Free Writing Teacher Resources

Teaching as a college adjunct can be a lonely road. It starts when you get hired. Suddenly, everyone (and by everyone, I mean the college administration) assumes that somehow you already know all the college policies and where everything is located. I thought this was an experience unique to the first college I worked at, but after having it repeated at two other universities, I'm finding that this strange quirk about being a college adjunct must be fairly universal. So they expect us to know everything. Meanwhile, we're just as lost finding our way to our first class as the students are. (Thank goodness for hall greeters showing students the way. They are fantastic for pointing new instructors in the right direction as well!)

Unfortunately, finding your way around and catching on to all the college policies and procedures you'll be expected to know and follow is just part of becoming a new adjunct. You're also going to need something to teach; better yet, many universities will want you to have a plan for the entire semester before you even begin teaching. No problem because you've got a degree in teaching, right? Maybe not...If you're like most adjuncts (and like me), you not only do not  have a degree in teaching, but you may not have even gotten a brief overview before you were thrust into the classroom.

What's more, unlike most jobs where you run into colleagues on a regular basis, where you can share ideas and co-miserate over the frustrations of the work experience, college adjuncts rarely have time or opportunities to gather together. While this may all sound depressing, it needn't be.

Here's where Free Writing Teacher Resources comes in. I've developed this website to offer additional help to new and returning adjuncts. Because seeing what others are doing is often a great way to find out if we are on the right track and to get ideas, I've created this website to share my own lesson plans and teaching resources, and I've included a discussion board where you can share yours as well.

The more we share with one another, the less alone we'll feel, and the better teachers we'll become. Visit Free Writing Teacher Resources at https://sites.google.com/site/freewritingteacherresources. Be sure to check back often, as more materials are being added all the time!

Useful Websites for Writing Instructors

Knowing where to find good information can be invaluable to a new instructor. Two websites I have gone back to over and over again in the past six years of teaching. These include:

Purdue Owl (Online Writing Lab) This website has a little bit of everything on writing as well as the most comprehensive and up-to-date source for citations I've found.

The Little Brown, Compact Handbook A companion to the handbook, it's loaded with exercises I've found useful.

In addition, I've found that most textbooks now have companion websites. I've found that no matter how many new editions of a text come out, or how fast they book moves from manuscript to publication, it never seems to be fast enough. The articles in the texts as often outdated by the time they reach our students. The companion websites are nice because publishers will often post additional articles online, and these may be more up-to-date than those printed in the text.