My semester (as far as teaching goes) has been completely and totally uneventful. However, I have made two observations:
1) We have a feature on our online rosters where we can look at our students' ID pictures. This is great for trying to learn names. I've noticed though, that only one or two of the male students smile...the rest all have what are essentially mug shots. They all look like convicts. The girls are all smiling. What might one make of this? I think that the guys are trying to cop an attitude to look tough, perhaps.* Thoughts, anyone?
2) The semester has begun so smoothly, that I'm almost afraid I'm doing something wrong. Why are there no problems? Does this mean, that since this is an upper-division course, that my students are simply more mature and less dependent on me for their every need? I certainly hope so. But in the meantime, this is unnerving.
I have been utterly uninspired to post simply because things are going too well. I'm hopefully not jinxing myself (knock on wood), but I felt like I should share why I was absent.
*For instance, a lot of the male students have their jaw jutting forward and their head pulled back, while their eyes are half closed. Does that give you a sense of the visual? I wish I could post one of the pictures, but that is clearly out of the question.
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2 comments:
Smoothly is good! Maybe you should post about what you are doing to make it go smoothly. Are you doing anything different from previous years? I'd love to know your secret.
(Plus, what sort of problems were you anticipating?)
SS--I was anticipating more hand-holding. Usually (with first-year students) I have to explain the same things over and over again. Like...
"Yes, the assignment is due tomorrow. It's in the syllabus, and on Blackboard, just like I've explained in the last 2 class meetings."
I think that the semester started out smoothly because a) I am too focused on other things to really care what happens (as terrible as that sounds), and b) they hadn't yet gotten into the nitty-gritty of their research projects. Their project proposals are due in a week, so now I am starting to get lots of questions...including many not related to research. It's like once the floodgate opens, all the inane questions flood out as well. Some of their questions are good, like "do you think this topic is too big for a semester research paper?" And, then there are others, like "Have you been taking attendance this whole time?" Attendance and participation is on the syllabus and I called roll for the first few weeks until I learned names, so yes, I am taking attendance.
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