It Was I

While I didn’t like being corrected for improper pronoun use in front of my 5th grade peers, it’s a lesson I’ve never forgotten.

Applying Ellen’s Advice

Teachers LOVE it when students really “get it” and apply what they learn in class to their lives.

Two Strikes and You’re Out

The first week of fall semester has started nicely. So far, everyone is motivated and seemingly eager to learn. Even this early in the game, however, I’ve been reminded once again of how things have changed in our society.

At lunch Monday a couple of my colleagues and I were discussing the college policy on the use of electronic devices in the classroom. Yes, we actually have a policy on that, a good one. I might add that I’ve only been working here eight years, and this time eight years ago, we neither had nor needed one. Gradually, however, cell phones in classes became more of a problem as we began hearing music coming from purses, book bags, and pockets.

To make matters worse, sometimes students would jump up and leave the classroom, usually with a tragically concerned look on their faces as if they’d just received dire news. They’d be spotted walking around outside talking, talking, talking on their cell phones. This was crazy! Not to mention distracting to everyone in the class. The current policy seems to be working quite well. Seriously, it’s a rare thing to even hear phone vibrations any more.

We were discussing this at lunch Monday when one of my colleagues said that one of her classes had decided as a group that if someone’s phone rang, it should be excused the first time. Everyone is entitled to one mistake, right? On the second offense, however, the class decided that the student and his/her cell phone should leave the class and be counted absent for the day…even if the offending noise happened late in the class. A little dubious about how the policy was going to work, the instructor asked, “You sure you want to agree to this? Because if you do, then that’s the way it’s going to be. Two strikes and you’re out.”

At lunch a couple of hours later, she mused aloud that getting the class to agree to the “punishment” had seemed too easy. We sat quietly for a few moments until I said, “You know, I can’t remember the last time I heard a cell phone in class. I guess they’re all texting now.” And that’s it! That’s what they’re doing. The younger generation don’t really won’t to talk on phones that much, and email is too slow for them (from what I’ve heard and read), but they really enjoy texting. It’s a fast, fun, and quiet way to stay in touch. This past summer, one of my evening students said he hadn’t come for his class that met before mine because a fellow student had texted him to let him know that the class was particularly boring that day since the instructor was reading word for word from the text. I was astounded at the rapidity (and perhaps accuracy) of the message.

Texting in class has become a problem. I know there’s a solution, and yet when we have people who persist in texting while driving despite the major risks involved, what’s the answer? We talked about it in my classes today and yesterday, and for now what I’m doing is asking everyone to put anything not pertinent to the class itself on the floor. That way there are no books, purses, or book bags to place a phone in or behind. Then I gave them a  spiel about the importance of being mature, responsible college students with the ability to focus on learning. I even told them that I too loved my Blackberry and hated that I’d probably be missing some importance message from hotmail, one of my children, or even FB, and yet they (the students) were the most important people in my life for the hour and 20 minutes we’re together.

Did they buy it? Will it work? We’ll see what tomorrow brings when the “two strikes, you’re out” policy begins. In the meantime, I’m open to suggestions on how to stop texting in class.

Electronic Efficiency

While few would disagree that online courses have numerous advantages, I’m wondering about electronic efficiency.

Peachy Assessment

Sometimes assessment tools can’t accurately measure what a student learns in a course.

Who’s Teaching Whom?

Sometimes it’s the students who do the teaching.

Electronic Efficiency???

I’ve come a long way, Baby.  As I entered final grades for three of my summer classes today, I couldn’t help but remember how much times have changed.

In the not too far distant past, my colleagues and I would actually use pen and paper to enter grades, and then we’d sign each grade sheet and turn them in to the Registrar.  She and her staff would spend much of the weekend entering all grades for all classes. Now those folks busy themselves with other tasks while the faculty input grades on computers on and off campus.  Some might even do it from the Bahamas or in their p.j.’s or at 4:00 o’clock in the morning.

Back in the day, I used hard copy roll books, mimeograph machines, and 16 millimeter films that were forever flying off the reel. Today I use an electronic grade book, a copy machine, and YouTube videos. Incidentally, if one of my students majoring in Computer Science hadn’t made a teasing remark about my little black grade book, I might still be using (and misplacing) it. And about that copy machine, I don’t even have to be standing nearby; with a couple of keystrokes, I can send material down the hall or even across the street to be copied. I used to use a calculator to average grades, but these days I put a formula into Excel, and final averages are computed automatically.

As I reflect on all these changes, I’m not sure whether they’ve made things more efficient or not. For instance, I used to have several folders, one for each of my classes. Then there were the folders related to subject matter, and I had dozens of those. Recently, I peeped in a folder with “Communication” written on the tab and was almost embarrassed at the “handouts” within; they all seemed so simplistic and unoriginal when compared to the plethora of material available within seconds on the web.  Today all files and folders are on the computer or on one of my several flash drives. The nice beige file cabinet in my office serves as a repository for my purse, old test papers, outdated videos, floppy discs, framed certificates, and other miscellaneous “stuff” that I can’t seem to part with.

I’ve been at Central Carolina for eight years, and the first year or so that I was there, I relied on a cart that I pushed from classroom to classroom. The cart held a proxima and computer, and I’d always have to get to class early enough to set everything up. Things went fine unless I brought the wrong floppy. Then too, there was the ever present challenge of placing the equipment in just the right place so that no one’s sight would be obscured. Many’s the morning that I’d think,  “Let’s just go back to chalk and talk!” Today I simply walk into a classroom and bring up power point from the course resource page on the web.

Am I more efficient? Is my teaching day more streamlined? Do I accomplish more in this electronic era than I did 15 or 20 years ago? I honestly don’t know. Yes, if the system is up and running. But then again, there’s such a thing as electronic overload. What’s your take on the subject?