allowed to print after the budget cuts. Many of us work at prestigious universities where we don’t have to focus on market competition. The rest of us, however, are told to behave like poachers patrolling the Serengeti. Recently, I listened to a presentation from an administrator asking if we are “student ready” as opposed to demanding our students be “college ready.” In other words, are we prepared to meet students head on who may have been unprepared for college or have disadvantages putting them at risk for dropping out?
I get it. Am I recognizing the needs of students different from me and am I doing everything I can to promote success in my classroom? I wrestle with this because there is another side of me that worries I may be lowering expectations and standards too much. Am I going to be that professor who becomes more lenient, playing to the audience to gain favor? Dear Lord, there’s nothing worse than an aging hipster!
2. Get a new coffee mug. Yeah, yeah, I’m sure you wash it but the daily stains from your coffee make it look like Pig‐pen from Charlie Brown took a bath in it. You know it’s clean but it still looks nasty to a student who drops by for office hours.
Of course, this is assuming you still hold hours in your campus office. This pandemic has given us a glimpse at how extremely difficult the future may be. So many people talked like all the bad stuff would stop once we hit 2021. Truth be told, the genie is out of the bottle. While administrators may say they are ready to return to normalcy, there is no returning to Neverland. We must adapt. I’m not talking about adopting a new textbook or learning the latest Adobe revisions. This was a full‐scale sea change. Established teachers had to get uncomfortable and respond to change. For those just starting your careers who were more at ease, be ready when your moment comes. Face that anxiety and realize that you still control the classroom.
3. Always carry stain remover wipes with you for spills on your clothes and always carry a handkerchief or tissues.
Of course, you are a master instructor beyond the reproach of students. You’re still going to spill orange chicken sauce on that shirt or blouse. Be prepared. You’re only human. And so are your students. Do we complain about entitled Millennials? Yes! However, like you, they are also still a work in progress. Many of them were dropped off at college by parents with an unstated expectation that you will take care of things from there. You are the steward of those parents’ most valuable possession.
To many students, you are going to be the most constant adult with whom they interact. They are going to see you at least 3 hours every week. You may be the first person they think of when they encounter a problem too uncomfortable to tell their parents. You don’t have to fix them, but you do have to be human and point them to the help they need. I’ve had a few students come to me crying about things other than grades. Have a tissue for them. Carry a handkerchief, too, because some days you may not have enough tissues.
Since becoming a professor, I’ve encountered students dealing with losing everything in Hurricane Katrina, an active shooter on campus, the long illness and passing of a colleague, and the deaths of too many of my colleagues’ children. As I write this, I’m looking at a photo on my desk of my father who busted his knuckles and knees every day to make sure I was the first in the family to graduate from college. Three months ago, he began his battle with dementia. Find efficiencies, clean up after yourself, be both flexible and demanding, and carry a handkerchief. Beyond all else, stay human. Sometimes the vapidly random things are nearly too heavy to bear.
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