Last Day
Today was my last class of the semester. It took two trips to my car to load all of the papers and portfolios I have to grade, but I didn't even mind.
When I taught high school, I was so happy when the end of the year came. Knowing I had an entire summer to be free of certain students was a wonderful feeling. Today I felt kind of sad. I'm going to miss these kids.
Teaching at a University where you are given complete academic freedom is entirely different than teaching high school. The classroom management issues are minimal. The kids are more grown up and they take better responsibility for completing their work. I was given the freedom to teach the way I wanted to and I ran with it.
Today I took pictures of my classes so that I can pull them out and point to them when they're all famous (and also in case I feel like photo-shopping them onto monkey bodies or something, or so I told them). I also let my speech class choose three questions that I would have to create an impromptu speech about. Although some of their topics were inappropriate and therefore ignored (Take "Which one of your students would you go out on a date with and why?" as an example), they came up with ones that made me discuss what my chosen super power would be and a life changing experience. The last topic they asked me was to discuss the best and worst moments in speech class.
I told them that the best far outnumbered the worst and then went around the room and told each one of my students something special about what they did in class. It was truly a special semester and a great group of kids. I hope I'm half as lucky next semester.
A Little Respect
Today I arrived on campus to find student evaluations in my mailbox. Since all but one of my speech students was attending class today, I decided to get it over with. I had to hand them out and then leave the room for 10 minutes while they evaluate me, place the evaluations in a sealed envelope and deliver it without me touching them again.
After about five minutes, one of my students came out to go to the bathroom. I asked her if they were about finished and she said she just had to tell me about a little conversation that was going on in the classroom.
Apparently, one of my students who spent almost the entire semester skipping class and not showing up for speeches was stumped on one of the questions. The question was: "What grade do you expect to earn in this class?"
"What should I put for this?" he said, knowing full well that he's failing.
The student sitting beside him said, "Well that's easy. Just write zero."
The failing student responded with, "Yeah, but I don't want anyone to think it's her fault" ("her" meaning me).
My other student responded back, "Well then just write in the comments section, 'I'm a total douche, never come to class and don't turn anything in, but it's not her fault.'"
Apparently that settled it.
It's nice to know that even those who won't pass at least respect me as a teacher.
Shock and Awe
Filed under: Back in the Classroom, Building the BBM House
Today I collected 24 rough drafts. They were all typed and of the appropriate length. Did I mention I only have 24 students in this class? Do you get the significance of all 24 students handing in their paper on time?
In my speech course, all of my students who were scheduled to speak today showed up. They didn’t just show up though. They showed up dressed up and they actually seemed excited to speak. In fact, some of them were so excited to speak that they went way over their time limit and we ended up only hearing seven of the ten speeches that were to be given today.
These students blew me away today. Teaching college is different from high school, in that it doesn’t take long for them to get the importance of doing the required work and doing it well.
In other news, this week my house is being wired for electric and being chainsawed to make way for duct work. Yes chainsawed. It was rather loud. We met with the electrician today for about an hour. We went room to room and he wrote with a marker on all of our walls, detailing out where we want cable and phone jacks, electrical outlets and even the switched lights. It is completely overwhelming to have to pick the location of every single outlet in your house, so I only picked the important ones and left the rest up to the electrician. I’m going to trust that putting them all in the ceiling in one corner of the room would be rough on his arms.
He says he will be finished on Thursday which makes way for the insulation and drywall people. 40 days to go (and today we asked if they can move it up by three days). Keep your fingers crossed. Talk about "shock."
A Great Day to Be a Teacher
When you are a teacher, you live for those days when you really reach your students. There is no feeling more energizing and more satisfying than knowing that they get you, they really get you, and that they are actually learning.
I spent the past two days grading paper and speech outlines. My expectations had been too high. I realized I had to go back and review some basics. I was also disappointed that not a single student in my speech class chose one of the more creative options for their personal speech next week.
I gave them several choices. They could write a general speech of introduction, write an awards acceptance speech (creating the award they "won") where they tell the audience how they got to this point in their lives, write their own eulogy and detail out what they want to be remembered for and the types of things they accomplished in their lives, or write a "Last Lecture" Randy Pausch style.
They all chose a general speech of introduction. I thought everyone would choose one of the more interesting topics. I was so disappointed.
Perhaps it was Sarah Palin’s incredible speech last night that energized me, but I found myself piecing together pictures (some serious and some fun) for my own speech today. When they arrived in class, the mood was solemn. I said nothing. I turned the projector on and began to give my own eulogy. As I gave my speech, I could tell that the students were interested. They were learning about their teacher, and they were also having fun.
I used a picture from the wax museum in NYC and put up a slide saying that I won American Idol. I posted my picture of Sebastian Junger and elaborated and told them that Junger was so impressed with me that we wrote several collaborative pieces together. I showed them a picture of my dream beach house, created a story about one of my girls being President of the United States and the other a famous Karate Master and author. I used the theme of fighter and kept it strong throughout. I even showed them a picture of me when I was only three-years old with a hockey stick in my hand and told them I learned to cross-check at a very young age.
When I was finished delivering my eulogy, I paused for several moments before crying out, "I can’t BELIEVE you all chose the easy way out!!!" I continued to tell them that I was shocked that none of them wanted to think outside the box and use their imaginations.
I next showed them an award acceptance speech that was funny and inspiring. The wheels were turning.
As I made my way around the classroom, giving advice on their speech outlines and checking to see if they had their note cards ready, at least half the class told me that they were completely changing their speech. "You gave me so many ideas today!" one of them said.
I inspired creativity today and effort, which is an amazing thing. One of my students said, "I’m going to work on this all weekend. It’s going to be the best speech you ever heard."
Awesome.
Not a single student in either of my classes received a perfect score on their outlines. Many received scores that they were deeply dissatisfied with, but it showed them that I’m serious about helping them learn. I ended class a little bit early today and told them I was going to stay to answer questions and help them. About half of the class stayed and asked for help.
I think today, that even beyond inspiring them to be creative, I inspired them to work harder. It could just be a fluke, but I think we’re going to have a good semester.
Copyright
© Copyright 2006-2019 blackbeltmama dot com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Follow Me
Blog Designed By
My Creations
Things You Could Care Less About
