I Teach

Today was the first day that I actually ran out of time!!!!! This is really exciting to me. It wasn't that I was necessarily trying to keep them there for the whole time, it's just that we were getting a lot done and the kids were into it so we just kept talking for the whole 80 minutes. I mean, I actually enjoyed class. I can't say that that's happened before today. I've had classes where I was sort of impressed with myself afterward, and I've had classes that I think the students enjoyed, but this is the first time that the two came together. They were really into it, and I think they enjoyed the whole experience (as much as you can enjoy class). And here's the secret: THEY WERE ACTUALLY LEARNING. SHHHH, DON'T TELL THEM.

So that was pretty cool. I'm actually looking forward to the next class as we will continuing the discussion from today with some new stuff. I'm making them do the race IAT (Implicit Associations Test) and write a short reflection piece about it for class on Tuesday. I don't know just exactly how sociological the IAT is, but it will get them talking.

Speaking of which, I think the reason class was so good today is because I changed styles. Instead of the much, much, much safer lecture with brief spurts of discussion, I just let the whole thing be discussion with brief spurts of lecture. This is actually what I feel most comfortable with ideologically, but it was hard to bring myself to do it right away. Ultimately, I decided to make the change because I found out they weren't reading and then I asked myself, well, if I were a student, would I do the reading for this class? The answer was "No." And then I asked myself the follow-up question, "Does it matter that they are not reading?" And my answer to that was "Yeah, I think it does matter. I think the readings are valuable, and I don't want them to take my class lightly." (These questions come directly out of my experience with the calorie consciouss prof.) So with that I decided to give them a reading quiz last class period which they ALL failed miserably, confirming my suspicions. But as I was creating this quiz it occurred to me that I was just making them read so they could take a quiz, that there was very little real pedagogy behind the decision. (And this concern comes from spending so much time with my deviant, spray painting prof.) So I said to myself "Self, if you want them to read, then you better reorganize the class so that they NEED to have read." And I communicated this to them telling them that the reason I was giving a quiz was not so much to "catch" them but to let them know that we were going to be shifting into a new mode of class, one centered much more on discussion, and it was going to be crucial that they come to class prepared. And then, and here's the real kicker, I actually did it. How many times have I heard crap like that from teachers who followed it up with very little, if any, change? So they hadn't all read for today-I don't think they believed me-but I am certain that most of them will read in the future, at least in the near future. And I was really nervous at first, tempted to just try and lecture from my notes, but the good thing is that I structured out this possibility first by telling them to expect a lot of discussion and second by deliberately creating a fragmented and disparate set of lecture notes. So even though I was tempted, I didn't have much of an opportunity to "go safe."

I even dressed much more casually today, attempting to deconstruct a boundary that I had set up by dressing more formally than many professors on campus. I think it had a big effect. I mean, all of this was helped by the fact that we were talking about race, which is an easier topic to generate discussion than a lot of others, but I think it is worth noting that I put my money where my mouth was, so to speak and was able to pull it off.