One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday is to go to the public library here in Stillwater. I think it is a fair library as libraries go. Honestly, I did rather expect something more when I moved here, knowing this is a college town. But I do have my OSU library priviledges, and library loan has helped me too. I have also benefited from the public library's semi-annual booksale. I've gotten good hardback copies for just a dollar. In turn, I've donated some books myself. But what I really want to throw out here right now is an idea that I had when I finished my MA in English from the University of Arkansas, nearly ten years ago. I told myself that I was going to keep up with my reading, keep up with my brain exercises! I remember what joy that first summer was, for I could read anything I wanted. I had no reading list to complete. I didn't have to rack my brain on how I could turn this or that reading experience into a twenty-five page paper. There were no reading quizzes!
So I went to town, so-to-speak, with my reading and have maintained about a book every two weeks pace. And something that I've done ever since then is keep a journal of what I read for each year. My mother, an influence on me being a reader myself, had already given me a reading journal for Christmas two years before. I started at first with just putting the name of the writer and the book title in the journal. But after doing that for a few years, I started writing a few sentences of commentary / review. Now that it has been nearly ten years since I started, I have a nice trail of where my intellectual interests have taken me. And whenever people ask me for a book recommendation, I can easily consult my journal and pick out something that they might like themselves.
The Stillwater library has provided me with a fair number of those books. And so has the OSU library. But the most important book I'll ever own will be the journal that I plan on keeping for the rest of my life. I encourage you to do the same thing. But start it earlier than I did. Start it now! You'll capture the essence of your college experience as a reader, and you'll be able to go back at some point and re-read these books of your youth. They will not have changed, but you will have, and it will be interesting for you to compare your reading experiences to one another.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thoughts inside your professor's head
Students at OSU are getting a break from their professors today, fall break, and the professors, of course, are getting a break from the students. A good arrangement for all involved, I think. Professional advisors, we are still manning our posts! haha. My inside the classroom role finished this week as I wrapped up the teaching of A&S 1111 Freshman Orientation. The course is only for eight weeks, and those eight weeks seemed like they went by really fast. So fast that I feel like there are still much more that I would have like to have conveyed to them. And some things I would have liked to have repeated for emphasis. With that in mind, I thought I would dedicate this blog entry to the thoughts inside a professor's or instructor's head, a behind the scenes look based upon my experience and also talking with others who have stood in front of a class.
1.) By gosh, 50 minutes goes by so fast! Will we have time to do the next exercise that I had planned? Teachers have to be good managers of classroom time that can strike a balance. Plan too much and things don't get done or get done in only a scattered way. Plan too little and you risk cheating your students out of their classroom time, though they are likely to be grateful for the cheat and the early dismissal.
2.) Why can't I get anyone to talk / engage with me? This is too common of a problem across academia. The sound of crickets makes you feel very, very lonely up there. I have thought about how neat it would be to have a sign like what studio audiences have that would tell them "Ask a question," "Give a comment," and "Laugh, he is trying to make a joke." But no such signs exist, so you try to appear as non-threatening as you possibly can in order to get someone to take the brave step of speaking up in class. The trouble with this, however, is that you can become too supportive of everything that is said when some good putting the student on the spot, some good challenge statements, would be beneficial for the discussion. With a shy class, if you appear as someone who is going to shoot the next person down with a challenge statement, then nobody is ever going to say a word. Again, it is a delicate balance.
3.) Why don't students take my due dates as seriously as I took them when I was a student? The due date for me was not something I took lightly in college. And I am pretty sure that is true of most people who go on to teach in academia, for you need to be organized with your time to be able to succeed at getting graduate degrees. But given a large enough population of students, I suppose it is only human nature for some of them not to turn things in when they are due. Some people do have legit reasons why, but teachers do have a voice in their heads going "Am I being duped?" Nobody likes to be taken for being the fool. And do you really ask to see grandmother's obit. before you'll accept a late paper? Life does go on outside of your classroom, you realize that. But at the same time, you really wished everyone would fight the rising creek and battle hell to get the assignment turned in when it is due.
