Advice for Establishing a Positive Working Relationship with your Instructor

Advice for Establishing a Positive Working Relationship with your Instructor Taken from Peer Leader Exams • You should help make the syllabus with your instructor, that way if you think there are too many papers assigned at least you can have some say in that decision. You must meet with your teacher once a week for at least thirty minutes. This meeting will help you bond with your teacher to make your peer leader experience a good one. You need to prepare for the first day of class with your professor way advance. Life will be so hectic the week you get back, so do not wait until the last minute to decide what you are going to do on the first day. Start choosing an instructor early as you can and don’t wait until the last possible minute. That way you will have a variety of choices and chance to get to know that professors ahead of time. I would go to my instructor’s office about an hour everyday before class, so we could talk about what was going on. Start planning the class before school starts. Get with your professors in the summer and know what the two of you have planned for that semester. The relationship between the professor and the peer leader can make or break this whole experience. Meet them many times outside of class and know their likes and dislikes. If you know your professor, they are more likely to let you teach and let you do the activities you want to do. [If I could do this again] I would be more forceful in my role with regards to the class. Too often I played second fiddle to my I instructor. Establish regular lines of communication between yourself and you instructor. Make sure that a clear understanding exists as who is responsible for what during these classes. You should talk to the professor and find our how much he/she will expect you do to as a Peer Leader. Try to select a well-matched professor, you should begin meeting with him/her immediately. Do not depend on your instructor; always have a lesson prepared. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • I advise you to form a close relationship with your instructor It is important that you feel able to freely express your opinions and concerns about the class with your instructor. The most important advice I can possible give you is to communicate with the instructor as soon and as often as possible. Finding your instructor will determine whether or not you and your students will enjoy this semester. Go to the University 101 office and look at old syllabi of the instructor you are looking for. This is a key to see if you and your instructor will match. Always have a lesson plan with you in case of an emergency. You must present a united front in the classroom. A peer leader and instructor should never contradict each other in front of students. Disagreements should be handled outside of the classroom and never in front of students. You must always be respectful of each other and of each other’s opinions and ideas. The key to our peer leader-instructor relationship was communication and respect. We both let the students know what is going on in our lives, along with showing concern for their lives, and I feel this helps make use seem more us seem like real people and not just teachers. Together, we balance discipline and structure with having fun and being laid back. Always remember if there is ever any problems, you should have input as to how to deal with situations as well as your teacher. Your opinion is just as important and your teacher should recognized this from the start of the class. The most effective way to work with your University 101 instructor is to always remember to have open communication—this is the best advice I can give you. • • • • • • • • • • PROCESSING GROUP EXERCISES • DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS. One of the most common training (teaching) mistakes is to assume that participants understand why an exercise is being done, what they are supposed to learn, what generalizations can be made, and how the exercise applies to other real-world experiences. What seems perfectly obvious to those in charge is often not perfectly obvious to everyone else. SET THE STAGE. Demonstrate the activity yourself, particularly at the beginning of a training program or class if it seems threatening or difficult to participants. Spend some time making the instructions clear. Uncertainly about how to proceed is disconcerting, and “cleaning up” after pandemonium ensues is much more difficult than giving clear instructions up front. ANNOUCE THE TIME LIMITS. If participants know they have 20 minutes to discuss the first set of questions, then they are more likely to pace themselves and finish the set. ASK PARTICIPANTS TO TAKE IN DEBRIEFING. Often participants can learn from one another’s insights during a debriefing session, and this is obviously preferable to simply being told what happened and why. ORGANIZE THE ACTIVITY AROUND PEOPLE, NOT JUST IDEAS OR CONCEPTS. Often, as academics, we think in terms of “content, content, content.” With new trainees (freshmen), who are often intimidated and insecure, we should think in terms of relationships, too (yours and theirs as well as their relationships with one another). SIMPLY PUT, ACTIVIITIES HELP PARTICIPANTS BOND. One lively exercise will stick with participants for a long time, often longer than readings or