Month: April 2010

Today I hosted Study Tables and one student turned up. She had the study guide with her and a few questions about it. One really cool thing that she told me was that she did not only take notes in class, but she would also take notes from each chapter. I peeked at them, and it looked like she was getting down a good amount of material. It’s good to know that some do read the text! I think that it is important to mention to students that the study guide is just a general guide through “main points” in the material, and that all the material should be looked at before an exam. Too many students that I know tend to live by study guides, and when they are not provided, those students are lost.

Thursday’s class was a bit warm, but the fans did help. Sitting near the back was also alright, because of the open doors. I think that the shock of nice weather has worn off, and more will show up to classes for the remainder of the semester. The sad thing about attendance is that some students just don’t care about coming to classes. If they are tired, they sleep in. If they are hungry,they will eat breakfast. Some things are ok to not care or think too much about, but going to class is something you’re paying for to make a better life. I’m not saying the students who are skipping are ruining their lives. This is just another example of why a student may not come to class.

I hope that students in class who related to the  prejudice/stereotypical material took it well. I caught myself kind of huffing when you were mentioning how “Jesus could have been a woman,” but knew it was for educational purposes, and were not your own views or beliefs.

Sorry for posting so late from last week!! I had a really busy/emotional weekend and it slipped my mind :(. Last week’s classes went well. A couple of people had a few comments on LearnSmart. The first one was that some prefer paper-based study material. This may be because a couple students mentioned that they have less of the Internet/facebook distractions, thus making them more focused. Also, the students may not be aware of it, but they may be “conditioned” to learn a certain way. For example, if I sit in a different seat in a class, I feel totally out of place for half of the class then. My mind is adjusting to the new position, people around me, and view of the board/power points. If students are used to studying class/textbook material on paper, then maybe using the Internet feels completely foreign/unnatural to them.  Another example is when I try to study when I’m sitting on the couch. I can tune out the TV, but because I’m sitting crossed-legged and in a different lighting, I feel that it sometimes takes me longer to get the material. One other comment was that the students report that they do not have the time. One thing that may give students the “impression” that they don’t have the time is the mass number of questions that are available on LearnSmart. This may “scare” the students away, especially if they do not start off getting answers right. One thing that I feel could improve LearnSmart is to let students print off the online material if they prefer to.

The attendance on Thursday was not the best, which could have been due to a variety of things. In my point of view, I feel that most students were either skipping because of the flu going around, the fact that people are starting to get antsy/”senoritas” because of the ending semester, or because they know others in class that can provide them with notes. It is a good idea that we are looking at why students are skipping, because many teachers see attendance as the students’ responsibilities, and could care less if they had two students attending a 50-student class. I think that a teacher who really cares about their students would encourage them to attend, and look at how they can improve classes to effect this. For example, some of the students were talking about the class before it occurred, when you mentioned classical conditioning in The Office TV show. This caught their attention and gave them something to anticipate for the next class.      

Maybe we could incorporate this for future classes. For example, we could show a short clip from a popular movie or a comedian. I really do not want to make it sound like the teachers should have to “lour” or convince the students to attend class, but mentioning something relevant to their interests may “prime” their minds when they are thinking about coming to the next class. 🙂

Last week I held study tables.  I wasn’t expecting anyone to show up, but low and behold one of the students from my pod did indeed show up.  She wanted to go over material because she received a D on the last exam.  I asked about the first exam and she said she got a B on the first exam, but the review session in class helped a lot, and she studied more.  With the last exam she didn’t study as much on her own, and didn’t attend a review session.  I asked about learnsmart, and she said that she hasn’t been using it as much as she should.  This exam she plans on using learnsmart at least 5 minutes a day to help study before the exam gets here.  We then moved on to the personality material we had covered up to that point (everything but psychodynamic).  I first asked if there was anything in particular, and she said just kinda everything sounded the same.  So from there I helped her make a flow chart separating out all the different characteristics of each.  She really seemed to like the idea, and catch on.  I’m hoping helping her with this visual representation will help her to be more successful on the next exam.

