As we approach the end of the year, consider setting aside some time to reflect on your teaching. Finding time to reflect is challenging, particularly during our fast-paced quarters. But, here’s why it’s worth doing: “Future You” will be so thankful for “Present You.”

[Image description: In this scene from Back to the Future (1985), Dr. Emmet “Doc” Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, dons a mindreading contraption while pointing at Marty McFly offscreen and stating, “I’m going to read your thoughts.”]

Pictured: Doc Brown would appreciate our attempts at time travel to the future through careful, reflective notetaking in the present.

A Gift for “Future You”

If you carve out some time this spring to reflect on how your teaching went this year, those memories will be relatively fresh. If you wait until fall, or until the next time you teach the same class again, some of those memories will have grown hazy. You want to avoid this scenario: “I knew I had a thought about changing the wording of these directions, but I can’t remember what it was.” “Present You” remembers! Setting a 15-minute timer to jot down some notes or ideas will be a gift to your future self. Try to make your notes as explicit as possible so that your future self has clear directions.

Personal Growth

Taking time to reflect facilitates growth. Some of our classes build reflection activities into the assignments we give our students. For example, undergraduate students in University Writing Program (UWP) courses often complete a metacognitive essay that they write shortly after submitting one of their major essay assignments. Metacognition is thinking about thinking. Metacognition slows things down by allowing you to reflect before charging onward to the next task. What would happen if we provided similar metacognitive opportunities for ourselves as instructors? By thinking about thinking, you have time to assess how your approach to a task changed while you were working on it, to identify challenges that you encountered, to describe areas where you may need support or guidance, and to celebrate the discoveries you made. What if we treated our teaching as a learning process worthy of time for reflection so that we can identify opportunities for growth? Reflective writing or notetaking can chart our progress and identify the next steps we might take as we revise and meet our teaching goals.

[Image description: A brain with a smiley face hovers happily above the text: “Growth Mindset.”]

Pictured: Reflecting on one’s growth can be a rewarding experience.

Professionalization

Taking time to reflect on your teaching will also prepare you for future applications to academic and non-academic jobs. For those of you interested in pursuing alternative-academic (alt-ac) or non-academic careers, one of the most comment questions you will encounter in your interviews is: “What is the biggest challenge that you’ve encountered and what steps did you take to overcome it?” If you have a cache of teaching reflections, you can readily prepare for that interview question by quickly re-reading your notes. Perhaps you helped a student in distress find resources on campus. Or, perhaps you had to navigate a student complaint about grading. Recalling details on the eve of an important interview can be stressful. Save yourself some time and alleviate stress by writing about those details as soon as possible.

If you are pursuing a teaching career, then your teaching reflections will lay the foundation for strong job documents. Teaching jobs, especially within higher education, often ask candidates to prepare cover letters, teaching philosophy statements, and other materials. It is challenging (and time-consuming) to generate all of that material on the spot as application deadlines loom closer and closer. Help out “Future You” by keeping notes throughout your time as a graduate student instructor at UC Riverside. Then, once you are ready for the job market, you will have a fantastic archive to consult as you reflect deeply on what motivates you as a teacher. As you prepare a teaching philosophy statement, for example, you can look at the notes you kept over the years and consider the following questions. What topics or themes emerge as you compare these notes? Do you notice a trend in your notes that helps define how you approach teaching? Or, do you find that you include a certain assignment in all of your classes? If so, what does that assignment communicate about you as an instructor? For more information on teaching philosophy statements, consider attending a workshop hosted by the Graduate Writing Center and the Graduate Student Resource Center later this quarter as part of the After Grad: Teaching Careers Week events in Week 6 (more details below).

[Image description: Phoebe Heyerdahl from the 1990s animated TV show, Hey Arnold!, scribbles in a spiral red notebook.]

Pictured: Time to start writing!

Getting Started

The Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning has a great list of activities for getting started with the process of reflective teaching. Their suggestions include taking five minutes at the end of every class to assess what went well and what could be improved. Below are some examples of adapting daily, reflective questions into prompts for an overarching reflection of the entire academic year. You do not need to answer all of these questions! Instead, pick the questions that seem the most generative for you.

What were your experiences like in the classroom this year? What assignments or activities worked well, and why? What didn’t go as planned? What might you do differently? What challenges did you and your students face? When would it be helpful to ask for guidance from your advisor, or a trusted mentor or peer, or a campus resource such as the TA Development Program and the XCITE Center for Teaching and Learning? What successes do you want to celebrate this year? When did things seem to “click” for your students? What resources can help you with your short- and long-term teaching goals for the coming year? What are your next steps?

Teaching Careers Week

The Graduate Student Resource Center’s upcoming series of events in Week 6, After Grad: Teaching Careers Week, will provide more food for thought as you embark on your reflective teaching journey. Make sure to check out next week’s blog post, “Looking Ahead to Teaching Careers Week,” and keep an eye on the GSRC website for more details.