Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The New Joint

Yesterday my class at the University started. It is a small class--13 people-- in a gigantic, sparkling new room. I was excited to try out the new technology, but predictably, that didn't work. The old stuff didn't either. I couldn't get the mouse to cooperate, so had to turn off the whole thing and use a good old dry erase marker, foregoing the computer altogether, at least for the day.
The group is eager and sweet. They downloaded the syllabi I sent them via email, as 90% of the college's students don't because they never go to their college email accounts. They were attentive, and I think they will be a good class.
I felt I was being a little hard on them with the get-tough policies I have felt it necessary to adopt, and which I copied from other people's syllabi in the department.
However, their writing, so far, seems absolutely the same level as the community college students. I need not tweak the class too much, except that this is a 3 hour class rather than a 4 hour one, so I'll have to pare it down.

5 comments:

marly said...

Trala, sounds good.

And who can count on technology anyway? One always has to prepared for non-compliance from machines!

Robin said...

Sounds like a great group, and teaching only 13 students will lighten your load. It's actually a good number to have, if most of the students stay.

Robbi N. said...

This is what concerns me Robin. I hope none of them drop. The writing, some of it, is not very good, and there is nowhere to refer them. There's a peer tutoring center, and DSS (disabled students), but I'm not at all sure the students are disabled even if one in particular is a native speaker with serious sentence level problems.
I guess that this is what my office is for! Given willing students, I can help them with intense individual conferencing.

my said...

Peer tutoring? Is that blind leading the blind or what?

Robbi N. said...

It can be.