Tips on Getting Off to a Good Start at AASU

During your first month: 

• Introduce yourself to the faculty and staff in your department.
• Participate in at least one faculty forum, workshop, or roundtable session.
• Invite to lunch one new faculty member whom you met during orientation.
• Don't hesitate to ask questions--of anyone.
• For each course that you teach, prepare a syllabus that clearly and specifically identifies course objectives, methods, assignments, and policies: provide sufficient detail so that students aren't left guessing as to what you expect of them.  (See "Preparing a Syllabus," from Faculty Development Services at the University of Pittsburgh.)
• If you have been assigned to teach a large lecture class, put extra effort into careful planning and organization.  (See "Preparing to Teach the Large Lecture Course," adapted from Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis.)
• Make sure that your students are familiar with (and understand the implications of) AASU's Honor Code and Code of Conduct.  
• Become familiar with such student support services as Disability Services, Counseling Services, and Career Services--and be prepared to direct your students to the appropriate offices.
• Even if you're not teaching online or hybrid-online classes, develop a simple web site with contact information for students and pdf copies of your syllabi.
• If you're not familiar with all of the software on your computer, take advantage of the training sessions offered by CIS.
• Greet the staff in Plant Operations: there are surprisingly few of them, and they keep the whole place running.
• Begin drafting a research plan, setting a timeline and establishing clear goals.  
• Get out of your office now and then: visit the Writing Center, the Advisement Center,
  and/or the Teaching & Learning Center; sign up for the bocce tournament, work out at the new recreation center, or get in on the monthly poker game; attend a faculty lecture;
  introduce yourself to Jim Anderson in the International Office; meet the staff at Lane Library.
• Consider this bit of advice from Robert Boice's The New Faculty Member (2000):  "Moderate overattachment and overreaction: learn to seek out and learn from criticism while reacting less emotionally to it."  (Boice's book is available in the Teaching & Learning Center in Solms 209.)
• Above all else, maintain your sense of humor.
  

During your first semester:

• Get to know the territory: take a tour of downtown Savannah; learn about Armstrong's history; drive out to Tybee Island and enjoy lunch at the Crab Shack; spend a Saturday afternoon at Fort McAllister; check out your colleagues' home pages; tour Armstrong's Arboretum; visit the Teaching & Learning Center; attend some of the faculty and student exhibits and performances hosted by Art, Music, & Theatre.
• Schedule specific times during the week for research, and don't give up that time for anything.
• Schedule specific times during the week for conferences and advisement sessions with students--and don't give up that time either.  
• Although you won't be invited to serve on any university-wide committees until your second year as a full-time faculty member, fulfill your service requirement on one or two departmental committees (but think twice before agreeing to serve as chair).
• Attend a grant-writing workshop, and consider applying for (or collaborating on) an internal grant.
• Maintain a teaching portfolio with all class materials, assignments, syllabi, and exams.
• Attend an advisement workshop--even if you haven't yet been assigned any advisees.
• Arrange a meeting with your department head to discuss requirements and procedures for promotion and tenure.
• Invite a colleague (or a member of the Faculty Development Committee) to visit one of your classes and comment on your teaching.
• Save supportive e-mails and letters of thanks from students and colleagues.
• Learn to work the system--a strategy that starts with learning the system: some rainy afternoon, skim through the Faculty Handbook.
• Unless you've been hired to chair a new program, don't try to hustle or muscle six new courses through the Curriculum Committee during your first semester: instead, establish your credentials within the department, and discuss any new course plans with your department head.
• On the first Friday in December, attend the end-of-term dinner hosted by the Faculty Development Committee, and exchange a few war stories about your first hundred days at Armstrong.

Guides & Resources for New and Part-time Faculty

Classroom Assessment Techniques
(by Thomas Angelo and K. Patricia Cross, from Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers, 2nd edition.)

Collecting Feedback That Improves Teaching and Learning:
A Sampler of Effective Practices
(by Diane M. Emerson, Kathryn M. Plank, and R. Neill Johnson, at the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence at Penn State)

Developing & Teaching a Course: Assessment, Dealing with Plagiarism and Cheating, Goals & Objectives, Planning Your Course, Preparing a Syllabus, and Teaching Strategies
(Faculty Development at University of Pittsburgh)

Managing the Classroom Environment
(Professor's Resource Site, Algonquin College)

Mid-point Evaluations
Research on classroom assessment techniques and classroom climate indicates that getting and using student feedback throughout the semester improves teaching and learning.   Check out the sample mid-point evaluation forms available at this University of Maryland teaching and learning site.  See also "Collecting and Using Mid-Semester Feedback"
(Jeanette McDonald, Teaching Support Services, Univ. of Guelph, 2004) (pdf).

Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (AAHE, 1987)

Things I Wish They Had Told Me, by Richard M. Felder
(Chem. Engr. Education, 28 (2), 108-109 [Spring 1994]).

Using a Variety of Teaching & Learning Strategies
(Professor's Resource Site, Algonquin College)

Strategies & Services for Part-time Faculty

-- Academic360.com
"Academic360.com is a meta-collection of Internet resources that have been gathered for the academic job hunter. It includes links to faculty, staff, and administrative announcements and is not restricted to teaching positions."

-- Academic Employment Network
"Academic Employment Network (AEN) lists available positions in colleges, primary and secondary educational institutions for faculty, staff, and administrative professionals. Here is your immediate, economical vehicle for reaching qualified educators throughout the world."

-- Adjunct Nation
An online journal for part-time faculty.  Hard copies of Adjunct Nation are available in the Teaching & Learning Center in Solms 209.

-- HigherEdJobs.com
"HigherEdJobs.com has one of the largest job databases focused exclusively on college and university positions."

--Jill Carroll's Chronicle columns for part-time faculty:
-Adjuncts, Students, and E-mail
-Avoiding Adjunct Burnout
-Back to School When You Never Left
-Being a Professional in an Unprofessional Climate
-Don't Go the Extra Mile, Except . . .
-For Adjuncts, Summer Is the Lean Season
-For Adjuncts, Time Really Is Money
-Getting Good Teaching Evaluations Without Stand-up Comedy
-Getting Started as an Adjunct
-How to Be Cool with the Competition
-How to Be One of the Gang When You're Not
-How to Hold Office Hours Without an Office
-Negotiating Perks: Getting More of What You Want
-Surviving as an Adjunct
-Up a Creek Without Insurance

-- Job-Hunting Tips (AdjunctNation.com)

-- JobList (AdjunctNation.com)