I Teach

So my students didn't read for class yesterday. I guess this happens every semester. I had to get on to them and let them know that just because they had a paper due didn't mean they didn't have to read for class. To tell the truth, I kind of set them up for it a little bit. I had a sneaking suspicion that they hadn't been reading as widely or as well as they were earlier so I jumped on this opportunity to draw attention to it and let them know that I knew and that it needed to stop. The title of the reading was "The Three Problems with Drugs in America." I'm serious, that's how clear the title is. The first question I asked in class was "What are the three problems with drugs in America according to the authors of today's reading?" Not one single student had the answer. They started freaking flipping through the pages of their book. I hate when they do this unless they are flipping through the heavily highlighted and underlined pages of their book. They weren't. So we stopped that little lecture/discussion which was supposed to set up the movie clip for them and I told them that they're still resposible for the info. in the reading but that I wasn't going to spend time teaching them what they should have read. Oh yeah, and they're also responsible for the discussion we should have been able to have but weren't. Finally, I told them that I hope this is an isolated incident and not the beginning of a trend.

For a really large part of my life I've believed that if you start out as a hard-ass then its easier to lighted up if the situation warrants, but much harder to do the reverse. In the past year or so I've come to realize how unbelievably poor that strategy is for me. I'm not a hard-ass. I'm just not, and trying to pretend like I'm one doesn't jive with my goal of authenticity in the classroom. I really don't want there to be much difference between my in class and out of class persona. Whenever I catch myself doing or saying something in class (as "Professor") that I wouldn't ever say outside of class, I stop myself, back-up and say what I mean. This isn't to suggest that I treat my students as my friends, but rather that I treat them as individuals, just like I do the people in my life and I evaluate them based on their merits as opposed to lumping them into the category of "student" or "20 year old" or "rich" or whatever. So I'm trying a new/different strategy which is more in line with how I try to behave in my real life. I treat them as I would treat any other group of people I'm trying to communicate with, but when they let me down I let them know it. This is the hard part for me, and I'm not real good at it yet. I don't really like telling people when they aren't doing their job or meeting my expectations for them (even when I have every right to). I'd much rather just make the adjustment myself and go on with my life. I've found this to be a much more efficient strategy for actually getting stuff done. However, this isn't always the best short or long term strategy. I'm completely aware that I'm teaching them with every intereaction I have with them by what I say and do or by what fail to say and do. So now this means that I have to hold them accountable to my call for a rededication to reading. I have to ask them more specific questions in group discussions and press them more to avoid personal opinion and anecdote which (they think) can hide the fact that they haven't read (or haven't read very well). We'll see how it goes.
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