Stuff my students tell me

I'm not sure if it's something about me in particular, or just that I'm an instructor in general, but I know way more about my students than I should. I mean I know about bouts with cancer, deceased spouses, issues with kids, issues with husbands, accidents, surgeries - you name it, they've told me about it. And that's fine, in fact, I'm flattered (at times) with how comfortable my students seem to be with me.

And then there's the stuff that I know because it's popped up in e-mails explaining why someone missed a class. The excuse. I hate "the excuse." I realize stuff happens - that's fine - but it's difficult to gauge whether the excuse is truth, fiction or somewhere in between. How am I supposed to mark someone's homework down because it was late when "I had a family emergency (complete with gory details)" is the excuse? I actually tend to believe that one - as long as there's only one family emergency, when one's grandmother dies 3 times I get suspicious. On the other hand, when you tell me you were sick, I hardly ever believe that one (I'm horrible, I know). That's amplified if you tell me you were sick on an exam day.

But today I got the mother of all excuses.

Backstory - I have 2 students who haven't showed up for any of the 4 classes so far this semester. At 3 I can drop them, but I e-mail after 2 and drop after 4. I haven't heard from one and next on the to-do list is to drop him from the roster. But I did get an e-mail from the other one this morning......

And the reason she hasn't been to class yet went something like this.......my best friend was murdered (add way more detail here, including the victim's name).

Yikes. What do I do with that?

First, I went to the local news website - and sure enough - the story checks out. Yikes again.

She went on to tell me that she's ready for something to take her mind off the sorrow and that she'll do whatever I want to catch up in class and will I give her a chance. So, I'm giving her a chance - she's behind and it's not going to be fun or easy, but if she's serious it'll work out fine.

I, on the other hand, am pretty scared. I'm happy to help someone catch up with school work and I can answer biology questions with the best of them - but I don't know how to deal with shock, depression or angst all that well and I hope that a minimal amount of that will creep into my dealings with this student.

Never saw this one coming - but I guess that's what makes it interesting.

8 AM

I think I'm figuring out what the issue with the 8AM crowd is going to be. I mentioned that they seemed like a nicer group than last semester and I'm sticking with that. I do have two boys who are starting to whisper when I'm talking - so if I hear that tomorrow I'll be putting an end to it. Other than that - really they're pretty tame. I will chalk this up to the fact that they're really not all that awake for an 8AM class.

What I am seeing though, is a huge trend of lateness and as of yesterday, just absences in general. Yesterday I had 6 missing (that's 1/3 of my class). For them what does that mean? Homework that is considered late (at a penalty of 10% off of their grade), a missed quiz, missed next assignments (which means they run the risk of having late homework again) and a missed lab (so writing up that lab report will be kind of difficult). And those are just the grade-related things they missed. My class is 2.5 hours long. A missed class means a lot of missed lecture. I suspect the gravity of missing an entire class won't quite hit them until after the first exam when they do poorly on the sections I covered when they weren't there.......

Missing a class is just bizarre to me. I remember having serious panic attacks at the thought of not being able to go to a class based on how far behind I would feel and I have a hard time relating to people who (apparently) don't have as much of a reaction to skipping a class.

I realize that of my 6 yesterday, some of them were truly sick. But I also suspect that some of them didn't love the idea of getting going for an 8AM Monday class. Well, guess what? I don't love to get going for the 8AM Monday class either - but I'm there because it's my responsibility. Issues with an early class? Don't sign up for that time. Seems simple to me - but maybe I'm just mean.

Comparisons

Two classes of the new semester are done. On Monday I left the class feeling like this was a much better group than I had last semester. I sort of chalked it up to the fact that this group had signed up for an 8AM class - last semester I taught at 3PM. If they're willing to get up that early for class, they must be serious, right?

Well, maybe not. My mother is the one (they always know best, don't they? - it also helps that mine taught at a the college level for many years) who politely suggested that maybe the group seemed better because my confidence going into class on Monday was light years ahead of my confidence last semester. True statement. I had zero nerves going into class on Monday - I had added significantly to my syllabus based on the experience of last semester. I felt ready to deal with the situations and personalities of this semester.

Monday's lecture was an improvement on last semester too. The first couple of chapters last semester were given pre-deciding to handle my Powerpoint presentations differently. For this semester I've gone through those first few chapters and turned them into they types of lectures I was giving by the end of last semester. I was more comfortable with this lecture and I think that also helped me on Monday. In fact, I had a student stop by after class and tell me that she had tried to take the class last semester but had to drop out because she hated the instructor's style. She told me that she loved the way I presented the material and was happy she had signed up for the class again. That sort of made up for the girl who told me I was horrible at teaching after the first class last semester.

Of course there will be those who don't put in effort and there will be those who get upset when we get into serious stuff - like exams - and grades, but overall I feel much better about class this time around.

On a slightly unrelated note - it was truly strange for me to see a new group on Monday. I was so used to my students from last semester that through much of the class I would look out and see, not the new faces, but the ones who used to occupy those seats. I wouldn't go so far as to say I missed my former students, but I supposed I hadn't realized how comfortable we get with a certain group of people.

