A Few Tips for Faculty New and Old: Things I wish I had learned earlier.

A Few Tips for Faculty New and Old:  Things I wish I had learned earlier.

1.    Keep a clear set of classroom rules and stick to them. 

2.    Before you make an exception, consider whether you are willing to make the same exception, for the same reasons for any other student under similar conditions.  Would you be willing to publicly defend this exception?  If not, then don't make it.  I learned this the hard way when I kept making exceptions for a student with one sad story after another.  She never complied with the agreements to finish her work.  Then she said, "How can I fail the course?  I haven't done any work."  True story! 

3.    Students are adults, in theory.  I treat them as such.  I tell them that it is their job to notify me if they will miss a class due to illness, competing obligations, etc.  They have the syllabus the first day of class.  So, they know when assignments are due.  In the real world you suffer consequences if you miss a deadline without cause.  Similarly, I demand and model respect for all in the classroom.  You can discuss controversial issues without ad hominem or acrimony.

4.    Require that students submit their paper electronically through the Turnitin.com option in Blackboard.  This provides an easy way to check for plagiarism.  It also provides an organized, electronic record of who turned in a paper and who did not.

5.    Communication is key.  Stress to students that they can and should contact you if they have questions and problems.  Similarly, if you have to change something in the course, a brief explanation is helpful to students.  Remember number 2 above, if you might extend the date for the return of graded papers due to your own illness, then maybe you should accept a late paper from a student who can document an illness of similar severity.

6.    Enjoy the ride.  Parts of teaching are onerous.  But, there are also moments of pure bliss, such as when you witness a student grasping a difficult concept or when the class is truly engaged in the discussion.  These make the rest worthwhile.

This list doesn't cover everything.  But at least it is a beginning.

 

Constance Perry

Beloit Mindset List - Date-Based Facts about Entering Students

Beloit has become mildly famous for posting this annual list of "oh my god" date-based facts.  My most memorable was the year they told me that John Lennon was dead before "this class" was born - How to feel ancient in a big-big hurry.

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php

Jim Mitchell

 

Here's the introduction to this year's list. ***********

If the entering college class of 2013 had been more alert back in 1991 when most of them were born, they would now be experiencing a severe case of déjà vu. The headlines that year railed about government interventions, bailouts, bad loans, unemployment and greater regulation of the finance industry. The Tonight Show changed hosts for the first time in decades, and the nation asked “was Iraq worth a war?”

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Emeritus Public Affairs Director Ron Nief.  It is used around the world as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation. It is widely reprinted and the Mindset List website at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ receives more than 300,000 hits annually.

As millions of students head off to college this fall, most will continue to experience the economic anxiety that marked their first two years of life just as it has marked their last two years of high school. Fears of the middle class--including their parents--about retirement and health care have been a part of their lives. Now however, they can turn to technology and text a friend: "Momdad still worried bout stocks. urs 2? PAW PCM".

Members of the class of 2013 won't be surprised when they can charge a latté on their cell phone and curl up in the corner to read a textbook on an electronic screen. The migration of once independent media—radio, TV, videos and CDs—to the computer has never amazed them. They have grown up in a politically correct universe in which multi-culturalism has been a given.  It is a world organized around globalization, with McDonald's everywhere on the planet. Carter and Reagan are as distant to them as Truman and Eisenhower were to their parents. Tattoos, once thought "lower class," are, to them, quite chic. Everybody knows the news before the evening news comes on.

Thus the class of 2013 heads off to college as tolerant, global, and technologically hip…and with another new host of The Tonight Show.

Philadelphia Half-Day Escapes

As Center City dwellers, on weekends we want to see some greenery, leaving the sirens and bus fumes behind.  On this Google Map of half-day escapes I've collected some of our favorites.  They're clearly biased towards quiet walks in green surroundings, with very little that's adventurous or raucous. 

I've identified those that are readily accessible by bicycle or public transportation, though many more are accessible if you take a bicycle on the train - which Septa allows, if not always gracefully.

If you like this sort of thing you might want to get "A guide to the Great Gardens of the Philadelphia Region" by Adam Levine - Temple University Press - 2007.

Jim Mitchell

Now It's Your Turn - After The New Faculty Orientation

Now you're "oriented" -  from comments I heard some think that "stuffed" or perhaps "deluged" might be more appropriate. 

I sat through all but the very last session attempting to put myself back 20 years and experience the orientation as you did.  I heard admirable welcomes from our President and Provost, very practical financial realities from HR and much well-intentioned advice from those of us no longer wearing a fresh coat of paint.

Now it's your turn.

• Did you complete the evaluation forms for DCAE?  If not I'm sure that an EMail with your opinions and suggestions to Antonis Asprakis would be much appreciated  aja22@Drexel.edu.
• If there are topics that you wish had been covered  or covered in more depth why not raise them here - I'm sure you'll get a response.  Just email to Newfaculty2009@lists.drexel.edu
• Feel free to contact any of those you heard from or met.  You can find most people and offices via Drexel's search - http://www.drexel.edu/search/

There will be at least one more survey, probably in mid-fall, and perhaps one in the spring.  By that time you'll be seasoned Drexel faculty ready to help next year's colleagues.

What we do with this online community is up to you.  I'll be submitting a few more posts as inspiration hits (including one I promised my table about "escaping Philadelphia"), but I plan to fade into the background as I prepare for classes. 

I hope that many of you will start submitting your own experiences/questions/opinions to keep this community alive.

