How far in advance do you generally receive course materials for the classes you teach? I've mentioned once before that I'm starting my first adjunct teaching position Jan. 6th. I knew that I would be teaching the course back in August. I'd hoped to get the textbook several months in advance so that I could have outlined all of the chapters we are going to cover, prepared an agenda and designed exams in advance. Unfortunately, because of a bookstore snafu, I didn't get a textbook until today, and then only a student copy (but it's much better than no copy at all). With the busy holiday season I doubt I'll be able to do as much in advanced as I would have liked. At this point it looks like I'll be running a couple weeks ahead of the students. Is this normal, or am I just overly anxious because this is my first teaching assignment?
I would say it totally depends on the school. When I was a graduate assistant at a major university I had tons of support; I taught one adjunct class at a very small technical college and had about one week to prepare for a class and no idea what to expect. My only suggestion is to communicate as much as possible with other adjunct teachers at the same school, since they can tell you what to expect from the students and the administration, and what the students and administration will be expecting of you. I don't think it's necessary to have every single lesson plan and examination planned out before the class starts. In fact sometimes that's a bad idea, because when you start the class you might find out that the students are either way ahead or way behind and you will have to go back and change everything again.
Yes, it depends upon the school. At UoP, adjuncts have access to all course materials when they're contracted. Most materials are electronic now; they're given access to them on the UoP faculty website on a course-by-course basis. UoP has a standard of contracting faculty members at least 30 days in advance. Obviously, this isn't always done, but each campus is measured by this. The standard is to contract faculty at least 30 days in advance 95% of the time. This can be a challenge sometimes, especially when you're trying to get the instructor approved to teach the course for the first time (which is a time-consuming process in itself). The purpose is to allow faculty members sufficient time to not only prepare to teach the course, but to allow them to adjust their schedules to accommodate the course so they're not rushed and so they're prepared each week.
I thought I'd post an update. I was lucky enough to be able to contact another instructor who teaches the same class that I teach (she teaches during the day, I teach at night). She was able to tell me how to get a hold of the instructor resources and things are going really well! My students just had their first exam and the grades were exactly as I expected. You can tell which students are taking the course seriously and which ones are not, tough I've been working on engaging them as well. I am still amazed that you don't really have to know "how to teach" to teach on the college level. That said, I've taken all of the bad experiences I had both on campus and online and tried to ensure that I didn't make those same mistakes and I've tried really hard to make the course interesting. So far that approach seems to be working. I have received some encouraging comments from my students and several have asked if I would be teaching any other courses they could take. The feedback is wonderful and has really increased my confidence level in the classroom. I think the one that helped me the most was when one of my older students told me that she enjoyed my class because "I was still at the point in my career where I seemed like I enjoyed it." To which I responded, "If I ever hate it I'll quit, there's no reason to make myself miserable and you guys too." That said, I really am enjoying this experience.
