1. In planning your course, work backward
Give yourself sometime to imagine what you would like to see the last day of your class. Do you imagine students are making eye contact with each other, calling each other by name, happy and comfortable engaging in conversation with each other and you? This doesn’t happen by accident; plan assignments, classroom activities, and collaborative teamwork throughout the course that will be the means toward the end you would love to see.
2. Take time for self-reflection
The end of the semester is usually the worst time to steal an hour to reflect on what worked and what didn’t in your class, but it’s when these thoughts are freshest. Even if you don’t do anything with your own self-assessment until you teach the course again, write out your thoughts on how you would re-organize the class, change assignments, use supplementary lecture/reading materials, etc. Be good to yourself and remember what worked well, too!
3. Visit other courses
Most faculty members are flattered to be asked whether you can attend one of their classes. Choose faculty members in disciplines very different from your own and let yourself feel what it is like to be a student in that class. Teaching centers can provide lists of faculty who have won awards or who use pedagogical techniques that you might be interested in learning. Viewing teaching from the eyes of the student prompts thought about your own teaching techniques, and these are good starting points for course redesign.
4. Think about teaching as a window on your research
Textbooks rarely impart the excitement, passion, and intrigue that led you to choose your discipline and devote graduate study to it. Find ways to share what it is about your discipline that thoroughly engages you and keeps you up at night. Find ways to bring students into your world of research, and take time to mentor independent undergraduate research.
