Monday, July 8, 2013

Couldn't Help Myself


Tonight when I sat reading the articles assigned to us, trying to tune out my rowdy children and my husband who is rediscovering the conspiracy of the sacred feminine; I couldn't help laughing out loud at what I was reading.  The poor college professor that couldn't keep his classes engaged cracked me up.  Guess what, times have changed.  You no longer have the captive audiences that you had in the past.   Gone are the days of the vast lecture hall with a mumbling professor standing, facing bleary eyed students who dutifully copied an outline written out in 1962 and presented, unrevised, every year since that first time. Students can now escape the droning on and on that is so typical in college classrooms. (At least it was typical in my college days)

Sorry poor professor, you might have to stop lecturing for a few minutes to develop ways to engage your students, and somehow manage to convince them that this information is relevant and important to their lives.  You now have to deal with constant assessment of whether or not your students are picking up the material and then be be flexible and industrious enough to teach and reteach, ask questions, yell, stand on your head, do a dance, or show a YouTube video in order to bring your students along.  Welcome to our world, old timer.  I've got some tips on classroom management that might help you you out.



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2 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 10, 2013 at 11:11 PM

    I'm not that old yet! And I redo my syllabi every year! (But I could use some tips on classroom management...I was totally hammered on that when I taught...I'm not a big believer in docile students).

    Loved your post! Made me laugh on this late night!

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  2. UnknownJuly 14, 2013 at 9:03 AM

    I agree...college professors that typically just lecture for hours on end could use a little work on engaging their audience. I'm not "that" old but there were not a lot of laptops in classrooms when I was in college in the late 90's. However, students had other way of "getting through" those huge lectures with dull professors - the favorite in my university was the daily crossword in our university paper which I'll admit I did work a few times in a huge chemistry class at the back of the auditorium!

    Perhaps university professors should have to go through the same evaluation process those of us in K-12 education endure each year with an administrator observing, possibly marking down what percentage of the class is actually engaged in the lesson, and then scoring your teaching on a rubric. My chemistry professor would not have scored well, I can tell you that! Matt, however, does an excellent job of engaging us in my opinion. I doubt Matt wants to teach a lecture class of 200 students though! Might as well teach online! :)

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