Next week, as you may know, I will once again be a full-time law professor after serving as a dean for twelve years, eight at my current home, McGeorge, and four at the Bowen Law School in Arkansas. I am as excited as I am nervous, and, to implement a recommendation from a dear friend, because excitement and nervousness stimulate the same parts of the brain, I am trying to convince myself that I am really, really excited.
Last week, I shared my six greatest hopes and dreams for all of us as we teach our fall classes. This week, as promised, I share my six greatest fears and nightmares. Confession time: in the last few weeks, I have had two actual nightmares about teaching this fall. After each fear or nightmare, I offer my thoughts on what I can do to avoid those fears coming to fruition in bold font.
- Our students who are struggling will not feel comfortable to let us know they are struggling until after our midterms (or even our finals). Find a variety of ways to communicate my availability, accessibility, support, and empathy.
- Our students will choose to use AI to prepare their case briefs and all out-of-class formative assessment opportunities, thereby cheating themselves of most of their learning. I am not above begging . . . I also plan to integrate an early exercise where students have to identify errors in an AI-generated answer to a hypothetical.
- One of our exams will include an error that makes the exam hopelessly unfair or unreliable as an assessment. I will make sure multiple peers review drafts of my exam questions.
- We will make a mistake while teaching that confuses our students, leaves one or more of them feeling hurt or offended or confused to a degree that they choose to disengage. Communicate openness to feedback, quickly own my errors and apologize, reach out privately to any student who seems to be disengaging.
- Our students will be afraid to candidly express their opinions out of fear they will be reported or cancelled or otherwise shamed or excluded by their peers. Create class-specific expectations for disagreement.
- Our students will become excessively competitive and engage in behaviors designed to give them advantages over each other. Find ways to reward students who engage in pro-social behavior towards their peers in the class.
Are you brave enough to share one of your fears or nightmares? Share in the comments or by email to me.
