Overcoming Boredom with Teaching

During my junior year in college, I took a 300-level Shakespeare class. I was really anticipating this class--finally in the upper echelon and in the smaller, more intimate classes. It wasn't long before I caught on to just how close to retirement my professor was.  Here was a man who truly had job security in tenure alone. Every class we students would arrive early, open our Norton Anthology of Shakespeare, get out our spiral notebooks and pens, and settle ourselves into those hard wooden desks for the torture of the next 90 minutes. The professor (I can't even remember his name), clad in his disheveled grey suit, would arrive right on time with his trusty brown briefcase. He never bothered to take attendance because he knew we had to be there. With the briefcase plopped down on the desk, he would pull out his hefty 3" 3-ring binder--you know the old kind with the blue cloth covering. Next he would pull out his wooden ruler and mechanical pencil. Carrying both to the podium, he would open the notebook to the page with his check mark from the previous class. Placing the ruler on the typed page under the correct line, he would proceed to read his notes for the rest of class, moving his ruler down the page and flipping to the next when appropriate. Needless to say, we students fell into our routine of trying to capture every word in our own notebooks in hopes of gleaning some incredible insight for the midterm. Every once in a while, as if on cue, he would even laugh at one of his own typed jokes, just to break up the monotony. For that class, our grade hinged on the midterm, the final, and a research paper. Shakespeare at its finest!

I am so glad we have moved past those prior definitions of education as filling the empty buckets in students' heads with jewels of great knowledge. It must have been easy class preparation for those professors who had to research or publish in order to maintain tenure, but students certainly did not benefit.

When I taught my first online course, I was highly alert to the tendency for online learning to take on the same characteristics for students--read a chapter and regurgitate the information on a quiz or exam. I wanted as much as possible to design a course that would be  engaging and would create a similar sense of community as found in my face-to-face classes. Even so, I must confess though that after teaching the same class year after year I felt as though my teaching lost its luster.  This is not what the students experienced, having never taken the class before, but I am ever alert to my own boredom.

In other words, I get bored with myself and with my own classroom routines. Now I know my lesson plans are new to my students every semester; nevertheless, I don't want to sabotage my own effectiveness by getting into a set routine. This is one of the reasons I appreciate the opportunity to attend conferences through professional growth. Not only do I get re-energized, I also gather ideas for new classroom activities and more interesting assignments for my students. Having just returned from the annual Conference for College Reading and Learning Association a week ago, I am already envisioning how I will utilize new-found ideas within the remainder of this semester and as part of my classes for spring.

This is also why I appreciate our own Winter and Summer Institutes. I enjoy hearing from fellow faculty about what they are doing in their classes and "borrowing" their ideas. I also like having the opportunity to discuss our common student and/or technology issues. We all need to have that change of pace from our routines and busyness.

My own boredom is also one of the reasons I avoid using textbooks in my courses because I don't want to fall into the rut of skill and drill in my reading classes. I also avoid using the same books every semester by switching up my readers, novels, biographies, etc. Although this is more work for me, it gives me a fresh look at each class each semester. I know myself well enough to know I need to keep changing things to maintain my enthusiasm.

What I am re-evaluating now is my overuse of small group discussions. I am not giving up on them; I just want to use them more effectively to get the most out of the time and to provide the best learning experience for my students.  A work in progress to be continued next semester....

Even though I keep an electronic file of all my previous lesson plans, I hate going back to them unless there is some nugget of a great activity that I want to remember to utilize. When I start copying and pasting the same old stuff into the new semester, I lose the luster of working with a new class and a new challenge. I want always to enjoy teaching and interacting with my students in the present.

I guess as I slide towards retirement, I could let the boredom take over to make my life a little easier. I certainly wouldn't have to put in as many hours toward preparation and giving good feedback on assignments. In good conscience, I just can't do that to my students, or to me.  As instructors, we get to create our own classroom experience; we might as well make it the best experience possible for everyone, including ourselves.