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.