Summary
of the Book
Robert
Boice has written a most unusual
time management book. Instead of
focusing on office-organizing / folder-creation-filing
principles, he has actually focused
on the larger issues. What does it
take to be an excellent professor
and scholar?
Boice's "top ten
rules" (First
Order Principles or FOPs) promise
to make your life easier, help student
comprehension and help you produce
more with less effort. It sounds
pretty good, doesn't it? I was a
little skeptical when reading the
introduction, but found that I was
already doing some of these things
and they work – you have probably
found and used some of them, too.
His first rule concentrates on classroom
culture. By being proactive in the
classroom consistently from the first
day, you can "Moderate Classroom
Incivilities with Prosocial Immediacies."
The
next two rules sound contradictory
but actually are an interesting mixture.
They are "Wait" and "Begin
Before Feeling Ready." This
waiting is not passive, it is musing
about the topic or class or priming
for the real work. However, if you
begin before you have all of the
material you need, you may surprise
yourself at how much you have already
prepared. Then your groundwork is
laid and you can fill in the blanks.
The
next two chapters also work together.
Boice recommends that we ‘Work
and Teach In Brief, Regular Sessions" and
then "Stop." I have heard
this first adage about writing more
than once – the most successful
faculty writers do it often – every
day, if possible. The second side
to this is to have a time frame and
then stop when the time is up. Both
of these give you a good starting
place for next time and you will
avoid those marathon writing sessions
and those paralyzing feelings of
guilt that you haven't been writing.
The
next two chapters involve the mind.
They are, "Moderate Over-Attachment
to Content and Overreaction to Criticism" and "Moderate
Negative Thinking and Strong Emotions." Separate
emotionally from the content (no,
you don't have to teach
everything you know in one hour),
be proactive by inviting others to
help you improve your teaching (and
then listening to them) and then
avoid those feelings of negative
thinking (we have all stared at a
blank screen). The result is a much
more calm and peaceful working life
(this spills over into your private
life, too).
The last three chapters are interesting, "Let
Others Do Some of The Work," "Welcome
Learning and Change" and "Build
Resilience by Limiting Wasted Efforts" are
also double duty rules. One suggestion
of writing or teaching buddy sounds
really intriguing to me. Welcome
learning and change sounds like a
no-brainer, however being joyful
in learning can be a struggle if
you are feeling overworked and underappreciated
by students and are feeling pressure
to publish. Limiting wasted efforts
definitely is the capstone of the
book.
One of the more interesting
aspects of the book is that this
is all research-based. This is not
a compilation of self-help books
or business time management axioms.
Boice has looked at successful faculty,
dissected what makes them successful
and distilled those factors into
his ten rules. Chapter Eleven contains
his research and how he has used
this information to improve both
teaching and writing for faculty.
The
book has much more than I have portrayed
here. The level of detail in such
a small book is impressive and it
is an easy read. You will find that
you read a chapter, think about it
and then either agree or disagree
with it. However, it you apply one
or more of these "rules,
even one at a time, you may find,
as have others, that you are enjoying
your teaching and writing more than
ever.
NOTE: There
are a limited number of free copies
of this book are available to CMU
Faculty. Please contact
Todd Zakrajsek, Director, FaCIT,
at zakra1t@cmich.edu or
989.774.3615. |
