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I'd like to second the "facilitator" advice by /u/keepingthecommontone . When I teach outside of my comfort zone, I think of myself as an older brother figure, rather than a master Yoda kind of figure. Like, hey kids, we are in it together. Our goal is to make sense of it. I'll assign you homework, but then I'll do it at home the same way you do it, reading the readings, trying the problems etc. And then we'll meet and discuss our progress.

Because I am more experienced, I usually get further into the topic than they do, but not that much further. And invariably, some students have more experience in some subtopics, and help us all out. Which is normal; that's how it happens in life, so there's nothing wrong with it happening in the classroom.

And if I don't know an answer to a question, I either take it as an additional homework for myself (if I feel that I can probably do it easily), or ask everyone to give it a look if they are interested. If the question is cool, sometimes it can spark a lively conversation next class period. Especially if I was not the only one looking it up.

I actually love teaching like that, and now I deliberately design all my upper-college seminars like that. I just pick a topic that I don't know, but want to learn, and we learn it together. It works really great, and it is lots of fun. So far I never taught same 400-level seminar twice.

To sum up, I think you have a great opportunity here, and some great, potentially very fruitful situation brewing. Just embrace it, and go with the flow.

Also, here's a link to my favorite book on this very topic: Teaching what you don't know, by THerese Huston. It's a short and lovely book, very well written, specifically about teaching outside of your comfort zone. Good luck!

> Not to try to force your view to fit into my framework of effort, learning, and achievement, but it seems like you respect all three by willing to be flexible -- in a purposive way, not a spineless way -- about the last point. Fair assessment?

I suppose. A lot of my philosophy of teaching is based on the idea of Bloom's Hierarchy. At a very basic level, there are several tiers of learning or understanding.

• Knowledge
  
• Comprehension
  
• Application
  
• Analysis
  
• Synthesis
  
• Evaluation
  
  For me, an A student makes it successfully to Evaluation. I don't try to grade effort, or learning, as they're hard to assess.
  
  > Man, I haven't actually talked with professors/teachers like this since I always felt like I had to hold back from saying things since they might think I was just sucking up. Philosophy of teaching is super interesting.
  
  I take a lot of my teaching philosophy from McKeachie's Teaching Tips. It's an excellent read if you are interested.
  
  > Anyway, I'd also like to get back to my original question. If I were a professor and you were my student, and you currently had a B and didn't know why but really wanted to know what you should do to deserve an A, then how would you ask me? How would you phrase the question?
  
  I think I'd show up and indicate that I had a real desire to better understand the material, and demonstrate my understanding. I'd also explain where I thought I was having trouble, and ask for help getting past these issues. Show skills in self evaluation, and a desire to improve the level of your understanding.

First of all, get this book by John Bean https://www.amazon.com/Engaging-Ideas-Professors-Integrating-Classroom/dp/0470532904
It is a great read for teachers who use writing.

Comp I is the doorkeeper to other classes. You all get blamed when students come to later classes and can't write, even if it isn't your fault, so develop a thick skin. I understand that this is not fair, and you are expected to perform miracles in one semester. But, really try to think about what skills they will need in the future. I am on a committee where we evaluate student writing from various departments. I can't tell you how many Comp essays I read that were along the lines of, "What I did on my summer vacation" or "What I want to choose as my career." Of course, you have to get the students to write something, but these types of essays don't prepare them for what they will have to write in the future. They end up only knowing how to write essays based on their personal experience, and they miss an opportunity to practice analytical thinking.

I agree with what many others have said. Especially:

1. Make your syllabus watertight, and cover every contingency. Don't make exceptions. Build exceptions into your syllabus, like drop the lowest grade, or allow X number of absences. I don't care what people say about "students being adults," if you expect them to show up to class, make attendance part of their grade. If a student complains to my dean, they pull up the syllabus, and that is the end of the argument. I know it is absurd to put all of this self evident crap in there, but you have to. A student who couldn't bother to turn in their work, and failed their tests, will all of a sudden turn into a Supreme Court Justice when it comes time to argue why YOU are responsible for their poor grade.
   
