Secret Skill Training at Stanford

I remember all of the things I was "forced" to do in high school because they were good for me: create outlines, write multiple drafts of papers, wear a helmet. High school me (and her friends) thought most of that stuff is lame - I'm so smart/talented/safe I shouldn't have to do any of it.

Frustratingly, all of that training was useful. It would have been more useful had I taken it more seriously. Interestingly, much of it still exists at the graduate school level. There are these people out there (call them "faculty") who are more experienced/smarter/older than me and they are telling me (and my classmates) to do certain things that seem unnecessary. Now they explain *why* we are doing them and we are supposed to understand, but it still felt a bit like high school: the students groaning and mumbling about the stuff we were supposed to do "for our own good".



My god those faculty types are good. Not only were those skills useful for the immediate task at hand, but I already am trying to use them in other contexts. I'm a bit surprised - why did I not try these things before? Why hadn't I needed to use them in a previous course/context? Obviously I am doomed to eventually become one of those adult/faculty-types who tell younger/less-experienced people to do these things for their own good. Whatever, I'd be right.

1. Organizing timelines with sticky notes

(Learned from Course Design Class, CTL 312, taught by S. Sheppard and R. Dunbar)

A really useful tool we used in designing a class was a "color coded course design". We used a bunch of different colored sticky notes to lay out content, tests, lectures, assignments, and other factors/events. This was hugely helpful for visualizing how crowded/uneven different time periods would be, allowing simple re-arranging, and letting us lay out items both in a forwards and backward direction. When we were done, our entire course lay in front of us. Then we wrote the syllabus. In the real world we would have needed to create assignments, tests, and lectures - but the entire context was created.

How I am using this tool: I need to graduate. I have a number of things I need to balance (publishing, conferences, writing, finding a post-doc) in the coming year, and I need to start setting out deadlines months from now for some major milestones. Holy crap, I don't know how to do this!

I realized the sticky note method is great for this. Instead of class weeks, I have a number of quarters ahead. Instead of tests, I have conferences and application deadlines. I can work forward for some things, and backward from major deadlines. If a quarter ends up too crowded, I can try to rearrange.

2. Reflection Essays

(Learned from DARE Fellowship Training, C. Golde and A. Green)

This past quarter our "class" for my DARE Fellowship was actually 4 "field trips" to area colleges to meet with faculty, learn about hiring and tenure, and become familiar with institutions that are unlike Stanford. Our "assignments" for this were to research the institutions ahead of time and then write a "reflection essay" after the visit. The essay was fairly informal - a few pages about what we learned, what our takeaways were, what questions we still had. We were expected to "turn it in" within about 2 days of our visit.

The essay was "easy" to write because it was only meant to communicate our thoughts. It didn't need to have research or citations or perfect grammar. But putting my thoughts on paper always helped me organize and understand them better. The essay wasn't just to let the Fellowship organizers know where we are - it helped us too.

How I am using this tool: The class I am TA'ing just wrapped up and I have received my feedback from students. I had learned a lot based on what I had tried in section, review, etc. I had been somewhat surprised by some of the things the students mentioned (or didn't) in their reviews, so I realized the reflection essay would be a good way to collect everything together.

The teaching reflection is something I will try to continue in my future teaching roles. At some schools (the ones that care about teaching) a teaching journal can be submitted in support of teaching during the tenure process. An institution would value that I am trying to improve my teaching and actively thinking about what is and isn't working. I found it helpful to write this one and can imagine it would have been *more* helpful to take notes all quarter, rather than just write one essay at the end. I've saved it to my folder with teaching evaluations, so I hope this is something I will read and learn from before my next teaching experience.

3. Professional Development Planning

(Learned from DARE Fellowship Training, C. Golde and A. Green)

At our most recent DARE meeting, we were told to think of ourselves as professionals - we must always be furthering our skills and training. We were given a short form to think about some big skills (ie, teaching) we want to develop. We thought about where we could get help developing these skills (mentor, classes, workshops) and then listed action items with specific deadlines.

How I am using this tool: This goes hand in hand with the color coded scheduling method above. When faced with the form at the DARE class, I panicked a little. I didn't have one skill that came to mind - I had everything that I needed to work on! So I gave myself many pieces of paper to start working on this in a broader sense.

The main takeaway (for me) from this tool is getting from a broad goal to concrete action items that can be given a deadline. It is possible for me to set a concrete goal for reading certain papers, or a textbook, or registering for a conference - I can't set a deadline by which I can be an expert in a field.