New Tips for Happy Adjunct Professors
During the past few days, I’ve been called and emailed by adjuncts needing advice. During those conversations, I realized I’ve learned a few more tricks to being happy, efficient, and effective as an adjunct instructor.
It’s only been a year since Happy Professor was published, but here are some of the new tips that weren’t in the book:
1. When you’re hoping a school will hire you, first, apply for a part-time position, then email the dean of the department you’ll be working for to let them know you’ve applied.
Having applied for the job and having gone the extra step to contact them will increase your chances of being hired. In your brief and purposeful email, tell them you’ll be available any time and any day of the week to teach, including Fridays and Saturdays (most teachers don’t want these time slots, so it’ll give you a huge advantage over other applicants). After you’ve worked there for a semester, you can easily change the days and times that you teach.
2. Even if you’re scheduled to teach at a different school during certain days of the week, still tell the new school you can work anytime and any day of the week.
The odds of getting double booked is very small (unless you’re working at a number of schools), but if you do, you can always work with the schools to figure it out.
3. Schedule early morning (8:30 am or 9:30 am), late night (6 pm-9 pm), Friday, and weekend classes if you want to make life easy on yourself. These will be your most dedicated and eager students.
The people who sign up for these classes tend to take school more seriously than the students signing up for a 1 pm class. That means you’ll have to deal with fewer excuses, less late work, and an easier semester for you as the instructor. (Note: I made the switch to early morning classes last school year. Although I’m not usually a morning person, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. That’s how amazing my early students are.)
If you ever need tips as a new or tired adjunct, don’t hesitate to contact me at erin@happyprofessor.com. Ask anyone, I love helping students and instructors.
Happy teaching!