Teaching Report at the Two Week Mark

Here we are at the end of the second week of teaching at Spartanburg Methodist College.  Let me record some thoughts.

--I got to the classroom of my first class yesterday and rearranged the tables so that every student could have their own table.  Each table seats two, so they aren't huge.  I thought I might sit with each student to go over rough drafts.  That didn't happen, but I liked the changed energy in the room enough that I will go every morning to rearrange the tables.

--In that class we worked on a variety of assignments:  reviewing what we talked about previously, a worksheet to help them put the sentences for their paragraph in a logical order (and to help them compose those sentences), and brainstorming for the descriptive paragraph.  I let them do the brainstorming using pen/paper, laptop, phone, tablet, or whatever worked best.  It was great for them to have a whole table to themselves, so that I could say, "Now put this aside" and then later, "Now put your gadgets aside and go back to your worksheet."  It worked better than my Tuesday attempt to ban phones and laptops, so that they had undivided attention.

--I am thinking that students will always have divided attention, so I should strategize ways to minimize the distraction.  Sadly, when I ask students not to use their phones, they will try to use them without me noticing--they don't realize that I can see them, that I always know.  Plus, now students can use their phone by way of their watches, so having them completely out of reach seems more and more impossible.

--Instead of a class participation grade, I have a daily writing grade.  We do at least 9 daily writings, and I drop the lowest grade.  It rewards students for attendance in a way that doesn't reward them for just keeping the seat warm.  It keeps them writing.  Most of them will be an automatic A for doing the task, so they don't have to think about the issues that make many students hate writing, like grammar.

--Yesterday, I did a looking forward/looking backward daily writing.  The looking forward piece had them state what their topic for the next piece of writing would be, and the looking backward piece had them tell me the three most important things they had learned in the past two weeks.  I thought I might check to make sure that they had learned what I wanted them to learn, but in the end, I was more intrigued by what struck them as important.  Most of them said at least one thing that I, too, thought was most important, so I'm not too worried.

On Tuesday, I felt I did my best teaching with my 101 classes, and yesterday, I felt like I did better teaching with my 100 class, and I suspect that most weeks will be similar.  I'm grateful to be feeling effective, grateful for students who are still willing to do the work.