Class last night went well – we had good discussions that went on longer than I had planned and therefore cut out a 20-minute period where I was planning on having discussion on another topic. Oh well! Those poor kids never get out early!
At one point we were doing role plays and I had set up two students to play the roles of farmer and zoo purchasing manager. The goal was for the farmer to sell his straw to the zoo guy as animal feed (you know, like for elephants!). The farmer was telling the zoo buyer all about the tons of straw he had available that was "going bad" and had to be sold cheap. At one point he stretched out his arms and gestured that a ton of straw was like “this whole room full of straw”. For some reason this struck me as hilarious as I pictured the whole room full of straw and the other 149,999 tons “back at the farm” that he had too. I ended up in this laughing fit that took me 2 minutes to calm down from. I have no idea why this was so funny to me, but once I got started there was no going back. Not professional, but I couldn't help it at all!
As predicted, my fall class is shaping up to be small and adult-oriented. I only have 10 students signed up when in the past I was wait-listed by now. Every student in the class is a weekend/part-timer. Karen C. thinks that this will help me be a more well-rounded teacher to be able to adapt to classes 1/3 the “normal” size and with a different audience base. I guess I shouldn’t be disappointed – it’ll be a heck of a lot less to grade.
2023 Year in Review: Tough breaks, but it’s all right
10 months ago
7 comments:
Is this the same class that you're teaching or are you teaching something different?? And are you not teaching during the summer? The straw thing definitely sounds like it would have got me going too... and don't think it's bad that you were laughing... it's nice to see teachers in a different light and 'get to know' them a little more. It's easier to talk to them if they're not so straight faced all the time!
I wouldn't feel too bad about laughing either. It definitely happens. :-)
Don't feel bad about your class not having a wait list yet. I imagine that's part of the nature of teaching evening classes in the fall - in the spring you'll have more normal students again because you'll have kids who need to get the class taken care of for the year and can't wait until the following semester to see if there'll be a class during the day to fit into their schedule (I always scheduled non-music classes based on time available rather than prof). The less papers to grade will be a plus, I'm sure. More time with Nicole!
I'm sure when you have Nicole in your arms you will be very grateful to have less grading. :-)
Oh duh... I just remembered that you won't be teaching in the summer because of Nicole... brain fart!
I think a smaller class maybe fun. You will get to know each student a lot better!!
i always loved being in small classes... the discussions were so much better and i always go to know my classmates and professor really well.
I agree with Rachel. And towards the end of my bachelors I would look for the night classes (for electives/general ed classes) which would have nontraditional students and smaller classes....made the blah classes more fun (like computer science and public speaking). Oh wait. I think it was the hot instructor that made comp sci fun...
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