Reddit reviews McKeachie's Teaching Tips

McKeachie's Teaching Tips.

​

https://www.amazon.com/McKeachies-Teaching-Tips-Wilbert-McKeachie/dp/1133936792

​

Whenever I'm stuck for what to do in class, whenever I have a lot on my plate and need an activity that's student-led, whenever I'm frustrated about how a class is going, I open McKeachie's to a random page. There's almost always some good wisdom or a solution!

McKeachie's Teaching Tips is a long-running classic in higher ed, too. It would eat up most of your budget, though.

In the teaching program (I'm taking a course to become a certified university teacher), they recommend McKeachie's teaching tips (amazon link) and Dee Fink's guide to course design (pdf link). Both are useful, though you'll often find yourself thinking these guys keep stating the obvious.

There's also Potts' article: teaching pragmatics. Edit: didn't see you already mentioned Teaching linguistics, the edited collection the paper is published in.

Sounds like you're a grad student then? It's really difficult to deal with not knowing the answer, but it's something we all have to deal with. I'm glad you're accepting of that. Can I give you some pointers from my grad school days that really helped me out?

• Sit in on a single undergrad class from as many teachers in your department. Since you aren't taking the class, you can focus on their teaching styles. Watch how the students react, take notes on what you'd do better, and come up with questions.
  
  
• Read McKeachie's Teaching Tips cover to cover, and then refer back to the chapters when you need to. It doesn't matter which version you have, the changes are minor and the tips are valuable in each.
  
  
• When you are starting out with teaching (I'm guessing you've been teaching about a year now?) bring your slides printed double-sided and in booklet format. This allows you to check out where you're going so you don't stutter, but the real value is in what you said above about not knowing the answer. When a student asks a question and I don't know, I write it down on the page with the associated slide. That way, when I find the answer, I can pull up the slide, jog the students' memory and provide the question and the answer. It helps boost retention for all of us.
  
  It sounds like you're on the path to becoming a top-notch teacher. Keep that humility and always keep learning. Good luck!

McKeachie's Teaching Tips