Feedback.

I had students in both my classes give me some advice about improving my performance this week. In my online 2010 class, a couple of students told me a better way to organize discussion threads on WebCT. Voila! I was amazed, and sort of sheepish that I hadn't thought of myself. Ouch.

In Radical America, a couple of students suggested that my lecture/discussion about reports, which I had felt was too long, too much talking on my part, boring, blah, was an improvement on what I had done before--elliptical, very brief discussions. Huh. One of them also suggested that he had appreciated his 1010 teacher, who had put a brief outline on the board prior to the discussion. I did this the next class, and it seemed to work well.

You always want to believe, as a teacher, that you know what you're doing; when a student gives you a friendly suggestion, it could be easy to get offended. I did feel a little chagrined, but I also really appreciated the suggestions, as I believe it will improve my teaching and therefore students' satisfaction with it.

Thanks to Sharlie, Rowdy, Levi, and Nate!

The first disappointment.

Yesterday in the afternoon class, almost no one was prepared. Sigh. This leads to the dreaded experience of trying to create some kind of energy out of inertia. I'd be curious how much people actually got out of it. Any readers of this blog? On Tuesday, I'm going to do a little quiz of some sort about argumentation. Don't say I didn't warn you. Even so, we had a reasonably good discussion of the Declaration of Independence.

I think part of the problem is that people aren't checking the schedule, and are relying on me to tell them what they need to read.

In the morning class, however, the discussion was pretty great, I thought. I'm continuing to marvel at how good that class is. Love having the larger class size.

Up to date.

Hmmm, I've let this lag.

Both classes seem to be going very well. This week we had our first workshops. I have reservations about workshops, even as a writing teacher, because I know it's hard to be as invested in someone else's writing as in your own (welcome to my world!). So I'm interested to see how those went for the students.

I'm also interested to see, and pleased by, the astute comments my blended 2010 students are making online. I haven't had this experience before--I think it may be a combination of things, including my having prepared those lectures, finding new online readings, the two-day-a-week schedule. Anyway, I'm loving this class.

In Radical America, the thing I think both of us are enjoying is the larger class size, which seems to have produced better-prepared students and livelier, more engaged discussions. I come out of that class each time feeling refreshed and full of life.

If it's sickeningly cheerful, well, that's just how I'm feeling about teaching these days.

First week.

In my 2010 class:

I'm very curious to see how well people are able to access and move around in WebCT. It feels like second nature to me now, but for awhile I felt I had to actively and painstakingly remember each process every time I logged on and tried to use the course. Also, the last time I taught 2010 in a blended fashion (online and face-to-face), we were meeting three times a week, twice in class and once online. The online class never felt like a real class, more like an assignment. I'm hoping that it won't feel that way anymore.

I loved writing the lecture about letters, but I'm also curious to see if people found it readable or not.

In Radical America:

So far, classes have seemed really great. Fifty students evidently makes for a much livelier class--or else these students are just great.

One thing that occurred to both of us as we were walking out of both classes last week is that Levy raises the question of who the heroes of history are. Perhaps the whole process of elevating certain figures to heroic status just guarantees that, eventually, they'll be targets ripe for taking down a peg or two (Jefferson, Columbus). Do we need heroes in history? I also noticed that one of the last secondary sources in the Columbus chapter essentially used Levy's strategy--that is, comparing Columbus to a lesser known figure, de las Casas--although he ends up honoring Columbus nonetheless.

New Blog.

I've enjoyed my first experience with blogging so much that I decided to start a teaching blog, one for commenting on what happened in class. Anyone in the class is welcome to add their comments as well.

A few rules: no flaming; be careful of how you characterize people, since they're your classmates; and feel free to contradict me. These are out-of-class comments, the kinds of things that occur to a teacher--and, I hope, a student--when the class is out of session, but the work still echoes in your head.