This morning it was my turn to guest-lecture in our department's 1000-level course, for incoming students in the variety of majors that make up the department. The course is a "topics" course and also serves to meet the university studies description of an Intellectual Community course.
The faculty member who teaches this course on a regular basis has an oddly arranged load, and he consistently asks for other department members to guest-lecture while he is away at conferences. So, that's ok, I don't mind doing it. I always take some aspect of my specialty in the department and has things out, usually with a powerpoint slide of some kind, discussion questions, group work, etc. The common theme I've seen across semesters with this course is the huge difficulty in getting students to have a conversation, to talk, to engage themselves with the content. Perhaps this is unavoidable and understandable, since I'm only a guest-lecturer and these students are (mostly) not in my major.
However. This semester I didn't have much time to prepare, so I just wrote a few notes and headed off to class. No powerpoint, no group work, no fanciness at all. In the hallway outside the room, I took a deep breath, murmured "I am the pack leader," walked into class, and took over. I introduced myself. I asked the students to do a quick-write on two questions, and then we talked about their answers for the remainder of class.
And boy did they talk! It was amazing. Every single student in the class said something. There was one girl in the back who was addictively texting during the whole class, but I could tell she was listening, so I let it go. There was another kid on the right with his feet up on the table, but I decided to interpret that as his casual nature rather than an attempt to be offensive.
I let them out of class five minutes early (in order to walk back across campus in time for my advising appointments) feeling absolutely positive about the class. Cool! I AM the pack leader!
Speaking of pack leaders, here are my current obsessions:
* The Dog Whisperer
* The Dog Whisperer
* The Dog Whispere
* Twilight
* The Dog Whisperer
That is all. Notice the absence of Harry Potter -- I've managed to stop obsessively rereading the series by reading one of the Dog Whisperer books and then moving on to Twilight.
Showing posts with label freshmen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freshmen. Show all posts
Monday, October 27, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Losing It
No, not my mind.
I got on the scale this morning, expecting to have gained a couple of pounds, due to not exercising, not really paying attention to what I eat (although, see below for a caveat), and generally being stressed and anxious about life and teaching and etc.
Instead, I had lost three pounds.
That is a shocker!
I can only attribute this loss to the daily riding of my new cruiser, the cutting back of carbs and booze in an attempt to lower my triglycerides, and perhaps aforementioned stress and anxiety?
Anyway, I'll take it.
In other news, the students in my college algebra class yesterday had me rolling my eyes and snorting with laughter. First, there is the fact that my instructor is an undergraduate and looks like he is about 12. Granted, he seems to know his math. Then there are the two girls in the back row (and yes, I'm using "girls" advisedly, because they look and act like 8th-graders who are getting to go to the prom with a senior) who NEVER STOP TALKING the entire class. The instructor doesn't take roll, so I'm not sure why they are there. Certainly not to learn anything.
And then there was the poor kid on the back row with a cold, who blew his/her nose at least 30 times in a 50-minute period. No kidding. It got to the point where every time I heard a nose blowing from behind me, I started giggling and couldn't stop. Seriously. I think I even snorted a couple of times.
I'll post more later about the interesting computer system for doing our homework online, which I love but the other students hate.
For now, I'm off to teach a class, attend a meeting (with pizza, which I will not eat), teach another class, attend a meeting, and then go to a volleyball game. Ha. Crazy day.
I got on the scale this morning, expecting to have gained a couple of pounds, due to not exercising, not really paying attention to what I eat (although, see below for a caveat), and generally being stressed and anxious about life and teaching and etc.
Instead, I had lost three pounds.
That is a shocker!
I can only attribute this loss to the daily riding of my new cruiser, the cutting back of carbs and booze in an attempt to lower my triglycerides, and perhaps aforementioned stress and anxiety?
Anyway, I'll take it.
In other news, the students in my college algebra class yesterday had me rolling my eyes and snorting with laughter. First, there is the fact that my instructor is an undergraduate and looks like he is about 12. Granted, he seems to know his math. Then there are the two girls in the back row (and yes, I'm using "girls" advisedly, because they look and act like 8th-graders who are getting to go to the prom with a senior) who NEVER STOP TALKING the entire class. The instructor doesn't take roll, so I'm not sure why they are there. Certainly not to learn anything.
And then there was the poor kid on the back row with a cold, who blew his/her nose at least 30 times in a 50-minute period. No kidding. It got to the point where every time I heard a nose blowing from behind me, I started giggling and couldn't stop. Seriously. I think I even snorted a couple of times.
I'll post more later about the interesting computer system for doing our homework online, which I love but the other students hate.
For now, I'm off to teach a class, attend a meeting (with pizza, which I will not eat), teach another class, attend a meeting, and then go to a volleyball game. Ha. Crazy day.
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