A long-time professor at the university where I teach once shared with me something we both had in common. I had thought for the first five years of my teaching that I was alone in my feelings of discouragement at this point in the semester. My life and my relationships are mostly fairly constant (to the extent that anyone's are…). The manic nature of the few weeks before finals left me exhausted and lacking a sense of purpose at times.
When I shared “the dip” that I had experienced in wrapping up each semester, he shared that he, too, had that pattern throughout all of his years of teaching. He has been teaching more than 25 years and said that every class he taught had the frustrating time toward the end of it, when it seemed like the end just couldn't get here fast enough.
Tuckman and Jensen (1977) describe the stages that a team encounters, as they develop together and tackle a common goal. Drexel University has a wonderful overview of how this process takes shape. The graphic below depicts the stages of team development.
Teaching seems to follow a similar pattern, though I've observed that there can be some additional storming that takes place before the adjourning stage arrives.
Just knowing that “the dip” is normal helps me to cope better with it. However, following are some other ways I have found helpful in maintaining the rewards that come with the vocation of teaching, despite the bumpy end-of-the-semester road:
Keep an encouragement folder
Start a folder where you keep letters and cards from students that help to remind you of the difference you have made in the lives of your students. Create a similar folder or tag in your email program, so you can review past emails that have encouraged you.
Ask students to inform you of the purpose of meetings they schedule with you
I use an online scheduling tool called TimeTrade, which is a huge time saver for me and also helps my students prepare for the business world in which the vast majority of appointments today are scheduled electronically. In it, I require that all students indicate the purpose of any meetings they schedule with me. This additional step also shapes their behavior toward more professional communication and allows for me to communicate more proactively with those students who are clearly attempting to negotiate regarding their grades.
My syllabi are clear about the lack of opportunities for extra credit or assignment “do-overs,” while attempting to pass one of my courses. I let students know that while I am willing to meet with them to discuss their status in one of my classes, or to discuss strategies for future courses (in the case of them failing), but that it is not a good way to maximize our collective time to discuss the desire that they may have to save their grade in the final stretch of a semester.
Use humor or some other means for providing the unexpected to lower everyone's stress
I recently showed this clip of the cutest 911 call you may ever hear, from the Bonnie Hunt Show in class.
It was great to watch the reactions of my students. They at first were not sure that I was truly showing them something funny (I assured them that the Dad was ok following this call). The initial tension then seemed to trigger even more heightened emotions, which quickly made the laughter that much louder when they heard the girl's conversation with the 911 operator.
One caution I have about using humor is to always connect it to your class content (or teaching) in some way. In the case of this particular video, I showed it in my Introduction to Business class and tied it in to how to know if they were at the “so far, so good” part of their business plan projects. I also discussed how easy it is in life to worry about what you're going to wear, as the ambulance is on their way to your house.
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What ways have you found beneficial in minimizing the effects of “the dip” that can sometimes make us question our effectiveness in a particular class?
I really like your suggestion about having an encouragement folder. Years ago, I heard people talk about doing this and dismissed it as sort of a silly idea that wouldn’t actually help during a bad day. Then, I ended up doing it by accident since I saved nice emails from people and looked through them on occasion – only to find that I felt a great lift after glancing through them.
The older I get, the more I really appreciate the value of our mindsets each day. I think Zig Ziglar used to quote research about the first thing we do every day morning having more impact on our state of mind than the next seven things (or something like that). I should try to track that down.
Grace and peace to everyone who reads this if you are going through a dip right now. You are not alone, even if it seems like you are.
Interesting post–I had some similar thoughts at http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/course.htm and although this is hard to research, I’m surprised by how little attention these phenomena attract, because they make a lot of difference to how both teacher and students approach the class–and what they get out ot it. Thanks for the blog, which as usual I cam across while looking for something else!
@James Thank you kindly for taking the time to provide your thoughts on this topic, not to mention for linking to your blog on the same topic. It was fascinating to see your visualization of how the team development stages might look, if we considered the stages of development of a class. I also thoroughly enjoyed reading voraciously throughout the rest of your blog. You have a fascinating story and also have a beneficial collection of resources for all teachers in higher education. I am grateful for having you make a comment on my blog, so that I could be introduced to all that your site has to offer. You’ve inspired me greatly.