So We Teach On: Strategies for Managing Heavy Teaching Loads
We’re living in a world where teaching loads for non-tenure-track faculty are becoming increasingly demanding. When I was on the job market a few years ago, I turned down a position at a university that did not require a move nine hours away but did expect faculty to teach 5 sections per semester, with little variety in course types and an equally disappointing salary. A 5-5 load of standard composition sounded paralyzing, especially going from a 2-1 load as a graduate student instructor, where I had more freedom than most grads to design my own courses.*
I was fortunate to secure a 3-3 load at my current institution, where I have had the opportunity to design and teach a variety of both composition and intensive writing literature courses. But I’ve found over the last year that I am quick to say yes to opportunities to teach overloads (courses on top of my 3-3 contract) in order to diversify my teaching, work closely with instructional faculty in other units, and (of course) supplement my salary. I will be the first to admit that teaching an overload course in addition to regular contracted teaching is not for the faint of heart. In some cases, overloads are an easy win, especially if you are being compensated fairly and don't have to prep a new course. Even if the overload is for a new course, it can be worth the extra work if it means diversifying the types of courses, topics, or modalities you usually teach.
This semester, I am teaching six sections with four different preps. I will admit that this is a lot, but a few factors working in my favor have made it more manageable than one might think. Only one of these courses is a new prep (an honors American literature seminar), and the rest I’ve been honing over the last few semesters.
In today’s post, I want to share three strategies that can help any faculty member facing an intense teaching load for the first time.
Tip #1: Global Feedback Sheets
Grading essays for multiple sections in a timely manner depends on having efficient systems for delivering feedback. One of my most effective strategies is attaching a global feedback sheet to each student’s submission. This document is essentially an overview of the strengths and recurring issues that I’m seeing across the class’s submissions. Over time, if you routinely assign the same projects, these sheets become even more powerful: you can revise them as the assignment evolves, refine language that clarifies your expectations, and anticipate the places students tend to struggle. This, in turn, informs how I introduce the assignment to future students.
Global feedback sheets save so much time because you no longer have to type the same reminders or mini-lessons again and again (which, let’s be honest, is the #1 time sink in grading). Instead, you can leave personal, more targeted comments on individual submissions and rely on the global sheet to handle the high-frequency feedback that applies to everyone.
Most importantly? Global feedback sheets don’t just benefit busy teachers. They also benefit students because they are prompted to think about how the global feedback applies to their individual submissions (and the ones to follow!). I explicitly tell students: In support of empowering your metacognitive skills, you are responsible for engaging thoughtfully with this global feedback sheet. After reading it, return to your essay and identify the patterns, strengths, and pitfalls you can now see more clearly. By inviting students to reread their own work through the lens of this feedback, you help them build self-monitoring and revision habits that carry forward into future writing tasks and courses. I can always tell which students are taking this seriously because they use the language of the global feedback sheet in class and during office hours.
If you really want to ensure that students get in the habit of reading this feedback, it doesn’t hurt to include a small extra credit incentive. Occasionally, I’ll bury a line like “if you are reading this in detail like you should, email me [insert random word here] by 5:00 pm on Friday for two bonus points.” I sometimes forget that I’ve included this, and always laugh when the influx of “chicken wings!” or “beluga whales!” emails start pouring in.
Tip #2: Calendar Blocking
Calendar blocking never really worked for me until I started teaching overloads and realized I needed a predictable system for ensuring I devoted the same amount of time each week to lesson planning. Once I established that routine, everything fell into place. The real time-saver here isn’t just the block of hours itself. It’s the elimination of decision fatigue. I don’t spend mental energy asking, “When am I going to find time to plan this week?” because the answer is already built into my schedule.
Every Monday afternoon, I block several hours to plan next week’s instruction. You heard that right — next week’s instruction. This ensures that I stay a week ahead in case something comes up (like getting sick or needing to travel for a conference), and helps keep me from getting behind. During that time block, I update the relevant LMS pages, create any assignments, and add or refresh any content on my slide decks. I do this for each course in the order that I teach them. This predictable rhythm keeps me focused and ensures each class gets the attention it deserves.
I’ve tried every type of analog and digital planner, including tools like Motion that are essentially AI assistants that help organize your calendar and tasks based on priority and estimated time to completion. Planners come and go, but calendar blocking is the one strategy that keeps my teaching commitments on track.
Tip #3: Templates, Templates, Templates
Finally, don’t reinvent the design wheel any time you need to create a new handout, assignment sheet, or slide deck. This is time wasted that could be spent returning grades! I have created templates for all curricular materials in Canva, which means I just have to click copy and BOOM. All I have to do now is input the new content into a perfectly organized template that matches my personal branding. What I love about this system is that it ensures my assignment prompts stay TILT’d — in other words, to make the what, why, and how of the assignment transparent to students, there are pre-determined sections in these templates for the purpose, task, and criteria for success (rubric).
See, for example, how I make a new copy of this template each week for the reading journal assignments in my Education & Its Aims honors seminar.
This practice applies to my course sites in Canvas, too. I always have templates ready to copy, so I don’t have to start coding my Canvas pages from scratch. For instance, all of the home pages for each of my courses are laid out the same, as are the daily pages.
While creating these templates takes some time on the front end and is something I recommend nailing down before the school year starts, it makes creating materials a breeze when you are in the thick of the semester.
*Side note: this is why I always tell the graduate students that I mentor who are approaching the job market to have some perspective when they complain about their “impossible” 1-1 or 2-1 teaching loads. Just wait until the fall when you are lucky enough to try balancing a heavy teaching load of new courses, plus department & campus service commitments, plus some form of a research agenda… Even if you luck into a tenure-track load, you have to learn how to balance more teaching than you are used to with even higher stakes for research and service!
