Some Tips for New English Adjunct Professors
Most professors are teaching online right now, but most community colleges expect to start face to face classes by the fall. Some of you out there may currently be biting your nails because of class cuts due to low enrollment. Most colleges expect an enrollment boom come fall, so most of you can expect to return to the classroom soon enough. With that in mind, I’ve compiled some tips for new professors based on what I wish I would have known my first semester teaching.
1. Color code your grading:
It could potentially save you hours of work. For example, one color of highlighter could be used just for comma splices, another for thesis problems, and another for phrasing issues. Since most of us are teaching online right now, this should be even easier and faster. Just be sure to give your students a key, so they understand what the colors mean. I recommend offering a comment at the end of the essay where you explain how students can fix some the writing issues that you point out.
2. Correct but also praise:
Students need to know what they are doing right. If you only focus on what they can improve, they may become dispirited, not realizing that their work also had strengths.
3. Have your students submit their essays online:
I’ve always been old school, using a paper grading book and taking essays home to grade, but after ten years of teaching, I have been converted to digital grading. One of the benefits of grading online is that there is no chance for student papers to fly out your window when you are blasting weird guitar music and snacking on almonds while speeding on the back roads trying to get to your next class at another college. Another benefit is not having to carry around the weight of the papers. One stack isn’t so bad, but if you have more than one class at the same college on the same day, you might very well be carrying around two stacks, and if you have textbooks and other assignments you are carrying with you, then things start to get heavy. Even with stretching, carrying all this weight around as you zip around campus, going up and down stairs, while trying to take sips of your coffee, can and will damage your back, and back pain isn’t always simple to fix. You don’t get paid enough for that.
4. Pockets:
This piece of advice is so important, especially for lady adjuncts who wear dresses. Try to purchase dresses and skirts with pockets. That way you are less likely to lock your keys in your classroom when you are in a hurry teaching night classes when no one else is really around to help you back into the classroom.
5. Invest in good shoes:
This one might sound silly, but when you work at a college, there is a lot of walking involved as well as going up and down stairs. When I used my step tracking app, I discovered I got about two miles of walking in each day at work. Having some nice shoes that won’t wreck your feet is a must. If you want to wear heels, try to find some of the nice ones that have padding and decent soles, but just so you know, I’ve known at least a couple women who wore heels every day to work who feel down on the stairs. Be careful!
6. Vitamin C tablets:
When I first started teaching, I tended to catch whatever the students were sick with. This was terrible because at some schools, only one sick day was paid per semester. I was incredibly frustrated about this, feeling like I had to come in to teach while sick. Then one day a group of some of the older adjuncts who had been in the business for twenty or more years explained that they take vitamin C tablets at even just the hint of a sniffle. I’ve tried this out, and for me Airborne works. Take three tablets a day, and within two days whatever sniffle you had should be annihilated.
7. Don’t grade in bed:
If you do decide to accept paper work from your students, never ever grade in bed. For many of you, this will be obvious, but for some of you, this may be just the piece of advice you need to reduce your chances of getting sick. Remember, if you have a stack of thirty papers in bed with you, it’s like having the germs of thirty people in your bed. For that matter, never wear your work clothes to bed. Remember, you teach in classrooms that hundreds of people pass through each week not to mention you wear those same clothes in the bathrooms and everywhere else you go on campus.
8. For observations, select lessons you feel comfortable with but want feedback on:
When the full-time faculty observe your classes, according to the schedule in your contract, don’t get stressed out. Use their visit strategically as a way to get personalized feedback on your lessons. Pick a lesson you like and feel comfortable with but that could potentially benefit from an experienced perspective. I remember one time I selected a lesson that I thought was absolutely perfected. The observer thought it was a great lesson. It was engaging for students, addressed different learning styles, and was scaffolded. Nevertheless, the observer had a suggestion or two about how to make the lesson even better. The suggestions offered were simple, but I wouldn’t have thought of them on my own. Instead of feeling like my lesson wasn’t appreciated, I was happy to have ideas on how to make it even better. I’m going to venture that most people aren’t thrilled about observations even if they are useful and relevant, so you might as well use them strategically.
9. Use the circle:
If you are new to teaching and are figuring out your classroom management, here’s one that can relieve you of some stress. If some of your students haven’t figured out that they are in college and are clustering in small phone zombie or mindless chatter circles instead of doing the work, start putting the class in a large circle. It makes micro-circles of distraction more awkward because everyone will notice. It also is different for many students and makes them feel like they are part of a larger conversation. I never mention why I sometimes go for the circle formation in class, but I have had students, who normally might tend to talk and get distracted, tell me that they actually like the circle better. It makes them feel like they are more involved with the class as a whole.
10. Be kind to the janitors:
I’ve noticed this strange thing at the colleges I’ve worked at. Most of the faculty ignore the janitors, like they don’t even exist. I do not recommend doing that. In fact, I would advise the opposite. Be kind to the janitors. Say hello. Learn their names. They may be there to help you if you are having a problem on campus when no one else is around, and you don’t have access to a phone. I’m sure they would help you anyway, but building a positive acquaintanceship with the janitors will only be to your benefit. In my experience, they often are incredibly surprised but also genuinely happy when the professors talk to them because even if people don’t talk about it, there is often an idea that professors are important and intelligent people, and as one janitor explained, they “don’t feel important enough to talk to the professors.” We may be professors, but the janitors work at our colleges and should feel respected and valued because they do a lot of important work for us. They’re the ones cleaning the classrooms and the bathrooms. Plus, if you are kind to the janitors and need something done in your classroom, you might discover that they will handle it in a quicker manner if they have a friendly acquaintanceship with you. I’ve had some of my colleagues scowl and tell me “don’t talk to the janitors” with no additional explanation of why; on the other hand, I’ve noticed some of the more senior faculty are on friendly speaking terms with the janitors, and that’s what I would recommend. If nothing else, it makes for a more positive work environment.
11. If your life path changes, don’t feel bad:
The truth is that there is a high adjunct turnover rate. One factor for that is how difficult it is to get tenure track positions, partially because there is so much competition and partially because of how many qualifications hiring committees expect from a candidate. This discourages many adjuncts who need a more stable income at a higher rate. Another factor is the class cancellations that happen sometimes due to low enrollment. If you are a new adjunct who has a class canceled and is starting to rethink your career path, don’t feel bad if you need to do something else. That’s not meant in anyway to discourage you from staying an adjunct or working your way up to a tenure track position. Instead, it’s meant to let you know that you aren’t the only one who has had to pivot and change paths. I’ve known several professors, adjunct and tenured, who decided to follow other paths, temporarily or permanently, and they ended up just fine. I’m making a point of saying this as the Spring 2021 semester approaches because it is more than likely that many adjuncts will have their classes cut. The community college system, at least, expects an enrollment boom in the fall, which will help, but if you are reading this at a time of job uncertainty, then I hope this advice is helpful. On the other hand, I do want to say that this piece of advice is important for any adjunct at any time since being an adjunct does have some drawbacks, like the massive amounts of work you will be doing, probably at more than one college, for much less than a regular full-time faculty member. While many of you will be fine with this since you plan to eventually get one of those coveted tenure track positions, some of you might eventually tire of this. Don’t feel bad if you need to do something else for work.