Time Flies

I meant to blog more last semester, really, but things - aka, life - happened. Teaching took A LOT of time. More than I expected. So.....when I wasn't actually in front of the class I was correcting homework or quizzes, I was writing exams, re-working Powerpoints, writing out notes or coming up with hands-on activities that would make things easier for the students. When I wasn't doing any of that I was trying to keep the house clean and occasionally spending a few minutes with the husband. Needless to say, when I had a few moments, one of the last things I wanted to do was write about my class. And so the blog suffered.

On top of the busy schedule, there was another reason I let the blog suffer. There were lots of interesting things that happened throughout the semester, but whenever I would think about the subsequent blog I could never quite find a comfortable place between giving you all the vaguest blog posts and sharing too much about my students who are completely unaware that I have this outlet of communication.

I hope that with the start of the new semester I can correct both of these issues. First, since I spent so much time last semester getting my lectures to a good place my class-to-class work load will be significantly reduced. I hope to use at least some of that time to blog - maybe with more time to think I will be able to tell you about some of the events that take place during class in a manner that is both informative/entertaining while still being respectful to my students.

That being said, I have one week until this new semester begins. I guess it's probably time to update my syllabus.......

They're not called stereotypes for nothing - Under the Radar Kid

I don't want my blog to become this place where I share horror stories about my students or where all I do is complain about my students or lament how difficult teaching is because of my students. Instead, I would like to (try very hard) to use my experiences in the classroom as learning experiences for me - because let's face it, that's what they are. I can't tell you how many times this semester I've had this reaction in my head immediately after I've dealt with some situation - "oh, ugh, you shouldn't have said/done/agreed to that - live and learn but never do that again."

Anyone who has been through a class - whether as a teacher or as a student - is well aware that students fill niches - or stereotypes. I've know this for a long time - I began to recognize the stereotypes when I sat through 40 classes in college. The difference is, back then I was one of the stereotypes. I didn't have to deal with the other attitudes in the class - for me, it was just me and the professor. Now, I'm not one of the student stereotypes and I have to stand up in front of 17 students twice a week and deal with all of their learning styles, personalities and stereotypes all at once. Yikes. Of course this is my first semester and while each semester will present its own new challenges, the stereotypes will still be there and the more familiar I become with them now, the better it will be down the road.

In order to tell you a bit about my semester up until this point, I thought I would approach it in this way - I'll write a series of blogs in which I tell you "The story of the _________" (fill in the blank with the personality du jour).

Because I've already written half a blog here, I'll keep the first story pretty simple and talk about the "Under the Radar Kid." You know who I mean. The under the radar kid is a good student who always shows up to every class and when he does miss one makes you wonder if he's dead on the side of the road because he's so consistently there. He does 99.9% of his homework and does it well. He gets at least a 90 on every quiz and does great on the exams too. He's the kid you don't have to think about at all......and sometimes you realize that you don't think about this kid at all.

It's not that I don't realize he's there it's just that he causes absolutely no waves in class at all. He's there on time at the beginning of class and is back early from the break - if he leaves at all. But I can count on one hand the number of times he's spoken to me (I think it's twice). He's a great student - he doesn't really need to talk to me. But the reverse is not true - I do need to talk to him. I need to make sure he doesn't feel like I have absolutely no idea he's there just because I don't worry about his grade. It's difficult. I don't know the under the radar kid nearly as well as I know the more verbal students or as well as the students who are really struggling. I can give you the excuse that it's because those two groups I just mentioned take up just about all of my time and my energy - but it would be just that, an excuse.

Ironically, under the radar kid is a difficult situation for me - I'm pretty shy and just randomly saying "Hey, how's it going today." is bizarrely hard for me. And so he provides me with experience in dealing with ALL of my students - even the really good ones that I could go an entire semester without speaking personally to.

Update

Bad blogger - that's me. Because of that I plan on having 2 posts today. First, I want to give you the "career update."

I'm very near the halfway point in my first semester of teaching - and I'm surviving, although it's taking up a lot of my time, despite the fact that I've only got one class. In my last post I hinted at how my approach to lecturing at the beginning of the semester wasn't working. Since then, I've taken a lot more time with each chapter - reading it, figuring out exactly the best order in which to present the material (I don't always agree with the book's order) and finding extra figures and information to present the material in a variety of ways. Very time consuming, but I think it's paying off.

Even though there's half a semester left it's time to think about courses for next semester. Registration for some of the students has begun already. I had kind of assumed that as a part-time I instructor that each semester would go kind of like it did back in August when I was hired - the associate dean (AD) looked at courses being taught and just kind of asked us if we could teach this or that and the holes got filled.

