Discover 16 opportunities in teaching

College students complain about a lot of things—lack of sleep, dining hall food, and finals week, to name a few. As a professor, it isn't your job to address complaints about life outside the classroom. But if students take issue with your teaching style, it's time to listen up. One of their biggest gripes in the classroom: slideshows.

Co-teaching has become popular in recent years, especially in university teaching training. It involves two teachers, one experienced and one in training, coming together to teach a class together. They share the instruction, the setting of tasks, the marking, and the physical classroom space. The idea is that for a profession like teaching, in which teachers are constantly learning even after they finish their teacher training, more direct instruction is helpful. Observing and interacting with a more experienced colleague allows new teaches to learn more and get guidance if they are having any classroom issues.

For academic careers, the big question is always: academia or industry? But why not a bit of both? If you want to combine teaching and working in industry, there are possibilities for part-time teaching work or tutoring jobs which fall outside of traditional work hours. You can have an industry job and try teaching too. Below we'll look at some of the options.

When you're teaching, it's important to find a way to engage with all of your students, to keep their interest and to make sure that they understand the information that you're conveying to them. However, the size of a class can make a huge difference to what teaching methods are most appropriate and effective.

Each year, thousands of university teachers leave their native environments to go and teach and/or conduct academic research in a foreign country. Indeed, in this increasingly globalized world populated by a highly networked mobile workforce, there are seemingly unending possibilities, incentives and occasions to teach in a higher education institution in a foreign country. Gaining such experience is encouraged to the point where it is now even expected on your CV. Personally speaking, having taught on 3 continents, I can attest to the value of gaining such international experience. Even as a student in higher education, I fondly recall that my most interesting, passionate and captivating teachers were those who had benefited from a similarly international experience.

Although most new professors have already clocked countless hours in the classroom as teaching assistants, the shift to being the sole authority in the room can be a scary one. No matter how prepared you might feel, the first days (or weeks or months) at any new job tend to be a bit overwhelming – and that's totally normal. So, whether you feel like legging it home and hiding under the covers until winter break, or you just need a little extra boost to get you on the right track, the following 10 tips will help you stay motivated, organized and have you ready for the coming academic year and all it’s likely to throw at you.

Teaching, whether at school or university level, is generally and  rightly considered a worthy occupation. As supported by some Professor Ratings, however, unfortunately not every high school, college or university can boast perfect ratings for their academic staff, and many individual lecturers and professors have room for improvement, at least in the views of the students.

Considering the remarkable technological progress and the spread of social media in the last few years, it can be challenging to teach and involve students when using an old-fashioned lecture style. Shelving overhead projectors and boring PowerPoint slides, some professors have converted to “education 2.0”, integrating new tools and applications into their class format.