1.
GMW:
Give them their money’s worth.
— Be
prepared. Don’t walk into
class and wing it.
— Even the most boring material can be made interesting if you work at it.
— Try to improve each year’s materials in the following year.
— Don’t use pre-packaged quizzes, tests,
and exams — make up your own and grade them yourself — not
machine-graded or by an assistant.
2.
UY: Upgrade yourself.
Do some kind of scholarly work/research
that will improve yourself as a teacher and not simply increase your
reputation.
[For me: computer science textbooks.]
3.
FWW:
Find what works for you
That is, a teaching style.
[For me: First it was dittos livened up with color with blanks left
for students to fill in during the lecture— semi-notes I call them; then
transparency masters and corresponding semi-notes for students; now it's PP
slides and semi-note handouts.]
4.
BF: Be
flexible.
Don’t lock yourself into a fixed
course schedule or list of assignments.
Learn to read your students’ reactions and spend an extra day
where needed.
[Some people lay out the whole course
along with assignments for the entire semester and don’t deviate from
it. I can’t. If you look at my syllabus on a course’s
web page you will see below each week’s work there is a colored row that
reads “From here on the schedule may change.”]
5.
DFI:
Don’t fake it.
This is a fault of almost every beginning teacher.
Learn to say “ I don’t know but I’ll check it out and get
back to you.”
It’s okay for students to see that you don’t know
everything. They won’t think
less of you.
6.
DTYS:
Don’t take yourself too seriously. Have a sense of humor.
[Some people can’t tolerate a
student skipping their class, even the day before spring break. I think that what I have to say is
important enough that I won’t redeliver my lectures to students who
skipped or help with work they missed, but I’m not going to force them to
listen! You must have a sense of
humor! Laugh, poke fun of yourself
when you make a mistake or get stuck.
For me, I often lapse into a tirade in butchered German.]
7.
BA: Be
accessible.
[I set office hours, but students stop
by almost anytime. When I’m
working at home, I’m online all the time and basically have on-demand
online office hours.]
8.
DJJ: Don’t jump to judgment.
Be open-minded.
[Too many times I’ve thought a
student to be lazy or a goof-off only to find there was some serious personal
or family matter that was behind it.]
9.
NPD:
Never put down a student when they ask a "stupid" question or
make an inane comment.
[Other students will do that
themselves (mentally), so there's no need for you to do it too.]
Rephrase the question or comment into something meaningful and
constructive.
10.
LCST:
Let Christ Shine Through — let them see Christ in you.
If the material doesn’t lend itself easily to a Christian perspective,
you don’t have to concoct some artificial one — just let your words
and actions reflect Christ’s love.
[This is listed last, not because it
is least important; indeed, the opposite is true because it underlies all the
others. I put it last because I
want it to be the last one I read.]