Teaching While in Grad School – How Much is Too Much?
Embedded in the slew of exhausting and never-ending emails are little glimmers of happiness within my inbox. Wedged between a manuscript draft and an email labeled “highly urgent!” is a picture of a dog wearing a sailor’s hat. For a moment, all is right with the world–until I inevitably must shift my attention to the next email, where I’ll fight a losing battle with a delivery service who lost samples in the mail.
The animal picture in question is a submission to “Pet of the Week” from one of my undergraduate students. In a wholesome yet manipulative plot, I granted my Environmental Science students the extra credit opportunity to submit a picture of their pet to be “Pet of the Week,” where the image is then displayed during the class’ weekly announcements. It serves as a decent way to get students in contact with me regarding the course, and I get a burst of animal-induced dopamine in my otherwise 12-hour workday.
Like many PhD and graduate students at large, on top of research a good chunk of my funding is derived from becoming a teaching assistant (TA) at one of my affiliated institutions. A few years ago, when I began my graduate experience at a master’s level, I was told I’d be a TA for two courses. My previous experience with TAs was that they graded your quizzes and ignored your emails, leading me to the conclusion that this would be an easy feat.
It wasn’t until I walked into my first classroom and had roughly twenty faces around the same age as me staring at the empty instructor desk, did I realize I was not a “TA,” I was the instructor. Well, turns out I am highly passionate about teaching, and years down the line I am an adjunct (a lecturer who teaches on a limited-term contract) leading multiple sections of different Environmental Science courses while assisting in coordinating another and completing my PhD. It has been a highly rewarding, yet time-consuming experience that allowed me to try out my ideas regarding impactful teaching strategies and introduce new scientific topics.
Not all ideas work, as you may have discovered. Occasionally you will deeply offend a student to their core by trying out a new strategy to teach them Excel, and they will berate you on “Rate my Professor.” Or, in my case, you will have no reviews on the site–which is equally as anxiety-inducing, as if my teaching presence has invoked no other emotion but absolute neutrality (something I feel I shouldn’t analyze deeply).
Whether teaching is a choice or a required responsibility for your graduate program, it’s most certainly a duty you will have to shove into your busy schedule, like a puzzle-piece that was chewed up by your miniature schnauzer and now doesn’t quite fit right into your image of parrots in the Amazon. You may discover that teaching and/or curriculum development is something you’re passionate about, which can subsequently lead to increased requests for you to teach more sections or progressively more difficult courses.
To stay partially sane with added teaching responsibilities, make sure to ask yourself the critical question of just how much you should take on. Your answer will come down to finding a balance between your enjoyment and the time commitment required by your other responsibilities. If you belong to the camp of those who find teaching to be gratifying, then it’s pertinent to take on what you can endure without becoming disenchanted with the task.
Here is what has helped me juggle being a PhD student and adjunct without losing joy:
Take on the minimal requirement allotted by your graduate program for at least the first two semesters before scaling up. I was quite a few years in before I began teaching three sections and taking on the additional coordination position, and it was only once the curriculum was familiar to me that I felt comfortable doing so.
Record the hours that you dedicate to your course on a weekly basis, remembering that you are typically only compensated for teaching–not commuting, not grading, not endlessly trying to explain what a p-value is during your office hours. With an average quantity of time, you’ll be able to predict how much of a burden an additional course/responsibility will be on your schedule.
Analyze how you personally feel about teaching. Do you often feel drained by the time commitment or students who give you a hard time? Believe me, there will be students who look at every classroom policy as if it’s a poorly written prenup and exploit every loophole (I am looking at you, students who requested an extension every week forcing me to change my “ask anytime!” policy). If so, then it’s critical for the sake of your mental well-being, and the students who will have to endure you, that you don’t force yourself into additional teaching responsibilities.
Remember your students are adults. They will all come from different educational backgrounds and require varying levels of assistance. But they are still adults at the end of the day, and chasing around every student who misses an assignment or class is counterproductive. It’s their job to show up, and yours to make sure they’re in a good, professional learning environment.
There is no shame in borrowing ideas from other instructors and seasoned professors on how to lead a classroom. If another faculty member is willing to spare some advice, it’s worth consideration.
You might find that you just simply don’t enjoy teaching, which is not something you should feel guilty about. Not everything in academia will grant you that spark of passion. Just like I don’t wash dirty beakers with any fervor, it’s still part of my responsibilities. In this case, it’s advisable to take on the basic quantity of teaching assignments and simply follow the curriculum written by one of the whack jobs like myself who find enjoyment in screaming “I can stand here all day!” until a student answers the question on the board.
Whichever camp you belong in, teaching will substantially improve your science communication skills, round your utilized terminology into something everyone can comprehend, and hopefully pull you out of a solely research-based mindset like it did for myself. Keep an open mind about teaching until you experience the joy of writing “I know you got this answer from Chegg” on a student’s lab report. Don’t overload yourself–a PhD is a hefty goal and your field is only improved by your presence and passion.
