teaching update.
First day of class yesterday went swimmingly. (Hurrah!)
The first day of class always feels like a little adventure because you're not entirely sure of what to expect from the class, because even if you've had students before you haven't experienced the chemistry of this group before. And since yesterday was my first class with students at UU it was full of unknowns.
Well. I'm happy to report that it went very very well. The students are mostly friendly & inquisitive. We did the routine first day of class things--introductions, going over the syllabus, etc. But we also got right into some of the content. The semester here is fantastically short, so spending the first night only on course business was not really an option. The fact that I was asking them to learn on the first night coupled with the fact that it was a million degrees and humid in the room made me question whether the students would actively engage in the learning process. But they did. And their enthusiasm and abilities to ask each other questions in small groups was impressive. I think we'll need to work on having conversation rather than q & a with me in whole class discussions, but they appear to have the raw skills and dispositions conducive to good discussions. So that's good.
But of course there's always some drama.
Last night...I have a deaf student in my class and she came with two of her interpreters. Now. Remember that we are in a museum-y classroom. And remember that the room is done up to look like a Norwegian cottage (think viking ship really). Well. The open chair for the interpreters was the professor's chair, and the carved fierce beast heads emerging from the arm rests kept getting in the way of the signing. There was a lot of banging of elbows and irritation with the beast heads. So I left class with a task--request normal chairs (i.e., chairs without beast heads) for the interpreters. When I brought this request up with the appropriate person I do have to admist that I felt a little silly responding to her question of why I needed different chairs by saying, "Well the fierce beast heads get in the way of the signing."
The first day of class always feels like a little adventure because you're not entirely sure of what to expect from the class, because even if you've had students before you haven't experienced the chemistry of this group before. And since yesterday was my first class with students at UU it was full of unknowns.
Well. I'm happy to report that it went very very well. The students are mostly friendly & inquisitive. We did the routine first day of class things--introductions, going over the syllabus, etc. But we also got right into some of the content. The semester here is fantastically short, so spending the first night only on course business was not really an option. The fact that I was asking them to learn on the first night coupled with the fact that it was a million degrees and humid in the room made me question whether the students would actively engage in the learning process. But they did. And their enthusiasm and abilities to ask each other questions in small groups was impressive. I think we'll need to work on having conversation rather than q & a with me in whole class discussions, but they appear to have the raw skills and dispositions conducive to good discussions. So that's good.
But of course there's always some drama.
Last night...I have a deaf student in my class and she came with two of her interpreters. Now. Remember that we are in a museum-y classroom. And remember that the room is done up to look like a Norwegian cottage (think viking ship really). Well. The open chair for the interpreters was the professor's chair, and the carved fierce beast heads emerging from the arm rests kept getting in the way of the signing. There was a lot of banging of elbows and irritation with the beast heads. So I left class with a task--request normal chairs (i.e., chairs without beast heads) for the interpreters. When I brought this request up with the appropriate person I do have to admist that I felt a little silly responding to her question of why I needed different chairs by saying, "Well the fierce beast heads get in the way of the signing."
