Thoughts on Teaching – 2/20/2012 – A slow day

Today was an uninspiring teaching day.  I have reworked lectures at various times over the years, and much of that has been to shorten earlier in the semester lectures so that I can make it further into the time period that I’m covering.  Today was one of those lectures where I made cuts that disconnected the material from its real point.  So, I struggled through the first delivery to connect everything together and show the students why this was not just a collection of random material but instead was connected and relevant.  It worked better by the second class, but both classes were also depressing for another reason.  The big problem is that I felt the students were more disconnected than usual today.  The drops are starting, so some students are getting out of the class now, but I really have a large number of people simply not showing up.  And, of those who do show up, it’s hard to peg very many of them as actually paying all that much attention.  Again, it certainly wasn’t my best material at all, but it just reinforces for me the problem with a lecture.  When my lecture is going really well, I might have 50-60% student engagement.  Today, it felt like 20-30%, which is just depressing overall.  In my second class, which is a two-way video class, the high school I was connecting to was not in session, and a lot of people were missing in front of me, so I ended up lecturing to nine people.  Twenty-six out of forty in the first class was already low for this time of year, but nine is really depressing.  And then to see them mostly disconnected is even worse, as there’s no hiding the fact that you’re not connecting on the material with that few students in the room.

I have been saying for a while that my lectures need to be revised soon, and this lecture was one that needs to be worked with desperately.  It might work better as one that is not delivered but that is, instead, seen by the students not as an individual lecture but as a narrative supplement that I have available to enhance the hybrid class going on in the classroom.  I guess that’s going to be the question when I do redo the class, whether it’s a full flip or not, which is do I present the lectures at that point in episodic form, like they are now, where there are distinct lectures, or do I format my own material like a book, putting it together in a narrative that the students can engage with like they would the textbook.  They can read it in pieces or all at once.  I’m thinking of an integrated lecture, with my PowerPoint images combined with the text from the lectures that can be read more like a book.  I don’t know, just brainstorming here.  I started that a while ago and made it through the first two lectures, coding them in Dreamweaver to bring together a web lecture.  Nothing fancy except for integration of the images with text.  Still, it would give the students something to read more interesting than just a Word document with an accompanying Power Point.  And, this would give a good opportunity to rework the lectures, especially if I am to move beyond the delivery of the lectures and think about them more as a way to deliver my ideas to the student.  I can imagine that the lectures would be different if they were aimed at being read rather than delivered.  I don’t know.  This will be something to think about as I move forward.

I guess all of us who teach have these days, but it was definitely less than inspiring.  Beyond that, it was mostly small stuff at work, writing a recommendation letter and weighing in on the choosing of a new textbook for the class.  I wish I could say there was more, but that’s about it.  I have grading to do, but I did not get any done today, because that filled up my day, and by the time I got home, it was time to pick up the kids.  Then, it was chores, homework time with the kids, and dinner.  Now, all of the sudden, it’s 10pm.  So, I shall sign off for the evening and hope for a more inspiring day tomorrow.