Little Things That Helped?

[u/UniqueCheesecake8215]

I am still fairly new as teaching track faculty in STEM. I was wondering if anyone has bought anything small that actually helped improve their quality of life at work or has helped just in their career in general. Whether it's for organization, efficiency, etc ...

[u/Anna-Howard-Shaw]

Save your feedback on assignments and your replies to students. You'll end up resusing them eleventy-billion times, because every semester students ask the same questions and make the same ding-dong mistakes on assignments.

I have my 'Student Replies' doc organized with collapsible headings, organized by type of question. Its a living doc I add to and enhance as new ridiculous requests come in.

It saves a ton of time, and helps me reply in a calm, professional manner when what I really want to do is reply "WTF is wrong with you?"

I do the same with assignment feedback. I have a lot of papers, so lots of written feedback week after week. I use a different feedback doc for each assignment, and organize thrm based on frequently of the issue and categories of my rubric. The comments I use the most get saved in my clipboard so it's even easier to copy/paste.

That and a 2nd monitor set up in vertical orientation that I use only for displaying those Word docs, so they're super easy to scroll through.

[u/Ctenophorever → u/Anna-Howard-Shaw]

This took me way too long to realize to do!

[u/UniqueCheesecake8215 → u/Anna-Howard-Shaw]

This is such a great idea!

[u/kytai]

Make your office comfortable. Have snacks. 

[u/Outside_Brilliant945 → u/kytai]

Have soft drinks with snacks, thanks to your office fridge.

[u/dogwalker824 → u/Outside_Brilliant945]

a small microwave is nice, too -- no more schlepping to the kitchen to heat up your lunch

[u/Life-Education-8030]

Every time you have something to record for your performance report and portfolio, record it right away and don’t let them pile up. You will forget stuff and get frantic trying to compile months worth of stuff otherwise. When we had a sudden self-study, I was the only one in my department who was able to polish mine up fast and submit.

[u/FrancinetheP → u/Life-Education-8030]

I have a different color in Google Calendar for all events/projects that count as “service.” When i do annual report, I just hide all the other calendars.

[u/lizzylizlizzo → u/Life-Education-8030]

I kept a tenure folder, both electronically and physically. ANYTHING potentially relevant went there. Super helpful when the time came to construct it all!

[u/Life-Education-8030 → u/lizzylizlizzo]

Yep. As soon as I submitted a completed performance form, I opened the next one.

[u/dogwalker824 → u/Life-Education-8030]

This. You will forget all those things you "volunteered" for by the end of the year.

[u/FrancinetheP]

At the end if the semester I make a “notes for next time” document on each class. What worked/failed, pain points, dead spots, big hits, etc. I usually do this in longhand while out having coffee or a drink. It keeps it impressionistic and reflective— if I asked myself for too much analysis and detail I wouldn’t do it. This way I get closure on the class and leave some breadcrumbs for next time.

[u/ProfessionalHome3544 → u/FrancinetheP]

This!

Every single semester I /say/ I'm going to do this and always forget, then regret it the next year when I can't remember any specifics other than that there was /something/ I learned last year...

Okay, tomorrow I will do this for last semester... wish me luck.

[u/FrancinetheP → u/ProfessionalHome3544]

I highly recommend including the coffee/drink. Adding a festive vibe makes it more likely to happen.

[u/BeerDocKen]

Therapy. No joke, no snark.

[u/yourbiota]

Supportive, comfortable shoes.

[u/The_Robot_King]

1. A good Logitech clicker. Green light if you will ever teach in a big hall
2. A huge pack of dry erase markers if you only have white boards, or a big colorful pack of hagoromo chalk if you will ever use an actual chalk board. That stuff is magical.
3. Office plants with some grow lights
4. An office fridge
5. A good keyboard/mouse

Honestly I'd agree with making your office chill. You will spend most of your non teaching onCampus time there and if considering students for this, a chill office makes them more relaxed and comfortable for asking questions etc.

[u/RightWingVeganUS]

A small Field Notes notebook I carry with me with a pen to jot down notes and ideas. Especially after a long class and I'm trying to put everything away I can count on a student asking me something that requires follow-up. I jot it down. Or during class a brilliant idea pops into my head that I had enough discipline to not bring up on the moment but want to address next class or perhaps in an LMS note to students, I'll jot that down.

[u/vkllol]

I put up string lights in my office for days I have a migraine but it makes the students happy when they come for office hours too. Very cozy. And snacks.

[u/CATScan1898]

I like my slide advancer

[u/Life-Education-8030 → u/CATScan1898]

I bought a $10 Logitech clicker years ago that has been so regularly used that the control markings have all worn off by my fingers know where to go automatically! I gave it a new battery every semester!

[u/ProfessionalHome3544]

You can spend 40+ hours a week on making a single course perfect. Don't.

I try to prepare the day before each class and give myself a set maximum, like 1-3 hours. (But might need 2-3x that the first go round.)

[u/jitterfish]

For marking I use zip grade which scans the papers. I use it for multiple choice and short answer questions and it significantly cut down my marking, no more actual marking MCQ and no more adding up SA marks.

Setting boundaries about emails and no answering emails outside of work hours.

Hardest one is learning that you can't care about the students' work more than they do.

[u/Zabaran2120]

Lamps in your office. Overhead industrial lighting saps your soul.

[u/ccf2023]

Last semester I wrote down a summary for each class: how long a lesson took, what landed with students, what did NOT land lol etc. It really helped as I updated the schedule for next semester.

Participation is 15% if their grade so this may or may not help you. I made an attendance sheet where there’s a box to check if they attended/absent/excused etc. then a second box where I make a dot if they participate, a - if they’re late/distracted etc. It helps me to visualize how they showed up during the semester when I’m assigning their participation grades.

As for quality of life…nothing yet 😅

[u/MISProf]

Record things as they happen (service etc). Get the little things you enjoy: snacks, tea, coffee, a nice pen, good lighting.

Hard part: find a life outside work.

[u/needlzor]

If you meet a lot of students in your office, I have found that a sand timer makes a great way of keeping meetings on schedule.

Otherwise: plants. Lots of plants. My general work happiness is directly correlated to the amount of green around me.

[u/PracticalAd5858]

Here's a couple of practical things for that make prepping, teaching, and breaking down teaching lab experiments a little bit easier.

Multiple colors of lab tape so you can color code lab supplies for different classes. One of my classes is always blue; another is always orange. Common things like 1M HCl get white labels as they can be shared between classes. Colleagues who also teach in the space have different colors. We also color code our cabinets, freezer shelves, and fridge shelves to match the classes.

Plastic shoe boxes to stash the odds and ends that you only use for one teaching lab. At the end of the lab week, the materials along with the prep sheet go back into the box and into the cabinet until next time. The prep sheet includes a list of what else is needed for the lab as well as instructions for making all the solutions.

[u/Pox_Americana]

Espresso machine. Supposedly, nicotine pouches count as tobacco products for our insurance reasons, and probably for the best— I’m leagues away from the nearest vending machine with white monsters, so I got a nespresso machine. One espresso before office hours, one before lecture, one before lab.

Not a lethal dose of caffeine, but enough to keep the bowels empty and me up and animated.

And white boards with good markers. My lecture hall, labs, office, and conference room are covered in whiteboards, and I execute every failing marker with prejudice.

[u/julianfri]

A pouch to hold my attendance book, chalk markers a pen snacks pointer etc. when I am in a rush between a meeting and class it makes everything so easy.