2. You cannot hammer the concept of plagiarism enough. Some students from abroad are allowed and even encouraged to write in ways we would consider plagiarism, and they learn to write patchwork. But, let them know, respectfully, that this is not culturally acceptable in an American college. If you use an online platform, have students regularly use turnitin, so that they can see how easy it is to catch them. Do an activity where they get into pairs and try to assess whether a piece is plagiarized and why. The first offense is a teachable moment. Everything after that should be a zero. If you want, allow them to redo the assignment correctly. Because when they come to my 200 level class, they get a zero. I cover plagiarism and how to avoid it also, in great detail, so there is no excuse. And I do not have time to allow rewrites for cheating. By the time my students turn in their papers, plagiarism is a choice, and not a matter of ignorance. I give them homework assignments, and ding them for plagiarism, so they know better.
   Re: 5 paragraph essays. I find that when students come to me, many think a paragraph just means hitting the tab button to periodically indent so that it looks nice. Even if they are assigned a 2000 word paper, they will still write 5 paragraphs. There is an intro, with a tripartite thesis and a conclusion and then paragraphs that go on for two pages. They object to writing papers, because they do not understand that writing is a way of thinking about a subject deeply over time and of organizing your thoughts. And, to be honest, once they graduate, they will probably never have to write another paper. So, you need to posit writing as a tool to express your thoughts, not just an end in itself. They need to understand that paragraphs are a means of organizing your thoughts for the reader--not hitting the indent button 5 times in every paper.
   From me:
   
3. Pick your battles. Are you more worried about grammar, or having students learn critical thinking? Do you want students to learn skills, or material? If you want them to learn skills, practice those that you most value every day. If you want them to learn material, make them use the material. I once had a fellow professor ask me this. "If you went to Europe for 10 days, would you rather spend 10 days in 10 different cities, or spend 2 days in 5 cities, or 5 days in 2 cities? Which experience would be the most memorable long term?" I think we have the tendency to want to expose students to 10 cities in 10 days. But, I went to Europe and did that, and I remember almost nothing about it. I went again and spent an entire week in one city, and I learned a lot more that stuck with me.
   
4. Have students write every day, so that they can learn the value of writing for its own sake, as a way of learning. You don't have to grade it. Have them spend the last 5 minutes of class writing down the thing that made the greatest impact for that day, and what they didn't understand. The Bean book I linked to has a lot of these activities. You can collect these at the end of the day, and use them for attendance, if you like. It will also help you to see what the students are actually learning.
   
5. Keep them focused and energized with a lot of in class activities. Give a short writing assignment and then have them get into pairs and discuss. Have them edit and rewrite and discuss again. The Bean book also has a lot of these activities. If they seem to be checking out, have them get up and move around. Take them outside to write.
   
6. Make checklists for students to reference for your expectations about assignments. I really dislike rubrics, because they are usually in vague academia speak that mostly serves to make grading easier for the professor. Like, "Student uses a variety of words to convey meaning--exceeds, meets, doesn't meet." What the hell does that mean? The student doesn't know, if I don't even really know. Sometimes, rubrics are so lengthy and detailed, that the student doesn't read them at all. Sometimes, they are too short and don't cover everything. But, I like checklists, because they are black and white. Do you have a thesis statement? Yes/No. Did you plagiarize? Yes/No. Did you spellcheck your paper? Yes/No. Did you cite your sources? Did you follow instructions? Did you understand the assignment? If you didn't, did you ask your professor for help? Whatever the assignment is about, it can mostly be a lot of you either did it, or you didn't. And then you can make a shorter rubric for quality points like--"student uses a variety of words to convey meaning" or "student exhibits critical thinking." Have students fill out their own checklist and turn it in with the paper, so that they are exercising metacognition.
   
7. Make a list of common grammar errors, and provide tools to correct them. Give students a writing packet, or provide them with a website. Even Grammarly is helpful. I find that ESL students have problems with word endings, like when to put an -s or an -ed at the end of the word. Or there are common problems like commas and semicolons. One hour spent on this will be helpful for a lifetime. But, you are not the grammar police. Provide them with the tools, and expect them to learn them. Send them to the writing center.
   
8. Writing and reading go hand in hand. The only way to become a better writer is to become a better reader. Have students look at samples of writing and analyze them. Teach them how to actively read a text.

OK so this is a really simple thing, but if you plan on teaching with PowerPoints behind you, I really recommend this book called "slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations."

As the title suggests, it's a handbook of visual guides for creating better PowerPoint presentations. It's mostly visual hierarchy and other Gestalt basics, but I found it super useful for making presentations that were actually useful for the students as opposed to just being there. It was recommended to me about eight years ago by my mentor, and I've been following what it says ever since.

Sexy basketweaving? Kinky.

> And likely the survey is poorly designed (I haven't seen it yet, but most first attempts are not so great)

Almost certainly, and the sampling frame is nonexistent. You can suggest that this might make useful pilot data for something more planned (that had also been through IRB review; human subjects and all).

I'd direct them to some survey methodology literature (Groves et al is pretty fantastic. Groves used to run the Census.) You ought to also have them go get CITI trained if your school does that, or have them look at the IRB submission process if not.

