Early Morning Musings: Teaching at 8:00 AM by Deirdre Vinyard

Deirdre Vinyard is the Deputy Director of the UMass Writing Program. She teaches the first-year writing courses (College and Basic Writing) and directs the Basic Writing Program.

Ok, I’ll admit it. When I ended up teaching a section of Basic Writing last spring semester at 8:00 AM, I hadn’t actually requested that early hour. After I had assigned all the Basic Writing sections based on teacher preferences, the one section left over was at 8:00 AM. A little resentful, I took it and vowed to avoid scheduling classes this early in the future. I was sure that my students would come to class late, or worse, comatose, and that I would be fighting with them all semester about my attendance and late policies. The class I taught was one of five sections of Basic Writing that semester, so the students had little choice, and I thought they would be annoyed about the time. I also feared that discussion would languish at that time of the day, with everyone’s system just barely waking up by the end of class. I pictured myself lugging an espresso machine to my classroom on the first floor of Bartlett just to get through the semester.

The first day of class, I took an extra early bus, to make sure that I arrived on time. That winter (remember winter?) was cold and bright with snow. The sky was still a bit dark as I boarded that Amherst-bound bus in mid January. As we rounded the corner onto Massachusetts Avenue to the UMass campus, the morning sun was just coming into full form, lighting up piles of hard, white snow. It had begun, my 8 AM semester.

I arrived at class that first day prepared to wait for my students, sure they would drag in late. To my surprise, more than half of my students got to class at least 10 minutes early. An even greater surprise was that about half my students consistently arrived at class earlier than I did. As the semester progressed, they took the time before class to chat, listen to songs on each other’s I-pods and amuse each other with tales of dorm life. I found out at the end of the semester that three of them had taken to going to breakfast together after each class. I had assumed that my students would be mute with fatigue. They were anything but.

As the semester progressed and the sky at the bus stop each morning grew lighter, the students in my 8 AM class continued to get to know each other. A few snuck in late on occasion (I did have to talk to one student about lateness) but in truth, my students were tardy no more often than they were when I taught at 11:15 (a time considered very much before his preferred rising time for one of my students that semester). So my fears about the perils of the eight o’clock class were allayed.

But then I realized that something else had happened, having nothing to do with my students. My teaching was over by 9:30, leaving me the rest of the day to work on other things. I find that even though I have been teaching for a long, long time, I still mentally prepare for my class a little bit up until the time I teach. By finishing so early, I felt that I was more focused on my other work (and had longer stretches of time to do it).

So this spring I opted for another 8 AM class, this time a section of College Writing. To my surprise, the section filled up very quickly in the registration period, a sign that students were truly looking for an early class—since many sections of College Writing later in the day filled after my 8 AM section was full. This semester, I have almost no lateness. I have not had to reprimand my class or any of my students individually even once. In talking to my students, I have found that they have a number of reasons for wanting to have an early class. Four of them are on UMass teams and have practice later in the day. Two of my students are roommates and wanted to merge their schedules to make getting up and out of the room a collaborative effort. I even have one student this semester who took my 8 AM class in Spring 2011—clearly a fan of the early morning sky.

I recognize that problems can arise from teaching at 8, particularly if the students have little choice in registration. As I said, the students in my Basic Writing class had only five sections to pick from, and I did have to speak a few times about lateness. I think the 8 AM choice works better for College Writing since students have over a hundred options.

Given the boost to my work schedule (and the nice surprise that I do not face a pile of slumbering bodies twice a week), I am definitely going to go for the early morning class next time I teach College Writing. (I’m even beginning to feel a little nostalgic for the cool light coming from a January sky in the early hours before class.)

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