What office hours are:
1. Office hours are a time when teachers are in their offices and available to students to talk about anything related to the class (within reason). Here are some examples of good reasons to go to office hours:
a. You want help or clarification about something to do with a class assignment.
b. You feel stuck or confused or worried you might be stuck or confused.
c. You are excited about an assignment or subject and want to discuss it in more depth.
d. You are seeing concepts from class come up in your personal or professional life and want to discuss this happening.
e. You’re experiencing a lot in life and might need some flexibility and support to complete an assignment or semester.
f. You’re thinking about pursuing a career in (or related to) the field that the instructor teaches in and want to talk about career options and/or graduate school.
g. You are struggling with something and aren’t sure who else to go to. As your teacher, I might not always be the right person to help you in the ways you seek, but if I’m not, I can almost certainly introduce you to someone else who is better suited to help you in those ways.
2. Office hours are not limited to the times listed. If the listed office hours for any class don’t work for you, you should be able to email your teacher and ask to schedule a different time to meet. Let's say one of your teachers has office hours T/R 1-3, but you have class or work or have to pick up children during those times; your teacher should work with you to schedule a different time to meet that you can both attend. There is no guarantee that you and your teachers will always be able to find a time to meet within the next week or two that works for you both, so it's important to try to schedule outside-of-office-hours meetings as early as possible.
3. My office hours are casual. I'm only speaking for myself on this one (not for all teachers). When you come to my office hours, you don’t need to dress up, and you are certainly welcome to walk in with a coffee or smoothie in hand. You’re also welcome to bring food to my office hours because life is busy and sometimes we have to multitask; if you let me know that you’re bringing food in advance, I’ll try to bring something to snack on, too.
What office hours are not:
1. A punishment. Going to office hours doesn't mean you've done anything wrong.
2. A sign of weakness. Going to office hours doesn't mean you're doing poorly in class.
3. Necessarily going to change your grade. Discussions in office hours should be helpful to you, and therefore may lead to improvements in your work and your grades. However, going to office hours in itself will not result in a change in grade.