Then, as they're working on this, introduce them to some key pieces of literature and the idea that they need to enter into the conversation that's already happening.

If they're interested in the sexy question, then it shouldn't be too hard to press them to think about some sort of research question type elaboration - who answers it this way? who that way? How can we trust the sample to be representative of the larger population?

Rafe Esquith's Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire. It's amazing how his experiences teaching 5th graders relate to so many of my own teaching college students. This won't offer a lot of insight into the specifics of college classroom management or course design, but it will inspire you to make this a profession you love -- it least, it has done so for me. Best of luck!

https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Like-Your-Hairs-Fire/dp/0143112864

Couple tips I've learned:

Eventually, with enough practice, exuding authority will make you feel good. It is a part of your job. Consider it this way: if a student is misbehaving in class then they aren't your main priority, the other students are. Those other students are also probably hoping that you'll chastise or kick out the misbehaving students and when you do so, it will greatly improve their opinion of you and your relationship with them. It is really a win/win situation.

In terms of not knowing material well, I would imagine almost every teacher has experienced this feeling, I know that I have. I'm only a few years into my career, but I view such classes as an exciting challenge, not a ticking time bomb. I get to learn more material, which I love to do, and I find that since the content is fresh in my mind I'm a better teacher.

For more on the latter topic I highly recommend the book Teaching What You Don't Know by Therese Huston.

Buy this:
https://www.amazon.com/Methods-Discovery-Heuristics-Contemporary-Societies/dp/0393978141

Abbott is a qualitative sociologist, but his comparisons of different social science methods and how arguments are constructed is something I found very useful as a graduate student and now assign my own students (and they love it). Its good for thinking about your projects on the way to getting some pubs out, but also really helpful for learning how to teach the things we know to students.

Dear RhinestoneTaco and everyone who replied: Thank you. Good lord, thank you. I used to think it was just me, and no one ever talks about it.

My first year I thought I was going to lose it. I have struggled with generalized anxiety (sounds like what you're describing) on-and-off since grad school. My first year was so tough, and my generalized anxiety was augmented with panic attacks once a week (just before I would teach stats to 500 students who fucking hated my guts for a variety of fuck-ups that were due to my inexperience in teaching).

If you have coverage, go see a professional. After 9 months of struggling alone (actually, after 9 months of leaning on my SO too much for support but still keeping much of my anxiety to myself) I went to see a wonderful clinical psychologist who specialized in cognitive behavioral therapy. FYI, dear scholar, CBT has been empirically been shown to be very effect for anxiety and depression.

I actually started with Mind Over Mood and Feeling Good (for real, I went into a store and bought those two books... at the same time...), which really did help. But after engaging in CBT on my own, I decided that I wanted more guidance. CBT has really changed my approach to things that cause me anxiety, and has been astronomically effective.

I saw my clinical psychologist for about 6 months, and I had perhaps 10 sessions in that time. The last session was a year and a half ago, and I haven't felt that sick, counter-productive worry in almost 2 years. During my treatment, I developed a lot of cognitive skills that help me quiet the anxiety. I still feel anxiety sometimes, but if it gets counterproductive I do a CBT worksheet and it helps.

Obviously, you're not alone in dealing with anxiety. It never occurred to me that it would be widespread, but 20% of the population is dealing with clinical anxiety at any given moment. I suspect academics have a proportionately higher rate of anxiety.

"Advice for new faculty members" by Boice is fantastic. I just finished my first year teaching and my chair have it to me when I got my office keys. Every time I followed the advice in there it turned out great. Every time I thought I knew better and went against it, bit me right in the ass. Highly recommend.

https://www.amazon.com/Advice-Faculty-Members-Robert-Boice/dp/0205281591

I'll recommend James Lang's "On Course" as a great introduction to teaching your first college level course.

https://www.amazon.com/Course-Week-Week-Semester-Teaching/dp/0674047419/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8A4Y13R9S7GXNBYHX587

Several years ago at our introductory fall faculty meeting (where we also introduce brand new faculty to everyone), our head of counseling services addressed the faculty body with the following remarks:

"I cant tell you the medications these students are on but it's scary."

"The next Virginia Tech shooter is on our campus right now."

Were I prone to believe his hysteria, I would carry on campus whether legal or not. However, he struck me as not terribly competent (and maybe sampling some of the students' meds himself) and my interactions with students, even the obviously not all healthy ones, does not make me overly concerned for my safety. It helps that I have nearly 20 years of a particular type of training that emphasizes awareness and peaceful resolution.

