Teaching is Stanford. The sound speaks for itself, it will certainly shines brightly on your resume later. You will gain a lot of teaching experiences that you have never had before and also you will see yourself grow to be a much better teacher throughout the year. However, as many other things, it comes with its price. Once you are tagged under the name of Stanford teacher you are expected to do like one. As the teacher of Stanford you are expected to meet the standard of teaching and perform as any other teachers of Stanford. The Language Center will offer you various workshops throughout the year and also help you to keep on improving your teaching quality.
Having to teach Stanford students with their wits and tight schedule you are expected to be flexible as well as serve the best learning experience. This should bring you the opportunity to be creative and be open in all situations. There will be a lot of teaching policies and regulations that you should follow and also facilities of improvement that you can use. Most people will be happy to help but there is a certain place in Stanford that you need to visit seeking for teaching and learning improvements.
Some basic knowledge are gathered here to help you understand what you are about to be exposed to.
The students
Your students are Stanford students. They usually come with various purposes of studying the language especially for the less commonly taught languages ones. Some of them are heritage learners of which their parents speak the language at home or used to and many of them are the ones who are doing research in the countries in which the languages are spoken. As a teacher you are expected to administer these needs and help them to be able to speak the part of language that they need to meet the purpose of the study hence, what you are teaching might as well be be different with what the last FLTA did for the same level of competency to be able to facilitate the different needs of different students. You might think of doing need analysis with the coming students by writing an email to all registered students ask them to explain why they are taking he language and what kind of expectation that they have upon learning the language. This will give you hints of what you should do in the class in terms of syllabus and topics presented.
The number of students
Less commonly taught languages serve the needs of less commonly learned languages in which case you do not expect to have big class and all filled chairs. The number of the students is usually less than 5 in each class that sometimes you can expect to have one on one teaching that usually known as directed reading. Hindi has usually the largest number of students which could reach around 20. Do not expect to have the same number of students for the entire year. Some students might change their mind due to various reasons. Some new students might come in the middle of the quarter in which case you must consult Dr. Prionas to help you decide whether to take up the students or not and let them apply for the incoming year.
You can also take the initiatives to promote your course by sending electronic fliers to student mailing lists of which you think the members need to know about your course. It can also be done by setting up a presentation to let Stanford society knows the existence of your course. In both cases you need to consult Dr. Prionas that will advise with more information.
Class numbers All courses offered are classified by number and alphabet. Each number and letter represents the language, level, and quarter.
For example:
- Beginning Indonesian = 156
- Beginning Indonesian First Quarter (Fall) = 156A
- Intermediate Indonesian First Quarter (Fall) = 157A
- Intermediate Indonesian Second Quarter (Winter) = 157B
- Advanced Indonesian Third Quarter (Spring) = 158C
Each quarter offers courses based on what level of students registered. You can check how many numbers of students registered to your course by checking on Axess.
If the class does not go as offered in Axess, for example you have completely new beginning students registered for your course in Winter, you should consult with Language Center administrator Pat and tell her what the situation is, and ask her to change the name and number of the courses offered, make sure you do this at the beginning of the quarter. Or, as I may have to say over and over again, in any circumstances you must consult with Dr. Prionas regarding any changing situation that might occur.
No auditors
There is a certain rule that applies to all language classes at the university: no auditors are allowed. Every first week of the quarter students try to find the classes that they are really interested in. They have two weeks to shop around and be in any classes they want to try before they decide if they want to take the class and register. In the meantime you have to make sure and tell them that if they want to be in your class they should be registered students because there are no auditors are allowed in language class. You can check if they are registered in your class or not by logging in to Axess and search for your class.
coursework.stanford.edu
A Coursework website is a means for communication between students and the teacher. It is a web page in which you can store any information for the class like syllabus, photos, links and even homework assignments. The teacher, usually the administrator of the page, can post useful links, pictures or video to help the students keep on learning out of the class. A Coursework site works best for big classes and is helpful for small classes like the classes of less commonly taught languages of ours. Small classes can still work fine with emails and conventional ways of submitting homework, although working with Coursework will sound more professional. To find out more about this you can ask your mentor and Ken Romeo in the Language Lab. Usually there is a Coursework workshop at the beginning of the year that you can join. However, to be able to do this you need a certain status as Stanford instructor - otherwise you will not be able to open a page of yours. For this matter to get the permit you can contact Monica or Amy in the Language Center or ask your mentor about this. Ken Romeo or Joseph Kautz in the Language Lab will provide more information about the needs of this policy.
The syllabus
For every class of the quarter you need to prepare a syllabus for your classes. This syllabus should contain all information of what you are you going to do in the class in every meeting and how you are going to test the students at the end of the quarter. They are used to have everything in advance so you need to be prepared with this information. If you think that you are not so sure about what the students need and how many tests you can agree on, you can always tell them that it is subject to change. You can find the example of a syllabus in the attachment page.
Teaching materials
The teaching materials left by the last FLTAs should help you with the first idea of what to do in your teaching and you can then proceed with your own materials. As the teacher you can decide what course books that you are using for the class. If you do not have enough books and you want to order new books for the class you teach, you can contact the Stanford Bookstore and ask for the availability, or in other way you can speak to Amy to help you order this. The Stanford Bookstore can also make the order and if you are teaching the class then you might as well have a free copy for your self.
Last year IIE offered some money for FLTA to get enough teaching materials by sending them proposals. There is no assurance that they are going to offer this again this coming year, but if they do, you can start looking for the books that you want to improve your teaching and write IIE the proposal. For your information, they offered this twice last year.
Teachnology
It is called teachnology because it is the teaching technology. Stanford encourages its teachers to make the best use of technology. Almost in every classroom there is a special tool named the smart panel. IT enables you to use multimedia in teaching. You can use DVD, VCD, VHS and your internet access hooked to the TV for your presentation. If you are not familiar with this, spend sometimes with the smart people in the Language Lab in Meyer to let learn about this.
You can also be creative with multimedia and converting many different types of files or media to be the ones that suit your needs. The best place to do this is at the Meyer Library: just go to the help desk and tell them what you want and they will be more than happy to help you.
The grades
You are expected to give grades at the end of each quarter. Beginning classes usually graded with Complete or Incomplete, and letter grades for higher level. Make sure you submit the grade at enough time especially at the last quarter when some students are graduating otherwise you will be responsible for their graduation delays. Consult your mentor or Dr. Prionas if you have more questions about giving grades or read every information you need at Axess.
Teaching Evaluations
You will be evaluated both by your mentor and your students. Do not forget to remind your students at the end of the quarter to fill in the evaluation online. However this evaluation is available online only for classes with more than 5 or more students. If you have less students you will have to email the sheet of evaluation yourself and ask them to submit them both to you and your mentor. From our experience it is a better idea to have the evaluation in the middle of the quarter so that teachers can apply all suggestions directly to the class before the quarter ends and the students will feel heard and good things will apply to both parties.
The class observation from your mentor will be done upon appointments in the middle of the quarter.