Student to Teacher: The Silent Transformation
Why did no one warn me? I was 25 years old, a second-year master’s student, standing in front of 70-plus undergraduates with my heart pounding
Carlie Cunningham
February 19, 2025
A FREE PUBLICATION FROM THE CREATORS OF THE TEACHING PROFESSOR
advice to new instructors
The Things I Did Badly: Looking Back on My First Five Years of Teaching
Like birthdays, anniversaries are occasions for reflection, and as I approach the fifth anniversary of my teaching career, I find that my thoughts are drawn to the things that I did badly.
Graham Broad, PhD
November 15, 2024
How to Make the Most of Your First Year of Teaching
Crowdsourcing advice for new faculty
This fall, thousands of new college teachers walked into their very own classrooms for the first time. They’ve ignored the butterflies, handled the inevitable technical malfunctions with aplomb, and learned to successfully navigate both the campus web portal and the faculty parking lot.
But there’s so much to learn, and none of it has to do with course content. They’ve had some real affirming moments, but most days feel like a race to stay a step ahead of the students. They feel like imposters … worried that their students, their colleagues, and, worst of all, their department chair will discover that they really don’t know how to teach.
Mary Bart
September 29, 2017
Are We Too Preoccupied with Teaching Techniques?
College teachers love techniques. If you’re invited to lead a teaching workshop, you can expect to be asked, “Will you share some good techniques?” Suggest them in the workshop and watch lots of smiling participants write them down with great enthusiasm. Why do we love teaching techniques so much? Because many of us come to teaching not having many? Because they work? Because they keep our teaching feeling fresh?
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
June 8, 2016
Caring About Students Matters
Good teachers care about their students. We all know that, but sometimes over the course of a long semester, it’s easy to forget just how important it is to show our students we care about them. I was reminded of this importance by two recent studies, which I read and highlighted for the December issue of The Teaching Professor newsletter.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
November 11, 2015
Step Away from the Lectern
A quote from my June 3 blog post appeared in the October 18 issue of the New York Times. I was thrilled until I read the beautifully written op-ed piece. It proposes more lecture and less active learning. My quote was used to illustrate the perspective of those of us who favor active learning.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
November 4, 2015
Teaching Concerns of New (and Not So New?) Teachers
The list of concerns was compiled from a qualitative analysis of 10 years of graduate teaching assistants’ online discussion posts. The 120 students wrote the posts in a three-credit course that prepared them to teach beginning communication courses. It’s a list that raises some interesting questions. Are the concerns legitimate? They are listed in order of importance. Does that order change as teaching experience accrues? Should it change? Which of these are ongoing concerns, and perhaps, most importantly, how do we deal with the issues raised by the concerns?
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
October 7, 2015
Developing a Teaching Persona
An email query about teaching personas reminded me how much I haven’t figured out about our teaching identities. I’m still struggling with very basic questions and wondered if a conversation here might not get us all thinking more about how we present ourselves as teachers.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
May 13, 2015
Overcoming the Imposter Syndrome: Advice for New Faculty
Last week, an imposter took over my classroom. Come to find out, that imposter was me.
I started teaching three years ago. I was fresh out of graduate school, equally thrilled and terrified at the prospect of teaching my own classes. On paper it sounded straightforward: teach others the same material I just finished learning myself. I could do that, I told myself confidently. Then on the first day of class I met The Imposter.
Jennifer G. Craven
September 16, 2014
Top 10 Rules for Developing Your First Online Course
Years of helping faculty pass to the dark side of online education have taught me a few simple rules that I brow beat (in a collegial way) into all new online teachers.
John Orlando, PhD
March 3, 2014
