Week One Down…

Thankfully the first week of classes only lasts one week!  Also thankful that the first week jitters will be gone at the end of the first week!  Overall, I think that the first week of Intro to Psych was a great way to start off the semester! 

Day two of intro classes included entertaining activities, impressive name learning, and strong attempts at engaging conversations.  First, the impressive name learning (although we learned Dr. Gurung’s secrets in our meeting…) was a real “wake – up call” to the students in the class that thought they could sit in a 250+ student lecture and remain anonymous.  I know from experience, on the second day of class you are still expecting the professor to have no idea who you are, and to generally lecture to the class as a whole.  Also from experience, when Dr. Gurung calls your name on the second day of class, you will come to every other class prepared and paying attention to ensure the next time you get called on you come up with something good to say.  And as we learned in our meeting, this is exactly the point Dr. Gurung was making when he takes the time to learn the student’s names.  Hopefully with the addition of the pre-lecture quizzes and the anxiety of being the next to be called on the student interaction will grow as the semester progresses.

I believe that learning the names of the students is a great way to hopefully get participation from the students, as well as the pre-lecture quizzes.  The quizzes are used to ensure that the students read the material they are asked to read, and to (hopefully) be using that knowledge to help interact in class.  On Thursday it was apparent that Dr. Gurung was attempting to get class participation, and in the beginning of class, given the night to think about the question, everyone had an answer.  However, as the class went on, there seemed to be fewer hands being raised.  To help break up the monotony of a long lecture, Dr. Gurung included some interesting activities to help not only engage the students, but to help them grasp a better understanding of what they were reading about.

Personally, I enjoy an interesting story, video, or demonstration to further solidify the concept in my mind.  The two demonstrations/activities that Dr. Gurung used I am sure were helpful to the students participating and observing the activities.  The first demonstration of reaction time/sensitivity was funny for those observing and yet I couldn’t help but feel bad for the man participating. But because of the humor that was associated with seeing one of their classmates being marked on, they will (hopefully) remember what the demonstration showed and anything else that they can link to the history of psychology.  The final activity with the mints to help solidify introspection was a good way to help the class become more relaxed and to talk to those sitting next to them.  More than one student was apprehensive of eating whatever was in the paper envelope, but as they saw others taste test, they felt more at ease to do the same.

Finally, the class activity was an interesting activity and execution.  While I was walking up the rows I noticed that often times the counting off of the students did not work as well, and more often than not, the stairs were in the way an everyone was confused on who was standing/sitting.  The further up I moved in the rows, the more frusterated individuals were, and I simply told them to get into groups of 5 around them.  There was less room to move around towards the top of the room, and the counting was off as there were fewer seats towards the top on the ends.  Apart from the mishap of getting into groups, the activity seemed to go smoothly, and there seemed to be a good understanding of the material.  I also noticed that Dr. Gurung did not move up and down the rows as much as he did the first day, but in a room that size I understand that it is simply the nature of the beast.