lectures. Working side-by-side to solve a problem, disclosing information about oneself to a partner—in short, providing opportunities to communicate lays the groundwork for group intimacy. • • • • • Encouraging Student Participation in Discussion • Encourage students to learn each other’s names and interests. Students are more likely to participate in class if they feel they are among friends rather than strangers; so at the beginning of the term, ask students to introduce themselves and describe their primary interests. Get to know the students. Learn all your student’s names. If you require students to come to your office once during the first few weeks of class, you can also learn about their interests. Class participation often improves after students have had an opportunity to talk informally with their instructor. Arrange seating to promote discussion. If your room has movable chairs, ask students to sit in a semicircle so that they can see one another. If appropriate, ask students to print their names on name cards and display them on their desk. Allow the class time to warm up before you launch into the discussion. Consider arriving two to three minutes early to talk informally with students. Or open class with a few minutes of conversation about relevant current events, campus activities, or administrative matters. Limit your own comments. Some teachers talk too much and turn a discussion into a lecture or a series of instructor-student dialogues. Make certain each student has an opportunity to talk in class during the first two or three weeks. The longer a students goes without speaking in class, the more difficult it will be for him or her to contribute. Devise small group or pair work in the term so that all students can participate and hear their own voices in nonthreatening circumstances. Plan an icebreaker early in the semester. Ask students to identify characteristics of an effective discussion. Ask students individually or in a small group to recall discussions and seminars in which they have participated and to list the characteristics of those that were worthwhile. Then ask students to list the characteristics of poor discussion. Write the item on the board, tallying those items mentioned by more than one student or group. With the entire class, explore ways in which class members can maximize those aspects that make a good discussion and minimize those aspects that make a poor discussion. • • • • • • • • Periodically divide students into small groups. Students find it easier to speak in groups of three or four than to an entire class. Divide students into small groups, have them discuss a question or issues for five to ten minutes and then return to the whole class. Once students have spoken in small groups, they may be less reluctant to speak to the class as a whole. Assign roles to students. Ask two or three students to lead a discussion session sometimes during the term. Meet with the student discussion leaders beforehand to go over their question and proposed format. Have the leaders distribute three to six discussion questions to the class and facilitating the discussion. For discussion you lead, assign one or two students per session to be observers responsible for commenting on the discussion. Other student roles include periodic summarizer (to summarize the main substantive points two or three times during the session, recorder-to-serve as the group’s memory, timekeeper (to keep the class on schedule), and designated first speaker. Use poker chips or comment cards to encourage discussion. Once faculty members distributes three poker chips to each student during class. Each time a student speaks, a chip is turned over to the instructor. Students must spend all their chips by the end of the period. This strategy limits students who dominate the discussion and encourages quiet students to speak up. Another method is that the professor hands out a “comment card” each time a student provides a strong response or insightful comment. Students turn back the cards at the end of the period, and the professor notes on the course roster the number of cards each students received. Use email to start a discussion. Pose a question through e-mail and ask the students to write in their response and comments. . Use nonverbal cues to encourage participation. For example, smile expectantly and nod as students talk. Maintain eye contact with students. Looked relaxed and interested. Build rapport with students. Simply saying that you are interested in what your students think and that value their opinions may not be enough. In addition, comment positively about a student’s contribution and reinforce good points by paraphrasing or summarizing them. • • • • • • Developed by Dana Smith, 1999 Summer Intern in the FYEP TEN WAYS TO ENCOURAGE ACTIVE LEARNING IN UNIV 100 1. Get them talking early and often. 2. Build a relationship with each individual student while building community. 3. Tell students how to succeed. 4. Help students understand the academic big picture. 5. Bring the real world into the classroom. 6. Help students to relate personally to the material. 7. Give students ownership for some aspects of the course. 8. Provide opportunities for reflection. 9.Set high expectations and demand quality work. 10. End on a high not. Remember that teaching this course is a continual work in progress– motivate, support, and engage your students!