First day of school jitters are not only for students. Yes, teachers get them, too. This is the start of my 14th year as a university faculty member. I really love teaching. I have always been excited for the beginning of the fall semester and all the hope it brings. This year, however, I feel hesitant about starting with new students. COVID really changed the world, not just from a medical standpoint, but also from a social standpoint. Students entering college now are having difficulty juggling all their responsibilities. This is reasonably so, because they are just not prepared for everything that is expected of them.

Changing Trends

Trends have changed with respect to students’ needs. As a faculty member what I have used in the past as teaching strategies do not necessarily work now. In essence, there is a learning curve for all of us. This can be a good or bad thing, depending upon how we look at it. For me, personally, it started out as a bad thing as I was frustrated and unable to figure out how to do better by my students. It has morphed into the opportunity to make some positive changes to the structure of the courses that I teach. It has given me a fresh look at how I present information.

This morning I completed a short meeting about faculty use of AI as a way of decreasing the time spent on many of the standard activities in teaching. The basic suggestion in the training was to think of using AI as a way to brainstorm new ways of doing things. We should think of AI not as the end all and be all but as a “teaching assistant” of sorts. It does require thorough review of the information it spits back. AI can be used as a starting point to springboard in a new direction and for adding a breath of fresh air to a course. I am going to give it a try just to see if it will spark some new ideas that I can use in my classroom.

Are You Struggling?

Do you teach? Are you finding that you, too, are having some jitters about starting a new school year? Please send me your thoughts. I would love to hear how you are handling the stressors of getting back into the swing of teaching this year.