But that lads to me address a common refrain I see whenever this topic arises, that only faculty with military/police training should CC on campus. The presumption is that they are properly trained, but that training is disparate. Active duty police only hit what they fire at ~30% of the time (compared to 10% for gang members, I believe but I cannot find that study readily). Military infantry tend to be much higher (~70% iirc), but we tend to stereotype everyone in the army as infantry. One friend of mine spent 20 years in aviation repair work and even though he was deployed never came anywhere close to firing a weapon. He had the basic training and then that was it. However, I also grew up in a rural area where shooting was as common as grilling out or hiking. I knew several people who are experts in firearms who are not "government trained." Many of them I don't think are psychologically ready to handle having to potentially take a life, but several are. u/Geometer99 mentioned the PTSD that would come with having to shoot someone (much less a student you know) and that is very real. One of my combat veteran friends recommended a text written by a military officer and Psychology Ph.D. about that topic and how hard it is for >90% of people to actually shoot at another person. The book is called On Killing and was a very interesting read if a bit redundant between some chapters. It was very fascinating to learn about conditioning (and de-conditioning) techniques used by militaries and other groups.

When it comes to my colleagues, most of my colleagues could not fathom operating a firearm and many are afraid of weapons; there are a tiny handful I would trust. One has several years of military training from his home country. Another has the demeanor. Another trains in the same program I do. But we all have something else in common; I don't think we would carry on campus unless condition were so horrible as to make the likelihood of needing immediate lethal protection readily available. Fortunately, college campuses are very safe and violent incidents are very rare and the climate is not conducive to needing a firearm. My campus borders a really bad area of town and has had a few incidents (and I know several students have weapons on campus). It did only take them two years to park a police cruiser in the parking lot on the edge of campus where the drug deals commonly happened and armed robberies happened fairly often too. But even with that mixing of college and town elements, it has been fairly secure (just don't leave valuables in your car in the far lot). I and my colleagues don't need firearms. But niggling in the back of my contrarian mind is that absence of need should not equate to ban...

Here's a few in the ballpark(?). Casting a wide net here, as your query could go in any number of directions:

Sylvia Federici -“Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour,”

Rosemary Hennessy – Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism

Judith Butler – Gender Trouble

Nancy Fraser – “Heterosexism, Misrecognition and Capitalism: A Response to Judith Butler”

Jose Esteban Muñoz – Disidentification

J.K. Gibson-Graham – Queer(y)ing Capitalism in and out of the Classroom

You can get them on Amazon.

I got a pack and used them for the first time. I felt kind of band using the non-complementary ones so I only used them for my senior-level course where I know the students well enough to know which ones would find them funny.

The book I consistently recommend is: How Learning Works (I have no stake in it, just think it's one of the better ones). amazon link here

Congrats! Here is an article for you to now read: https://www.chronicle.com/article/10-Things-No-One-Told-Me-About/246187?fbclid=IwAR3THR0qYhkZM0AYzkz4kdHAN-PzT4YXi9mj08ic2vbV-1JJq-ZVjbWr2QA

Also, read this book:


https://www.amazon.com/Advice-Faculty-Members-Robert-Boice/dp/0205281591

Academic Writing Real World Topics covers a variety of disciplines. But The Craft of Research really gives a step-by-step explanation of academic writing. If you're considering graduate school in the humanities get the book Grad Study for the 21st Century.

For expanding vocabulary, the tried and true method is to read academic articles and books in your field. You'll quickly pick up on jargon and field specific techniques. Then there are field specific terminology books. One in my field, for example, is Critical Terms for Literary Study

If you like science this lady is the mother of DNA, well she had a huge part in it and got snubbed of her Nobel prize due to an untimely death.

Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060985089/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_YviCwbSJ2WD92

I’m a writing tutor at a seminary and most papers written for class utilize Turabian format (Chicago style).

What astounds me is how few of these students—graduate students, mind you—actually purchase a copy of Turabian, which is only about $16 USD online. They then openly wonder why they struggle with the mechanics of source citations, the proper use of quotations, constructing a bibliography, etc.

I'm in the humanities (not English). However, while in graduate school, I wish someone had told me about this book: https://www.amazon.com/Professor-Essential-Guide-Turning-Ph-D/dp/0553419420. It's not perfect and some people hate it, but it's brutally honest and helpful. If you want to avoid buying the book, you could also just check out the website: http://theprofessorisin.com/.

Might make you feel inadequate, but the dude is freaking inspiring: https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Youre-Joking-Mr-Feynman/dp/0393355624

I've also often had my research students read https://www.amazon.com/Double-Helix-Personal-Discovery-Structure-ebook/dp/B00570ALPC/