Back to School: A Former Student Becomes the Teacher

by Jennifer T. Karol

I have just completed my first quarter of teaching at Green River Community College, where I had the opportunity to teach a constitutional law class covering topics from federalism, to search and seizure, to same-sex marriage. I had jumped at the chance to combine a career as a practitioner with that of an instructor, giving little thought to how difficult it might be to balance the demands of a full-time litigation position with the obligation to teach students two nights every week. While I realized the actual class sessions would be demanding, I had no idea what kinds of preparation must go into lecturing. All of the colleagues I spoke with before beginning this class acknowledged that preparation was time consuming, but raved about the fun and intellectual stimulation of teaching. The message was clear: I was going to love this!

After receiving my textbook and classroom assignment, I was off and running. My first task was to create a syllabus – my plan of attack for the quarter! Much to the amusement of my husband, I spent several hours rummaging through boxes of my old law school and classroom notes and class materials. After seven years of higher education, five years of practice, moves from apartment to apartment, to our first home, and on to our second home, I found nothing useful in the boxes of materials I had steadfastly refused to throw away. No matter, I thought to myself, I will craft one myself.

On a rainy Sunday, after spending all of Saturday prepping for a case at my day job, and of course just one week before my first class was set to begin, I sat in front of my computer to draft a syllabus. I had written motions and briefs, and had reviewed numerous legal documents. How hard could it be? I figured I would be done in time to spend the afternoon relaxing.

I quickly discovered that I had no idea how much material could be covered in one class session. A chapter in the textbook had about fifty pages. Was it reasonable to require the students to read a chapter a week? Was that too easy? What about briefing cases? How many should be required? One per week? Two per class session? What about the questions at the end of the chapter? If I assign them for the students to complete, I will know they read the material. But is that too much work?

Once I figured out how to structure the class sessions, I quickly became hung up on how to measure the students' performance. I always hated those classes where everything depended on one test at the end of the quarter. Instead, I decided that I would give every student a chance to excel. I would have daily assignments, which would include briefing cases, a midterm take-home exam, a paper, class participation, and a final exam. It all sounded so balanced in my mind, I had completely forgotten to factor in the time it would take me to grade all of these different tasks.

After several other comparable challenges, and of course putting my lawyerly skills to use by adding disclaimers and "official" sounding information, my syllabus was complete: I was ready to teach! Just in the nick of time too, as my first class was the next evening.

I entered the classroom with a sense of accomplishment from completing my syllabus. I had an outline with discussion points, copies of the syllabus in hand, a sheet to record attendance, instructions on how to brief a case, and instructions on what the final paper should look like. I figured that after explaining a little about myself, outlining the class, and doing introductions between students, there would be just enough time left to answer questions and dismiss the students to allow them time to purchase their books. The aforementioned events took much less time than anticipated! Yikes, now what? No matter, I thought, once we start discussing the material, things would go more smoothly.

Class number two: an introduction to federalism. I started the class by determining if the students had done their homework and had read the chapter. I was greeted by moans and groans, "It was too hard, I didn't have enough time, I haven't even bought the book yet, what homework?" What had I gotten myself into? I started my lecture for the evening and was immediately bombarded with complicated questions and hypothetical scenarios. "What if . . .?" Wow, wait a minute! I was not prepared for all of this. Note to self: brainstorm answers to "what ifs" for next class. I felt like I was in court telling the judge, "Your honor, I am not prepared to address that issue, but would be more than happy to brief it for you."

The weekend was spent reading, researching, and grading assignments. I never thought so much work went into teaching! Sitting in front of my computer, I took back all the evil thoughts I had of my professors in school. Had I known it was this hard, I would have been much more understanding.

The next week I was prepared. I had answers, I had points to debate, and I was ready with games and exercises and group discussions for the students. After an entertaining and informative class period, I left feeling that I finally had the hang of the teaching thing.

The weekend rolled around and I again spent it reading, researching, and grading assignments. An additional element had arisen: I was slated to be in a week-long trial in less than two weeks. In addition to preparing for my class, I needed to complete my trial preparations. A second look at the prized syllabus revealed that the students' midterm take-home exam was looming closer. Hmmm – when would I fit in the time to write their exam?

Somehow, looking back, I managed to find the time to prepare the test, grade the assignments, prepare for lectures, and write the final exam. I also managed to find the time to really enjoy doing all of it. The class discussions were engaging, the students were bright and genuinely interested, and despite never-ending complaints about how much work my class was, or how many hours they spent on homework, they all managed to pass the class with flying colors. We had interesting debates, entertaining contests, a few boring lectures (I must admit), and overall a pretty fun time.

Teaching is a lot harder and a lot more work than I thought it was going to be. However, I had a wonderful time, and the biggest benefit is that my students learned from my class, and that I helped them to do so. I also learned a lot from them. I am looking forward to teaching again, and everyone tells me it is a lot easier the second time around. We'll see!

Written by Jennifer T. Karol. Ms. Karol works in the Sexually Violent Predator Unit of the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. She can be reached at 206.389.2004, or jennifert@atg.wa.gov.