 

Jim Mitchell

High School Project Interview - Detailed answers

Thanks to the web we quite frequently get requests for “interviews” from high school students who’ve been given a class project.  Usually these requests are broad, with indications that the student done little independent research other than find the names of many someones to write.  To those my polite response is usually to send them a couple of URLs with general information about the field and our department, with an invitation to follow up with more specific questions.  Rarely does anyone pursue it further.  Today one student did follow up.   I thought my response might be of more general interest, so here it is.

Jim Mitchell

****************************

Connor:

Thank you for your specific response. I'll do my best to answer your questions.

Yes you may use my webpage to answer some of the broader questions.

Why did I go into teaching architectural engineering?

I've always liked teaching. It has always seemed to me to be an effort to pass on the knowledge of one generation to the next, one that I honored greatly. More specifically, when I was in practice as an architect I realized that many of the problems in the buildings that we created arose from the lack of thorough coordination between the engineers and architects who designed the buildings. When an opportunity arose to address this issue, first part-time and full-time, I leapt at it. I've never regretted it.

What classes should a high school student take?

The same classes that you've undoubtedly heard your teachers espousing for a long time:

Mathematics - as much as you can get, at least through precalculus.

Sciences - physics is most important to our area, but chemistry and even biology are important as well.

Communication - particularly written communication. All engineers need to write in order to make proposals and report on what they've done. Many do it atrociously and their careers suffer in consequence.

Second-language - ours is an increasingly international world. A second-language will serve you well.

Technology for learning

My classes change continually to use what I think of as the latest technology.  I haven't yet found a use for Twitter, but I'm always experimenting. Students in my classes have to document their projects using the World Wide Web (Internet) for example and have done so for close to 15 years. We use computer programs extensively including energy simulation and structural analysis.

The Future of Architectural Engineering

I believe architectural engineering will be greatly influenced over the next 15 years by technological developments in many areas. Most important is BIM (building information modeling), but we will see increasing use of robotics, new materials, and the use of information technology more broadly.  Increased internationalization will have big effects as well, some of them quite difficult.

Hands-on in classes

In our curriculum we have multiple laboratory classes starting in the first year and extending into the senior year. Students have experience with breaking things (testing) in materials labs, shaking things (soil samples) in soils labs, and making things (many things) in a number of design classes.  There are also active student groups in “concrete canoe” and “steel bridge” competitions.

Student work

Because Drexel is a cooperative education school almost all of our students will have had three 6-month jobs in their industry before they graduate.  Even in these bad economic times virtually all of our students go right into jobs, many of which are nailed down months before they graduate.

I hope this helps.

Jim Mitchell

One View of Education's Future

Robert Cringely is a long-term, savvy observer of the tech industry.  Today he produced a piece about the education world, arguing that big change is coming.  His piece has already produced much intriguing discussion in the comment section below it.  For a challenge to business-as-usual I recommend the read.

http://www.cringely.com/2009/09/burn-baby-burn/

Jim Mitchell

Anticipating the New Faculty Orientation

Tomorrow, Tuesday the day after Labor Day, you'll get a chance to hear from many people at the university about the varied aspects of life here. Possibly just as important will be the opportunity to meet your colleagues who are new. While some of the sessions are straightforwardly information-oriented, some of them are intended to help you get to know each other and form what could be long-lasting and rewarding relationships.

If you want to get a sense of some of your colleague's backgrounds and interests before the workshops you might want to go to the VistaBB site "New Faculty Community - 2009-2010" which you can access at http://learning.drexel.edu using the credentials that were sent to you earlier - your Drexel ID and password if you are already in Drexel system. In that site you'll see under "Discussions" a link to "Introduce Yourself to the Community." There you'll find self-descriptions by approximately 25 new faculty as well as some of us older folk.

I expect to be at the orientation for most of both days and very much look forward to talking with those of you who I know as only email addresses. Please feel free to grab me and tell me what needs to be improved with this first year's effort to help new faculty easily join the Drexel community. I can also answer questions or point you to those who can answer them.

Jim Mitchell - Editor

Time Management Advice to a nephew student

I've been a trustee for a nephew who's returning to college full-time, determined to become an engineer - for the last two years he's majored in surfing the entire Pacific coast of the Americas. To my surprise he's several times asked me seriously for advice.

The following is what I recently wrote him in response to a question about whether he could afford to study and have a part time job. It reflects my experience of advising engineering students over 20 years and is noticeably different from the "three hours outside of class for every hour in class" advice that students often hear - and don't believe.

Jim Mitchell

xxxxxx:

My experience is that the reality of what it takes to succeed, unless you have a really stinko professor, is an honest 40 hour work week. Generally I've found that the following is about right for classes and homework combined, NOT counting break time, TV+ time etc. - there are always a few exceptions that make the rest of us see bright purple spots of envy, but these are pretty reliable based on class surveys that I've conducted.

• <=25 hours/week = failures
• ~30 hours/week = Ds
• ~35 hours/week = C's
• ~45 hours/week = B's
• ~55 hours/week = A's

Since there are 168 hours in a week you can do the arithmetic with me:

• Let's assume 7 hours of sleep a night = 50 hours
• Let's assume 2 hours/day for meals and stuff = 15 hours
• Committed hours are therefore 65
• Add 60 hours for "A" goal = 125
• Hours left for other things = 168-125 = 43

It's a time management thing - TV and "hanging out" are the big killers, plus how much surfing you plan for (including transportation time). There are hours in there for a part time job if you choose, but something else is likely to be curtailed.

My experience is that good students are generally very disciplined about their time management. They don't give up a social life, but they're organized about it and willingly (if regretfully) forgo a significant number of fun things for the necessary work.

One thing that I and many others have found beneficial is to promise yourself a "fun" break AFTER you've accomplished a specific goal. In my case it might be a chocolate chip cookie or a half hour of watching a soccer match after finishing a problem set or something like that.