Some updates from last week. Last Thursday went very well. It was the second day and already Dr. Gurung connected with most of the students. He used many names which in turn caused more students to pay attention just in case they were called on. Compared to my 2nd day of classes my teachers made no effort to learn our names especially in a class of 250. I also noticed many hands up, which I think is awesome. I never raised my hand in any of my classes unless I was extremely comfortable with the teacher and other students. I also thought it was cool that Dr. Gurung used a participant. Many people are uncomfortable getting up in front of a class but when you do not really have a choice it makes it a lot easier. I think that student had fun. The TA name tags were also a great idea, giving us a little more authority.
Now on to today! I think that today went excellent. We continued with the TA name tags and tried to get our names out there with our welcome emails and some of the TAs used candy to try to get people to introduce themselves to them. I also think that TAs did a good job answering questions after class. We got a couple more students to talk to us instead of going straight for Dr. Gurung.
Today’s class period also did a good job at demonstrating what I read in the “teaching tips handbook”. Chapter five was all about discussions and how to start them and unitize them in the classroom. According to the book any classroom no matter what size can have a discussion. I think that was proven today. We have a class of 250 and a lot of people were contributing to Dr. Gurung. In all classes but especially big classes it may be hard to get participation. One of the techniques that the book stated to try was having them write down answers before they are asked to share. This gives even shy people the chance to think before they speak and to come up with an educated answer.
Another link the “teaching tips handbook” was how important reading and the textbook are. The key point is to want the students to learn more information than you could possibly teach. This means have some overlap of very important parts but also having points of information only in the lecture and information only in the book. I think Dr. Gurung does a great job of this. He teaches important parts from the book while adding other relevant information. He adds in up to date re relevant information that the students can connect with the material and hopefully get a better grasp on the information.
One last thing that went good was connecting psychology to real life. This is one of the main keys of the class, that psychology is real life. I really think that point was stressed today in class.