Professors or professor wannabes?

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I hope this hasn't been asked before, but... well, I'm curious.

I'm currently working toward my PhD in English with a focus in Rhetoric and Composition. My goal is to become a professor. Are there others here who are professors, or who plan on/hope to become professors or teachers? If so, in what areas?

I guess this also leads me to ask... do you find that your aspie qualities help or hinder you in any way from teaching? Do Asperger's and teaching coalesce?

I'm in my first year of solo teaching, and it's been unbelievably challenging. I don't want to give up -- but I'm fearful that it won't get any easier. Part of my problem is this "spontaneity" thing: recognizing the immediacy of the classroom situation, of student needs. I can lecture without issue, especially since I'm teaching on a subject that I'm, well, obsessed with. But lecturing doesn't equal great teaching, and I have difficulty being responsive to student requests, facilitating class discussions, recognizing whether I'm teaching a super hard or super easy or super average course. That, and I'm so painfully aware of my stimming and vocal oddities that I think I project an uber bizarre persona. A couple students commented that I never make introductory statements -- no "hey, how are you" or anything like that. Another said that I never talk about myself, and everyone thinks it's weird because all of their other profs do. I'm entirely down-to-business about the class and small talk is absolutely dead. I'm just now, 7 weeks into a 10-week term, realizing that this might make first-year college students feel uncomfortable.

Another issue that has cropped up: I have no idea when some of my students are being serious or humorous/disruptive. For instance, one student said that he thought good grammar/organization came down from "God," and I took it that he was being literal. Wanting to foster discussion about this current-traditional and behaviorist notion, I then proceeded to spend a good 5 or 10 minutes discussing constructionist discourse theory and poststructuralism, only for him to interrupt and say that he was kidding. D'oh.

I have been observed and received a good review, which made me feel a great deal better. However, one of the suggestions for improvement involved "personal space": the observer commented on my stereotyped movements and how I don't get close enough to the people I'm speaking with (e.g. when I talk with students during groupwork activities). He also said that I don't fully use classroom space. I never would have thought of this.

Mostly, I feel as though I'm fulfilling some sort of "bad" professor stereotype...

I don't know much about this ; I'm not a professor. I just wanted to say that it sounds as if you'd be a great professor for people who are interested in your subject.
And that Nominalist here on the board is an experienced Sociology professor who might well have some feedback. If I'm not being too bold saying so. eek?!
Also that when I personally did a term of teacher training practice ,( mainly observation but some teaching with small groups , before realisingI simply couldn't handle it), I found exactly that same thing the worst problem ; responding in the here and now to the children , WITHOUT losing track of the lesson. Because I COULD follow them , let their ideas lead the way ,but then the set material just disappeared. I couldn't seem to build a compromise.

Good luck and best wishes.

Ex-professor. You will have to develop some empathy for the students, while at the same time, not caring if some percent of each class doesn't like you.

You will never be sure to what degree students are honest or trying to put you on. Because a good number are immature and they are not at school because they want to learn. Some just want the degree and would pay for it without taking a class if they could. Others are willing to learn something if it something they are interested in. Some students resent taking freshman English classes because they have been speaking and writing in English their whole life, and are convinced they are pretty good (other evidence to the contrary). If kids had to work in the real world for 2-4 years before they could take college, the students would have much better attitudes.

One way to try to serious them up is (in the beginning class) to talk about much each class costs the typical student, and (given the number of students) how much each minute of wasting your lecture costs. If you do that right and try to make it clear the many values of education, then that creates a peer pressure against the loudmouths and goof-offs. If class participation is a component in the grade, then they know that being an sshole will cost them.

High school teachers here are evaluated on a matrix where they get points added or deleted for various things. They are expected to use humor at least once per lecture. When I taught college level weather and climate, I bought a book that had weather jokes. Most were incredibly bad. But every lecture started with a recap, went to a bad weather joke, then pushed into the new material.

Have you read "Eats, Shoots, Leaves" ?? Some good punctuation humor in there. I have also done some things the students found humorous using a list of British/American vocabulary differences (it was for a geography of languages unit).

I also created crossword puzzles for each chapter in world geo and weather and climate. These were usually optional assignments (the only 'extra-credit' available, except it was an extra assignment averaged in, not so much extra credit). I didn't make it mandatory because some people just don't like that type of thing. But many did. It made people think about the terms and concepts in a new way. There is cheap software out there that will let anyone create crossword puzzles easily. Some students begged for word-search puzzles, where they simply looked for the terms in a block of random letters, but I was never convinced that stimulates thought of any kind, so never did those.

for someone who's only been teaching for a year, I think you are doing an excellent job. it is impossible to satisfy and be liked by ALL the students. I know that I had professors that were popular whom I disliked. other college kids might like a professor who constantly jokes about football and drinking, but I find it annoying; I had a prof like that once, and I sat in class and thought "stop insulting my intelligence and get a job as talk-show host on TV, where you belond." instead, I think the key thing is to develop your own style of teaching. The key is to be competent and unique. You will never be liked by all students, but if you are competent and have your own style, you will still be respected. rather than taking EVERY suggestion made by students to heart, it might actually be better to ask a prof who has been teaching for a while (and who's good at it) to observe you while you lecture and make suggestions. I know some profs who give ton of difficult homework and reading during the first 2 weeks of class to scare away the slackers and make them drop out. The result is a small, but strong group of students who are interested in the material and motivated to learn (i.e. more pleasant to teach, I imagine). so that's another thing you can try. becoming good at teaching takes a lot of work and years of practice, so be prepared. depending on the university, teaching may or may not be an important part of being a professor. in a research university, a prof can have tenure even if he can't teach to save his life if he publishes ton of articles; obviously, the opposite is true of teaching universities. the key is to find a place that's a good match with your personality.