Any advice for a first time teacher?

2 points by trikonasana 6 years ago | 2 comments

I'm teaching an intro level cyber security class to college freshmen next semester for the first time. Are there any teachers out there, part-time or full-time, who can pass along some advice? I'm thinking along the lines of managing the classroom, first impressions, connecting with students, prep, etc.

Just to note: the lectures, labs, and assignments are already made and the department expects the adjuncts to use them. I'd still like to sprinkle in some personal anecdotes and lessons when possible, however.

JanisL 6 years ago |

If you can bridge the gap between concepts and relevant experience you have had applying those it can be a great way to contextualize topics. When running though the materials it can help to think about the experiences you've had and where the materials intersect with your experiences.

For example I remember a few times where fuzzing revealed bugs that could have been exploited in a few situations. A few of them were not at all obvious and would have been hard to test for ahead of time. This is the sort of thing where I'll talk to students about the concepts and how they were directly applied on some projects. When I was less experienced it was not obvious to that fuzzing could reveal bugs on a highly tested and carefully reviewed project, which I think is why I'm such a fan of the technique now.

Making reference to experiences you have had is a great way to follow up from covering "how" to explain "why" you might want to and to give some context as to when you might want to apply concepts.

WheelsAtLarge 6 years ago |

Encourage communication between students. Create small one time groups that will force students to interact and learn. Pick them don't let them pick their own groups. It helps the class be more interactive and get more than what the book has to offer.