Last teaching log

Today is the last day before Thanksgiving break. I have already received several e-mails from kids who have told me that they cannot make it. Normally I would never hold class before a break because I too like to get more time off. I think it is interesting that most teachers will not give days like this off because they NEED to have class. Quantity Quantity Quantity.

Another issue that has come up is a student that has missed a lot of class. She has been in a car accident, her grandmother died, she had the flu, among other things in this short semester. She also did little to no work for her group project. Now, I feel like she deserves to fail the class and might from grades alone, but I worry that she is gonna come after me for giving her an F. Why is it that I have to worry about things like this in a college level? These kids are here for a service and they feel like they can complain when they get bad grades. Once they complain they think that somehow everything will be ok.

On the other hand, I really hate bad teachers who make the system even worse for people like me. I feel like we should have more power to deal with situations like that, but at the same time I had a friend who was sexually harassed by an older professor here this semester. Now, how can profs get more power when there are horrible people that get to teach? I am really disheartened by the state of affairs in higher education. In my experience, I have had terrible teachers, people who have harassed their students, those who could care less and just teachers who could care less. Why can't higher education be more about teaching and less about ourselves?

My students have been pretty good for the most part this semester, but I am still excited to done with this class so I can improve on the next class. While I have no control over the syllabus, I can still adjust the ways that I teach the material and subvert the class in other ways. I am glad that I will actually have an idea of what the class is about and possibly be able to teach it better. I think that I will be in a much better position simply because I have read the material once and have heard from other teachers about their techniques.

While many of my posts have been cynical, I think overall I am pretty excited to teach again next semester. I just wish I had more time to become a better teacher.

Wishing students were more proactive

I enjoy teaching. I would like to spend the rest of my life teaching in some form or another. However, I do not want to babysit. The reason I didn't get a degree in education was that I didn't want to deal with issues that arise when you teach younger people. The issue is that many teachers in college treat their adult students as if they were children. I get coddled students who expect me to remind them when things are due and to hold their hand as we enter the journey of them doing nothing and me presenting them a service. I feel like there needs to be a standard which pushes students rather than helping them to fail.

I wish my students would come to me more often with issues dealing with class or their general life. Everyone should feel comfortable to come to a prof and ask them for help. I think the problem is that now that we have the internet, no one expects to have to deal with someone at a face to face level. WE can send an e-mail to someone in power without formatting it or checking it for spelling. Students do not know how to play the game anymore because they think that they own it. Because some of them pay for their education, they look at it as a service rather than a privilege. Whatever views they do have, this is not going to get them very far in terms of getting help. Students need to be taught how to deal with profs and how to interact at the college level.

why I don't like teaching a class that was built for me

Today I realized that my students have another paper to do. Now, I have known this for a long time, but I assumed that the creators of this class would know the type of work load that my students and I would have. Soon after giving them a busy work paper, we are expecting them to write another busy work paper AND have a final exam. I feel like this is completely unnecessary and a waste of my time and the students. While the students had nothing to do for over a month, now they have 5 or 6 assignments due back to back. I feel like the work load could have been spread out much more efficiently and that perhaps we could make them more useful. The topics of the class are obviously meant to make BGSU feel like this class is worthwhile to fund into the future. I think that this is crap and that we are not doing justice to the education system. I would rather the department fail than to lower our standards in order to appease the powers that be. I am tired of being told that my views are not worthy because people have put a lot of time into this class. If someone puts a lot of time into something, that doesn't mean that it is good. I think that people take education too personally and then are unwilling to learn from their mistakes. So, I get to teach a class that is built for the department to look good while my students scratch their heads as to why they have to do all of this worthless work. I suppose that I should tow the party line and simply do what I am told (which is mostly what I do) but I feel like there should be a safe forum for us to voice our opinions on this. As a TA (we don't even get to be called instructors even though we TEACH this class) we have no power and no say in the class. Some would argue that we do have lots of say and power, but they are delusional.

How do I come to terms with a class that I feel like isn't structured in the proper way? Subvert the class itself? Quit school? Protest in the streets?

I imagine that I will just continue it and try my best to implement some cultural aspects to my course.

That felt good to rant!

Teaching off the Cuff

So, the last class I had I decided to talk about Facebook. The topic of the day was interpersonal and relationship issues. I had a lecture prepared, but I abandoned it to talk about my thesis and their views of relationships on Facebook. We, as a class, talked for over an hour on this subject. I really enjoy being able to not follow the strict outline of a lecture and to get the input of the students. Importantly, I learned a lot more about their views on Facebook. Now, I can say this is simply about my own personal research, but I am genuinely interested in what my students have to say about these issues. I think this is an important part of teaching and makes the students feel like they value their opinions. Also, it helps me stay relevant. While I was a college student only a few years ago, there is a greater and greater divide between users of technology. Technology is changing at a very fast pace and the way that I understand something like Facebook might be much different than those who are in college now.

In this way, I can let the students move the discussion wherever they want (within reason). I am there to mediate, but not control. I help the discussion when it dies down, but I try not to lead it too much. I think this may be easier when you are talking about something that excites you. The kids realize how important the subject is to you and will follow along with it.

The conversation went really well. I still have issues with trying to get people who never talk to participate, but at this point you can't really expect that much. I just hope to make the class somewhat interesting and significant to their lives.