Surviving First Year Teaching - Rheanna Mainzer

Author: Rheanna Mainzer
Email: ​[email protected]

Rheanna Mainzer graduating from La Trobe

In November 2017, I finished my PhD in Statistics, said goodbye to La Trobe University (where I’d spent the last nine years of my student life) and got my first full-time job working in the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Centre (MSLC) at The University of Melbourne.  I had been very involved with teaching at La Trobe and was both excited and terrified at having been given the opportunity to lecture and co-ordinate a subject at The University of Melbourne.   

​My previous four years of casual teaching experience at La Trobe included co-ordinating a fourth-year reading subject (no lectures required) for 8 (yes 8!) students, and guest lecturing here and there for an audience of around 14 third-year students.  Skip ahead to July 2018 and I was now preparing to lecture and coordinate the first-year subject Experimental Design and Data Analysis (EDDA) for THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY extremely bright and motivated students studying the Bachelor of Biomedicine.  EDDA is a core subject, which means that although these students may have no interest in statistics at all, they must pass this subject in order to obtain their degree.  I was conflicted.  As a self-confessed serial overachiever, I wanted to do the best job I could at teaching EDDA.  However, because of the huge challenge in front of me, I also just wanted to get this semester over and done with.  Thankfully, I had some great support from others in the MSLC, my 12 tutors and my mentor/Jedi master Yao-ban Chan, who teaches the same subject in Semester 1.  

MSLC team at The University of Melbourne

​I was really feeling the pressure in the lead-up to the start of the semester.  A post appearing on “UniMelb Love Letters”, a popular Facebook page among the students, did nothing to settle my nerves.  How was I supposed to follow Yao-ban when he is so popular and well-loved among the students? 

​In fact, I was so on edge that I had nightmares for two weeks leading up to the first lecture.  I vividly remember one nightmare where I was supposed to be lecturing a large audience.  Yao-ban stood next to me telling me to start speaking but no words would come out.  In an attempt to calm my nerves, I spent way too many hours preparing for this first lecture (think double digits!),

I watched a lot of TED talks to observe different public speaking styles (see this hilarious talk by Will Stephen) and sought advice from anyone and everyone (apologies to everyone I pestered over afternoon tea).  Three days before semester started, I went to check out the 500-seat lecture theatre I would be using and did a trial run through the first few lecture slides.  My voice was shaky with nerves as I addressed the empty seats.  A supportive friend sat in the back row to give me feedback and stayed there until I felt comfortable with the microphone, technology and the space.  ​

My First Mathematics Lecture

​Finally, it was time for that first lecture.  Sleep deprived, stressed and scared of messing up, I walked into the lecture theatre and saw the students staring back at me.  I was surprised at the relief I felt.  Actual students were far less scary than empty seats, and I realised that they were probably more intimidated by me than I was by them.

​Two pieces of the previously mentioned solicited advice resonated with me throughout the semester.  The first was “Don’t talk at them, explain to them.”  Prior to this I’d thought of public speaking more like reeling off some memorised script while trying not to black out – usually I’d have very little recollection afterward of what had happened.  Public speaking didn’t come naturally to me, to say the least.  I began to explain things to my audience like I would if I was one-on-one with a student, which was something I knew how to do and was comfortable with.  The second piece of advice was given by a colleague at La Trobe: “Remember where you came from.” I had a great experience as a student at La Trobe.  This advice reminded me to not only offer my students the same experience, but to stay true to myself.  I’d had many fantastic lecturers and teachers in the past, but it was important for me to develop my own style and not copy someone else’s.  I realised that I found it difficult to talk for 50 minutes straight, so I would try to break up the lecture into two or three sections with some sort of interactive activity (discussion, question, poll, statistics-related game or story) in between.  This gave me (and the students) a much-needed break to reset focus and concentration.

​Slowly the amount of preparation I was doing before each lecture reduced.  I was still getting nervous but was able to settle down once I started speaking.  It wasn’t until week 9 or 10 that I started to feel more relaxed and became comfortable “winging it” a little more.  When it was time to say goodbye to my students at the end of the very last lecture, I was surprisingly emotional.  Partly because I really liked this group (I’m sure that I’ll remember some of them forever), but mostly because of the sheer effort it took to get through that first semester.  It had felt like a constant battle to keep on top of all my work, and I’d spent so much time out of my comfort zone and in a heightened state of stress.   Ending that last lecture, I realized just how exhausted I was.  But I was also very proud of myself for stepping up to the challenge and seeing it through.  I felt like I had been battling a beast, and the beast had finally been slain.

Tips For First Time Mathematics Lecturers

So here are some personal lessons that I’d like to share from this first lecturing and co-ordinating experience:

• I didn’t sleep past 6am all semester ... even on weekends.
• Students falling asleep in class is very off-putting.  I had my first sleeper in week 3, right in the front row.  While part of my mind was focussed on teaching the basics of probability, the other half was fantasising about walking up to this student and poking him awake.  This obviously affected my concentration and ability to focus on the material.  I learnt quickly that students can’t fall asleep in class if they are writing notes.  I began to use the document camera to add additional explanation for them to copy down.
• Have the exam template ready early in semester so that you can add to it as you go.  This way you can avoid working seven days straight to write a new exam from scratch (like I did).
• Moving close to campus was a good decision.  At the start of the year I was spending almost three hours a day commuting.  Reducing this time significantly had a big impact on my mood and energy during the day.
• I really like the biomed students and taking ownership of a subject.  You can build a much better rapport with the students when you see them more often.  Being the lecturer puts you in a position of power.  Use this to your advantage but don’t abuse it. 
• Public speaking is a skill.  Like any other skill, you can get better with practice.
• Try not to screw up, but don’t be too hard on yourself if you do.
• Lecture preparation can suck up all your time if you let it (and for first-time teaching, it’s probably inevitable that this will happen).  Preparing efficiently for lectures is a skill.  At some point you have to say, “Yep, that’s enough”.  I wasn’t very good at this and let it take up too much of my time.  I did find that reading over lecture notes before bed helped me deliver a better lecture the next day.
• Academia (and teaching) is not really a 9 – 5 job. Students can be fussy. It’s hard work and not a career path to choose if you’re not passionate about your subject material.  But it can also be very rewarding.  I received some very nice feedback from my students at the end of semester, and I even got my very own “UniMelb love letter”. 

What can we do to help new lecturers (particularly those fresh out of a PhD with little to no experience)?

• Let them tutor the subject first, especially if they are new to the university.  It was hugely comforting to me that I got to tutor the subject the semester before I co-ordinated it, to become familiar with the material and course structure.
• Share best practices and tricks of the trade. Celebrate wins and milestones. 
• Match them up with a good mentor (someone who will answer questions, give advice, review assessment, etc.).  Yao-ban has been incredibly patient with me and my millions of questions.  When he referred to me as “young padawan” over lunch one day, it was probably the highlight of my life.
• Create/foster a supportive culture where it is okay to ask questions, share material and help each other out.