Another week

by Rob Shenk

This has been another stressful student week. As I mentioned, it’s midterm time. We were scheduled to receive our midterm in my most challenging class. This is the class that requires a week to complete 10 problems even after meeting with the study group. We were to be given a take home final over which we were not to collaborate. We had been told that our homework problems would be easy in comparison. Add to that the fact that our professor expressed concern about our current poor performance as a class. Needless to say, I have been worried about what to expect. In fact, I planned to skip a family trip so that I could stay home alone and study. Unfortunately, our professor went out of town for a conference, and the test was never posted. We don’t know if he forgot or changed his mind.

While some might view this as a good thing, I’m a bit neurotic, which currently means that I see only the bad in this. It happens that I already completed my assignments for my other classes in preparation for a test weekend. Next week, I’ll have a paper to put together, a test to study for in another class, and a test to prepare my students for. While I hated missing the family trip, next week I will find it more difficult to isolate myself and study without feeling guilty.

I have to keep reminding myself: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

by House Of Sims

On the teaching front, I’m in a reflective mode. I’m not currently satisfied with the teaching style that I have taken on. I have fallen into the pattern of “I do. We do. You do.” So I write a problem type on the board and go through the steps. Then I put a second problem up and we talk through it as a class. I answer questions. I put a couple on the board that they try on their own. Then I work through the problems to ensure that their notes are accurate.

This is a more traditional approach, but I don’t see it as my style. I prefer to have them explore problems, coming up with their own method. I want them to discuss their different methods understanding that there are often several approaches to a problem. I want them to present to their peers with minimal guidance for me.

Unfortunately, the amount of material to be covered in this short amount of time seems to be preventing me from operating in my ideal state. When I put problems for them to work on their own, they wait for me to work them out. Prompting from me produces, “This is hard!” Very few are willing to come to the board. If they get it wrong, I try to ask other classmates for their input rather than rushing in to fix it. But the volunteers seem to resent having their classmates tell them where they went wrong.

I try to encourage them to work through problems in small groups, but their participation varies. Some days, I can hear them helping each other out. Other times, they are texting or talking about some frat party, or heaven forbid they try sneaking in a nap. Midterm evaluations will be given out on Monday. We’ll see how I fair.