Author: MARTHA DAVIS

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. 🙂

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. 🙂

The exam review on Friday went smooth  but we only had 3 people show up. We finished the review by 11:40, probably because not that many people were asking questions. One girl had some trouble with the information on Classical Conditioning, concerning the UCS, UCR, CS, and CR.  Otherwise, the other two students did not ask that many questions.

On Wednesday, while I was studying in the Library, Michaela from class came up to me and started discussing some things about information on the online exam review. Particularly, she was concerned about material that we did not cover in class that the review mentions. For instance, in class, we only covered a few of Erickson’s stages, but the review instructed that you know all of them. I think that it’s important that before exams we remember to remind the students to look over the text. I actually think that it’s important that the students know that they have to read the text to know material for the exam. Like so many other classes, only material from the powerpoints are on the exams, eliminating the need to even buy the book!

Also, for the references we need for Monday, I am finding a lot of articles concerning whether or not professors should provide info-rich power points, or pp’s online. I will look into some of these articles to see if they came up with any significant findings. I am also concerned about whether students will do better on this exam because they probably have a better idea of what they need to study for. Guess we will see!

The review session for this week was definitely a blunder, but I think that I learned a few things from it along the way. The grand picture of what happened was I started off the presentation smoothly, but came to realize the computer did not have any cords connecting the computer to the speakers. So because a great majority of my slides were Utube videos, I left to get some help and the problem was fixed within 10 or 15 minutes. After that, the computer kept freezing and the Internet was taking forever to load the Utube videos. Also, in the mist of the computer problems, one of the guys in my POD suggested that they can all “say that they went to the review and went through all of the material.” I didn’t get mad at him, but I calmly explained that we can still review the material on the slides. After class, I was somewhat frustrated, and was kind of hurt, because I almost fell that the guy who made that comment was implying that “my time” was not important or that he didn’t feel he would learn anything from my class anyways. I feel that I didn’t let my anger show in front of the class, and wanted to keep the flow going. I learned that giving the students a resolution calms them down (leaving the room to get a sound cord, only using the slides, etc.), because the students would start to talk with friends and get impatient at first. I also learned that technical problems leave paths open for more lecture where I can connect with students and ask for examples.

Today’s class went really smooth and I think that amany of the videos related to the students’ lives and made them laugh. Even though 50 plus or minus students were gone today, I think that the class still showed some enthusiasm to learn the material. Prof. Gurung and I talked about how many of the students’ answers/examples were incorrect, but how else are you going to find out if students understand the material? A quick review on the next class we have about the material may be useful, just to refresh minds after spring break. I hope that everyone has a good spring break and that when we all return, the snow will finally be gone. 🙂

This week consisted of a lot of lecture material, but it also integrated a lot of physical examples, videos, and active engagement. For the TA meeting, I think that we should do an in-class poll to see how many students would prefer to take the exam in a classroom (not online). I’m not so sure if there really is a correlation between Facebook friends and grades, one reason being that most of the people I know who are on facebook all of the time, are the ones who go on to distract themselves/procrastinate from homework. I don’t know if we would even really find anything significant from that.

For the Study Table for Tuesday’s class, I want to try to improve my teaching in a couple ways. First of all, I want to walk around more and just be more “flexible,” so I can keep more students’ attention, and also be “more availible” to students who have questions. If I just stay in the front of the room the whole time, students seated in the middle or back may not feel comfortable shouting their questions from too far away. Also, I want to put more emphasis on key parts of the material and ask students after I present each different concept if they have any questions. Maybe my lack of questions from the Exam Review was because I never asked them during every concept. I think I may have been waiting for a student to ask me.

I am starting to compare conducting a class (teacher) to doing a presentation when you are a student in a class. One of the fist things that I notice is that students count more on you to know the material well, compared to giving a presentation, when everyone thinks that you might be right. Second, during presentations, you are merely presenting material to a class. Sure, you might ask anyone if they have questions on the presentation topic, but teaching is much different. First of all, you want the students to not merely listen to what you are saying, but also connect it to their own lives. You need to make sure that you not only repeating what is in the book and showing them facts to write down. You need to make the information a part of the students’ life. Third and final, during a presentation, you are most concerned about your grade and if you have the right information, while when you are teaching, you are most worried about connecting to the students in a way that they can understand, apply, and question further on the material. It is a very different feeling, but it makes me feel “important” to the students, so I want to always be looking for ways to improve and make my and the students’ experience better.