4.) Did any of this really sink in with them? I imagine this is a question that goes back to Plato and Aristotle. I've created this lesson plan; I've tried to be creative; I've done the readings as well; I've rehearsed in my head many times what I am going to say; and I have tried to make it better than the last time I presented this material. After the class, you are thinking, okay, now did they really get the message?
5.) Cell phones going off, students talking between themselves, students texting, students coming in late to the class, and students leaving early. Why do these annoy us? Because we take the classroom seriously and expect our students, who are here to benefit from this time, to take it just as seriously. If one side of the equation, professor or student, isn't taking this time to heart, then it isn't any good for both parties.
6.) Am I grading this too harshly? Too easily? Unless you are grading multiple choice or true and false, grading is no easy walk in the park. It is the underground work that students don't see and thus, I think, don't appreciate as much until a time possibly comes when they have to spend the time grading something themselves. The 50 minutes in the classroom is just the above water surface of the iceberg when it comes to what it takes to teach a course.
There's more. And I might take this up again. But I need to get a lunch into me, and I don't mean to make these posts too exceptionally long. Enjoy your break, professors and students. We professional advisors will keep the place in order until you get back. haha.
1.) By gosh, 50 minutes goes by so fast! Will we have time to do the next exercise that I had planned? Teachers have to be good managers of classroom time that can strike a balance. Plan too much and things don't get done or get done in only a scattered way. Plan too little and you risk cheating your students out of their classroom time, though they are likely to be grateful for the cheat and the early dismissal.
2.) Why can't I get anyone to talk / engage with me? This is too common of a problem across academia. The sound of crickets makes you feel very, very lonely up there. I have thought about how neat it would be to have a sign like what studio audiences have that would tell them "Ask a question," "Give a comment," and "Laugh, he is trying to make a joke." But no such signs exist, so you try to appear as non-threatening as you possibly can in order to get someone to take the brave step of speaking up in class. The trouble with this, however, is that you can become too supportive of everything that is said when some good putting the student on the spot, some good challenge statements, would be beneficial for the discussion. With a shy class, if you appear as someone who is going to shoot the next person down with a challenge statement, then nobody is ever going to say a word. Again, it is a delicate balance.
3.) Why don't students take my due dates as seriously as I took them when I was a student? The due date for me was not something I took lightly in college. And I am pretty sure that is true of most people who go on to teach in academia, for you need to be organized with your time to be able to succeed at getting graduate degrees. But given a large enough population of students, I suppose it is only human nature for some of them not to turn things in when they are due. Some people do have legit reasons why, but teachers do have a voice in their heads going "Am I being duped?" Nobody likes to be taken for being the fool. And do you really ask to see grandmother's obit. before you'll accept a late paper? Life does go on outside of your classroom, you realize that. But at the same time, you really wished everyone would fight the rising creek and battle hell to get the assignment turned in when it is due.
4.) Did any of this really sink in with them? I imagine this is a question that goes back to Plato and Aristotle. I've created this lesson plan; I've tried to be creative; I've done the readings as well; I've rehearsed in my head many times what I am going to say; and I have tried to make it better than the last time I presented this material. After the class, you are thinking, okay, now did they really get the message?
5.) Cell phones going off, students talking between themselves, students texting, students coming in late to the class, and students leaving early. Why do these annoy us? Because we take the classroom seriously and expect our students, who are here to benefit from this time, to take it just as seriously. If one side of the equation, professor or student, isn't taking this time to heart, then it isn't any good for both parties.
6.) Am I grading this too harshly? Too easily? Unless you are grading multiple choice or true and false, grading is no easy walk in the park. It is the underground work that students don't see and thus, I think, don't appreciate as much until a time possibly comes when they have to spend the time grading something themselves. The 50 minutes in the classroom is just the above water surface of the iceberg when it comes to what it takes to teach a course.
There's more. And I might take this up again. But I need to get a lunch into me, and I don't mean to make these posts too exceptionally long. Enjoy your break, professors and students. We professional advisors will keep the place in order until you get back. haha.
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