first lecture blues......

[Lagoonablue]

New lecturer here. First one today and am feeling glum......I went through the material too fast and finished too early. I am used to delivering training really and tried to make it interactive but it didn't really work. Lots of blank faces and covert mobile use....

Help! I understand how to teach but not sure of pace. I can't seem to keep all the info in my head but then don't want to read from copious notes.

I am enrolling on some inservice training but would appreciate any advice!

Plus please tell me it gets easier..........I feel like a rabbit in the headlines at the moment. I hate being new!

I remember feeling like this! It does get A LOT easier (although there are always ways to improve lecturing). The biggest battle for me is getting the students to interact. Sometimes it is fine, other times it is much harder - it depends on the time of day, the particular group of students, the topic etc.
Have you scheduled enough breaks? I schedule a 5 minute break every 20 minutes or so and the students appreciate it.
It will get better.

Thanks for the moral support. Really hope it does get better!

It will get better. I speed up when I am nervous.

You will also need a thicker skin.

Keep them working on something, keep changing tasks, every 20 minutes, max, change what is going on. Have a list of names in front of you. Ask questions of named individuals in the class - keep them on their toes. Ask questions, get opinions. Ban phone use. It will all come in time.

It gets better! I remember phoning a friend in tears after my very first lecture to our massive first year module. I finished with something like 15 minutes to spare!! And a student asked a question that completely threw me, and I stumbled through things.

Now I completely don't sweat it. Partway through my lecture this morning my microphone started doing the thump-thumping that means it's out of batteries. I stopped talking and asked the class "Do you hear something?" No one spoke but lots of nodding heads. I finally figured out what was going on, took the microphone off, and applied my voice projection skills to the rest of the lecture (I usually use a microphone as I'll be hoarse by the end of a week if not, especially with all the coughs going around).

One thing for me, is I've stopped trying to get interaction out of 100s of students. I only go for this if we're in a reasonably small lecture theatre, with maybe 40-60 students tops. I do persist in getting students to interact in practicals, where we have 100 at a time, but I almost always ending up picking on someone ("the one on the end with the green top"). I think large numbers of students really inhibit each other. I probably should try harder, but it is just easier to not try with big classes. Although if you have access to clickers, I understand that goes down well.

To keep your motivation going, a trick is to find a few interested students, and look at them throughout the lecture. Don't concentrate on the one sleeping in the third row (she's been there all week! And sleeps each time!), but find a few interested faces around the room that you can glance around at. It makes you look like you're looking at everybody if you pick them well-spaced, but it makes for encouragement when they look keen as you say interesting things.

Ah, OP it'll get better

How many were in the class? I don't bother with interactive stuff with bigger classes as it just doesn't work.

If it's a smaller class I will do but this can be hard going and, as PP said, you have to develop a thick skin for when it doesn't work and they're looking at your like you've just fallen out of an elephant's arse. Always give new interactive things a go though as you never know what'll stick and be used for years.

I also buy some cheap sweets from the £1 shop and use them to get students engaged. For example, I'll tell them something and then ask them to basically repeat it back to me and the one who does gets a lollipop. It's the same technique a friend uses when teaching 5 year olds- it shouldn't work on 18 year old adults at an elite institution but it does!

It irritates me immensely when students are cunting about on their phones but I know of other colleagues who don't mind. I don't know whether/ how to address it though so any suggestions welcome...

Thanks for all of the tips. From talking to colleagues it seems not just me who has had problems. I will usually be delivering to 40 students but sometimes up to 100! I like them to do tasks though as I just can't talk for 3 hours non stop.

I will take your ideas on board and see how it goes next week.

Oh blimey, three hours is a very long time. What field are you in OP? It's quite unusual to have three hour pure lecture sessions rather than, say, workshops.

I'd definitely suggest a few breaks. Are you in the sort of field where you could give them a longer break and then set them some sort of task to do during the break in groups? For example, I teach qualitative research methods and for one of my two hour sessions I send them away for 20 minutes to go and do an observation somewhere on campus then when they come back, we talk through what they observed, how it was etc. Getting them out of a classroom for 20 minutes reinvigorates them and gives me a chance to look at MN with a coffee catch up on emails

Hi OP, I was where you are this time last year! So nervous, finishing all my material early etc. Now I'm a year in and it's so much easier!

Maybe you already do this, but I print out my slides and keep an eye on which number slide I am up to and how many minutes to go. Then if I am too far ahead / behind I can make an effort to slow down or speed up, eg by giving them more / less time to tackle a problem.

Hi Laggonablue

It definitely gets easier with time although there are some groups of students you never quite gel with. Three hours with one group sounds v heavy going. In terms of getting more interaction could you perhaps use technology such as TurningPoint (where students vote anonymously on MCQs) or ask them to write an idea or question on a post it rather than getting them to speak.

Also in time as they get to know you better they may feel more confident about participating. I normally pose questions for them to discuss with the neighbours then wander up and down the room chatting with small groups. Obviously I only speak to a small proportion of students but it helps me gauge how well they're coping with the material.

When I first started I used to write approximate times on the slide handout as TT mentioned so that you can adjust.

Also on the plus side at least you did not go over time - the students would never forgive you for that!

I have had 3 hours in a row it is a tough slog. So much so that I ended up selecting a very different part of the module for one hour and doing two hours on another topic almost treating it as separate subjects just to shake it up rather than 3 hours on the same module content. I was lucky though the module content split very well into 2 clear parts.

Thanks. Some great ideas. I can do activities in the sessions but it's hard with big numbers. I like the idea of questions on post its. I will add that to my list! Been using a few relevant video clips to change the focus too. I am slowly getting there.......ta for the moral support!