Looking back at our gains in 2022

New look, new year

Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter finally trickled down to me: Twitter shut down Revue, the newsletter platform I was using for The Adjunct Advocate. After doing five minutes of research, I decided to go with behiive, despite the company's troubled spelling and capitalization. We'll see how it goes.

Reflect on your gains, not just your gaps

It's a new year and a new semester--and most of us, I'm sure, have definite ideas of what we want to and need to improve as a teacher. We're well aware of our "gaps."

But what about our gains--all of the improvements we made as teachers in 2022? Have you given yourself credit for those?

Claire English, the host of The Unteachables podcast, got me thinking about this as I listened to her last episode for 2022: "Are you measuring yourself backwards and really appreciating how far you come, or have you gotten yourself in the habit of measuring yourself forwards to goalposts that are always changing?"

At first, I had a hard time at first measuring myself backwards--it's not something I do regularly. And as with most things about our profession, it's hard to know if our improvements make a difference.

But after some thinking, I can say I improved as a teacher in 2022--I made some gains: I put all of my reading checks as "Exams" on Learning Suite; I started listening to some professional development podcasts (once in a while); I created new rubrics (and will definitely revise one of them this semester); and I spent more time conversing with colleagues, which definitely helped my teaching and my morale.

What gains did you make as a teacher in 2022? Please share them on this Google doc so we can celebrate each other and all of our gains. You can post your name or remain anonymous.

Stuff for your calendar

JANUARY

• January 13: Tea at Two. Please come--it's a chance to see each other and chat! See the flyer below.

• January 26: Discrimination in the Classroom. It's going to be good--RSVP today! See the flyer below.

FEBRUARY

• February 1: Adjunct Faculty Annual Review is due! "Brevity is the soul of the Adjunct Faculty Annual Review," reports Hamlet.

• February TBA: How to Handle Students’ Mental Health Crises with Jon Cox, a psychologist at BYU’s CAPS (and Katie’s husband). Watch for an email to vote for a day and time!

MARCH

• March: The Adjunct Book Club—Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.

• March: A Presentation on Scheduling

APRIL

April: The Adjunct Awards Banquet