No. Not so much - of course nothing is that simple. Turns out that there's a process......the part time instructors got a sheet of paper last week with a list of the evening courses being offered next semester. We were to rank the courses we were interested in teaching. Happily, there was also an option to try and teach a day course as well if they were available. I really like the time of day that I teach (3-5:30) and very much would prefer a day course. On the other hand, I would rather teach a class than no class at all even if that means an evening course. As coherently as possible I filled out my form with a note on the bottom to that effect. Currently the AD is working with the full-time faculty and letting them take the courses that they want. He won't start dealing with scheduling the part-time faculty until a week or two from now, so I've got a bit of a wait before I know what and when I'll be teaching.

In the meantime I've been looking at the job postings again. It's definitely that time of year in which the faculty jobs start getting posted. I'm going to be applying for another adjunct position at a college more like what I want to end up at. It's to teach a 400 level cell and molecular biology course which is exactly what I got my Ph.D. in, so it's a good fit. I'll be sending my stuff along by early next week. I think it would be a good progression from one course to two, but still remaining part time for a bit as I continue to adjust to life as a teacher. We'll see what comes of it.

So there's the update about the job and career. I'll be back soon with a post about my current class.

I hope I get to teach this course next semester

Apologies for the lack of updates. I have honestly been buried underneath Powerpoint presentation, quizzes and homework assignments.

These first few weeks haven't been easy. Because I have never handled a class from A to Z before I'm on an extremely steep learning curve and it's been difficult to catch my breath until now. I view my class/dealing with my class in two major categories: the material and the students.

I thought that the material would be the easy part since I know the subject well. Yeah, not so much. Problem #1 - I know the subject well. I often assume people know much more than they really do and I forget how long I've been studying science. Problem #2 - Even though I know the subject well, it's been a long time since I took General Biology and have had to think about things in this way. Subsequently, preparing for each lecture (printing off my Powerpoint slides and making lots of notes) is taking me a very long time - at least a full day, if not two. Problem #3 - Speaking of Powerpoint......I've used it forever and I got good during graduate school at making presentations that weren't word-heavy. Mostly I use pictures and do all of the talking based around those images and it's been successful. Well, at the beginning of this class I decided to use the Ppts. given to instructors by the editors of the book rather than Ppts. designed by me. There were two reasons for this: 1 - it was easier. Because I was taking so much time "re-learning" the material it was a huge time saver for me just to use these pre-canned slides. 2 - I didn't want my students taking too much time scrambling to write down every word I say. I would prefer that they have 95% of what they need in front of them, can pay more attention to me as I guide them along the slides and only have to write a few notes here and there for themselves.

And so, what was supposed to be the "easy" part of teaching has turned out to be an area of readjustment. I'm constantly reminding myself now that not everyone has studied science for 12 years if at all. I've slowed down my lectures accordingly and take more time explaining and drawing things out. I'm still going over every chapter in excruciating detail for myself but I'm getting more efficient at it. And I discovered that the book's Ppt. presentations were doing everyone more harm than good. The students were bored since it appeared as though I was reading off of the slides - they saw it as me being superfluous to the slides rather than the way I had intended - as a way for them just to pay attention and not have to take notes. And I wasn't confident and comfortable with the presentations. I just didn't know them well enough to sound great lecturing from them. Now, I'm using those as a starting point. I go through each chapter and rearrange the order of slides. I'm deleting most of the word slides. I'm adding extra images to get harder points through. It's taking up a TON of time and up until this last weekend I was barely finishing in time to get to class but I can tell that I'm lecturing much better and the students are clearly responding better. And that was the easy part to adjust to........

Dealing with students is, well, interesting. My associate dean was most worried about my ability to manage the classroom since I look much younger than I really am. This hasn't been too much of an issue. I'm assertive when I start the class or when I call them back from a break/in-class work. Until last Thursday's class, students who are a little slow to stop talking when I start quiet down after I say a sentence or two loudly. I finally had a group just not stop talking and joking and laughing and my talking louder wasn't working. Survival "if I don't handle them right now then they'll handle me for the rest of the semester" instinct kicked in and before I really had a chance to think about it I was saying something to the effect of "You can leave if you'd like to talk. This is an adult education class, you all are free to come and go as you like, but if you're going to be in here then I would ask that you not talk when I lecture." You could have heard the proverbial pin drop. But it worked - and with the exception of 1 out of 4 (she faced the back wall of the classroom, arms crossed for the remainder of the class - because we're 5), they didn't seem to care that I had to be "mean" for a minute. I've had to deal with hearing students complain loudly about me in the hallways because I don't give enough examples in class before giving homework. Of course they don't understand that homework is a lot less effective if I explain it all to them before letting them try on their own. And, I've had to deal with a student look me right in the eye and tell me that I'm not very good - 10 minutes before class. Thanks to very supportive co-workers, family and friends I've managed to put that in perspective, but it was tough at the time.

Don't get me wrong - 95% of my students are great. Some are getting A's, some aren't. But with the exception of those few, they are comfortable coming up to me and asking questions. They'll raise their hands in class to ask for clarification. They do their work and they do it on time. That they don't all love me or biology can be difficult, but it certainly doesn't deter me from wanting to teach. In fact, it really only makes me want to teach more.