Life as a Teacher – Life as a Student – Life as a Teacher DOWNLOAD PDF

Few experiences have impacted my approach to being a teacher like being a student. In 2012, I entered the Ph.D. program in Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of Iowa while teaching legal writing full-time. I hadn’t been a student for 23 years, and it was both exciting and nerve-wracking to enter the classroom again. In addition, I was entering the classroom at the age of forty-two—much, much older than most of the other students, and sometimes older than the teacher. I learned some invaluable lessons that I now carry with me into my classroom.

Lesson 1: Students have lives, and they are balancing school with their lives.

When I am teaching—either in the classroom or in individual student conferences—I am totally focused on the students. Much to the chagrin of my family, I am not thinking about what to make for dinner, when to pick up my kid from soccer, or what I am going to buy my husband for his birthday. I am thinking totally and completely about communicating to the students effectively and seeking feedback from them about whether they are learning. And I always assumed, perhaps foolishly, that the students were similarly focused on our course during class time and conferences.

When I became a student again, I didn’t have that level of focus despite being deeply interested in the material. I was thinking about what to make for dinner. I was making lists of what to do in my legal writing class. I was thinking about how I was going to fit in exercise that day. During one class, in fact, I missed completely that we were signing up for presentation times. When I realized my mistake, the one day that was left for the presentation conflicted with a large deadline in my legal writing class (my real life). I wasn’t a slacker. I didn’t lack conscientiousness. I merely had a busy life.

Because of my new appreciation for the realities of my students’ lives, I try really hard to give my students the benefit of the doubt, realizing that repetition is key, as is communication of important information in several ways. And I try to keep in mind that sometimes, when students react a certain way, it may not have anything to do with me, our class, or even law school.

Lesson 2: Students crave good organization and clear rules.

As a returning student, when each class began, I sat down with the syllabus and plotted out how I was going to make it through the semester with my job, my Ph.D. classes, and my life. When the organization and assignments were not clear or deadlines were in flux, it created great stress in my life, and sometimes something had to give (and it could never be my full-time job). My weeks and months were a juggling act; and if anything were to get off balance, the whole complex could come tumbling down.

We know so little about the lives of our students. Sometimes we find out from another student that one of our students is a single dad who is raising a nine-year-old child while also dealing with the death of his brother. Sometimes our students tell us that they are working twenty hours a week and taking eighteen credit hours to graduate early because they are running out of money or running out of time in this country. Sometimes we don’t find out about a student’s mental or physical struggles to get through the semester until after the semester is over.

Being a student again has taught me how important it is for a teacher to remain flexible while simultaneously being organized, and that lack of organization or clear rules adds stress to students’ lives, the complexity of which we can only begin to fathom.

Lesson 3: It is hard to sit still and pay attention for any real length of time.

As legal writing teachers, we know the importance of doing a variety of activities in the classroom—to  appeal to different learning styles, to practice various skills, and to keep students engaged. But nothing made this concept clearer than going to a three-hour class after a long day at work. I learned the most in classes in which the professor provided opportunities for active learning, in large part because those classes kept me most engaged. When I was able to interact with other students or move around the classroom, I woke up and became energized. I also learned about my classmates and got a chance to appreciate their perspectives. The one class that was nearly all lecture and in which students had the option of doing the problems in advance was boring, and I often “zoned out.” Perhaps not coincidentally, it was in that class that I earned my lowest grade.

Lesson 4: Learning a new citation style is Very. Very. Difficult.

I didn’t appreciate the challenge associated with learning a citation system, nor did I understand why my legal writing students kept making the same kinds of citation errors, until I had to learn APA style. Now I feel only compassion for  my students when they are going through that incredibly difficult process.

Lesson 5: Be human, and realize your students are human too. They will appreciate both.

Enough said.