On the topic of college teaching

I took a brief hiatus from blogging. Why? I was prepping and teaching college courses. I am done teaching for the summer. The courses I taught this summer were great, however, I had forgotten how much work prepping and teaching a course can be. In addition, the two courses I taught this summer were graduate level, so these courses were different in structure than the 100 level undergrad courses I had previously taught (more in-depth content, I also feel like I need to be exceptionally prepared to discuss topics at a deep level with students for them to get the most out of the course).

Teaching university courses is an odd concept. To teach children k-12 you need a degree, "x" amount of hours of supervised teaching, etc. At a university you just need a vote of confidence from a department head, and probably a master's degree. Elaine and I have had in-depth conversations (well, as in-depth as our conversations go) about the fact that we were never really taught how to teach college courses. I think the prevailing idea is, if you know enough about a subject you will be able to effectively teach about it. The first course I taught at a university was set up as a "Co-taught" course. Alas, after the first week my teaching buddy went into labor and I did not see her until the end of the semester. With one swift shot of early labor the proverbial training wheels were ripped from my teaching bike. It was scary, but I got through it.

I am not so sure that the above mentioned "theory" works. Elaine has had not "real" training in teaching college students, but is a great professors. She won a teaching excellence award a year ago. I don't know if I am a "great" instructor, but I do my best to 1) Cover the course content; 2) Make the content interesting to learn (avoiding death by power point). Sometimes I feel like I do well, other times....well you learn what doesn't work.

I am thinking college teaching is one of those things you can only get better at with age, like a fine wine (I tell Elaine I get better with age, she laughs, I assume that means she agrees). I am currently in the process of prepping for my 3 fall courses, one of which is a summer course I taught. I am excited to throw out what didn't work and add in stuff that I think will make the course better.

Well that is it. Let me know your thoughts, help me out. What did you like in your college courses? What didn't you? What would you do if you were a professor? What wouldn't you? What has worked for you? What hasn't worked for you?