Rachel Heitkamp

As a fairly new instructor I face the fact of do I prepare for one more hour of lecture, or call it a night and take the additional hour to sleep. This has caused a fair amount of stress in my life. I find myself being inconsistent. Sometimes I choose the sleep and wake up more rested, but feel overwhelming stress due to lack of preparation. Sometimes I stay up and prepare, but feel drained by the end of the week. I think I will try to reduce stressors in other areas to try to free up some time.

The way one of my courses is set up I have to cover 2 chapters on the first day (and they are tested over it the second meeting). I struggle with using enough time to establish a good classroom environment and still comple two chapters. They are usually very overwhelmed. I did put part of the first exam online this time so they could use their book and get a feel for the style of my exams. Any other suggestions.