The Sound of Silence
You could hear a pin drop in my class today. I swear. These students don't say a word, not even when directly addressed! No questions, no comments, no discussion when I ask for their thoughts.
Granted, it is a class of 75, so it's difficult to really have an interactive discussion, but I don't want to just be standing up here talking my little head off while they sit there and stare off into Neverland (or, worse, stare at me as thought I might have tentacles growing out of my head!)
I'm really really really not a fan of the "turn to your neighbor and discuss the implications of blah" and "write a one-minute essay, now share it with a small group" schools of college teaching, because they seem overused in a completely non-helpful way anymore. It seems to have become a clever proxy for calling the roll or forcing students to come to class. Around here, at least, that is what it seems to have deteriorated into. But a little bit of interaction and involvement by my students would be nice. It's just the first week of class, so maybe their minds are still elsewhere, but I cannot help wishing that they would at least pretend to care for a little while.
Perhaps I should start doing interpretive dance during my lectures.
Granted, it is a class of 75, so it's difficult to really have an interactive discussion, but I don't want to just be standing up here talking my little head off while they sit there and stare off into Neverland (or, worse, stare at me as thought I might have tentacles growing out of my head!)
I'm really really really not a fan of the "turn to your neighbor and discuss the implications of blah" and "write a one-minute essay, now share it with a small group" schools of college teaching, because they seem overused in a completely non-helpful way anymore. It seems to have become a clever proxy for calling the roll or forcing students to come to class. Around here, at least, that is what it seems to have deteriorated into. But a little bit of interaction and involvement by my students would be nice. It's just the first week of class, so maybe their minds are still elsewhere, but I cannot help wishing that they would at least pretend to care for a little while.
Perhaps I should start doing interpretive dance during my lectures.
posted by Meredith | 11:13 AM
5 Comments:
That's a big class, so general participation probably won't happen. I would recommend some group work, and you can walk around and chat with the various groups.
OR! You could dance. I like that idea.
I once had an engineering professor who wore a big red flashing light, through the whole class.....no kidding. :-)
OR! You could throw nerf balls at them. :-p
small groups, yes. nerf balls, yes yes. interpretive dance, yes PLEASE!!!
and also demos--demos get people excited. maybe try that supernova one--hitting people in the face with a raquetball traveling at 45mph is always recommended. or maybe turn a coke bottle into a WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION with some liquid nitrogen. surely you can find a way to relate these to the topic at hand...
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