What the student that is in my pod said, along with what everyone else that I contacted in class, I’d say learnsmart is being under-utilized, but yet students know they should be using it.  So what’s the hold up?  If so many students say they should use it, that they find it helpful, and that it is fun, why not use it like it’s intended?  Is it because they aren’t used to having that resource available in other classes?  Because there are no strict due dates?  I think it would be interesting to do a survey of this at the end of the semester too.  Just to get some more organized data on this.

Yesterday attendance was low.  It was snowing, and I do know areas around GB did get 6-7 inches of heavy snow.  My friend who drives in from Suamico had trees down in her driveway which caused her to be late to school.  I think the weather was definitely a factor, especially since some commuters do drive a long distance.  I think another possible factor is the fact that spring break came earlier than in the past this year so students might start becoming fatigued.  I know I had two exams this week, and was wiped most of the week.

After all the effort put into a lecture I can see how it would be disheartening for students to no show.  With the group activity attendance was both positively and negatively reinforced.  Positively for the students who came (adding points to increase attendance), negatively (taking away the opportunity of point for the students who did not come to increase attendance).  I think this is the best of both worlds.  We want students to want to come to class, not to come to class for a grade.  There should be some reward for coming to class.  Is doing better on the exam than those who didn’t come a reward?

It’s hard to expend so much effort into making class better, more interesting, more engaging, more educational.  But at the end of the day, as hard as it is.  The goal of education is learning.  If some students learn better from a book than a lecture and can still pull an A or B on an exam, is it really beneficial for them to be in class?  The one loop hole in this is that part of the lecture is gaining information, practice, and experience with the subject material.  Part of the exams are from the lecture as well, so truly motivated students will come even if they may feel that they learn better (or can learn just as much) from the book.  Though I believe truly (not perceiving that one is) learning better from a book, is a rare if not non-existent occurrence.

At the end of the day professors, and TA’s alike want students to want to come to class just as they want students to want to learn the material.  If steps like pedagogical research, keeping up to date on current research in the field, making lectures engaging, incorporating different learning styles into each lecture, varying the pace and content of class time have already been taken it’s hard to say what else could be missing.

The class seems a little more awake this week, kind of like coming out of  “hibernation,” and getting ready for summer. The room was a bit warm this week, and with two-hundred-some students in there, it got a bit warmer even. But, I think that keeping the bottom doors open helped, without letting in loud noises. The second exam scores were a bit lower compared with the first. I’m not exactly sure what this means/reveals, but hopefully by looking at the majority of questions that were were wrong, we can find out which material was messed up most. One girl, Ally M., who I know in class, came up to and asked if I could help her on the next exam. This was the day when we were starting new material, which surprised me. She  had not even learned the new material yet, and was already doubting herself on it. I did not see that as a good sign.

The students who “missed” the exam this week brought up some discussion. I believe that if you forgot about the exam you cannot retake it. If this happened for an in-class exam, you would only be able to retake it if you had some type of family/personal emergency that had a note or fit as an exception for missing an exam. Otherwise, it was the own students’ responsibilities. The week before the exam, they had plenty of reminders that there was going to be one. They received two e-mails, one from their POD leader and one from Prof. Gurung, there were study groups on Thurs and Fri, Prof. Gurung mentioned the exam all week, and the week for the exam is on the syllabus (but not the times). As for the student whose Internet shut off, I would give them another chance, but try to investigate, to see how long they were taking the exam first. It really does not seem like the student would want to have to take all the time to find all of the answers and then take the exam again, and have to make up all these excuses. What I’m not sure of is whether or not you could copy and paste all the questions on Word or something??? And finally, the student whose grandparent died,  I would let her take the exam. When a family member dies, everyone is focused on mourning and looking for support in others, and I can see how you can drift from your school work. But, I did agree with the other TA’s that she should have contacted you right away about her issue, instead of waiting until last minute. This should be mentioned to her.

I like what Prof. Gurung said about letting the students out early on Thursday. It is good to give the students their money’s worth in time and that going to the end of class shows you really care about their learning. But it is also good, as you put it, to be “human,” and give the students a break now and then. This will not reinforce them that you are going to slack off for the rest of the semester and they can skip class/be let our early a lot, but that you understand many students are busy right now, and everyone needs a break. Plus, if a class ends early, it seems to make a lot of students’ days. 🙂