A New Year, A New Post

First of all, it has been a long time since the last post. For that, I apologize.

Much has happened since September. Water polo season ended and swimming season began and continues. I finished my first semester of teaching economics. And with the first semester fresh in my mind, I am teaching the second semester (with all new students) differently.

I am trying to reflect on what I liked about my first semester experience, as well as what I wished went differently: I think we should have covered more material and I would have liked having more command over the class. In general, the class became a little less productive and less focused over the course of the semester.

It took me a little while to become aware of the importance of being consistent and persistent, as well as the power of inertia. Jumping right into a position of leadership, I was not always sure of myself. As the block period is 80 minutes, there were many opportunities for this characteristic to present itself. The most frequent apparition was a lack of persistence regarding talking out of turn. Occasionally I would get tired of quieting down the entire class and gaining everyone's attention before speaking. This inconsistency provided room for some students to push limits and impede in-class work, notes, group work, etc... Once it became apparent that this would be an issue that would not go away, I became more persistent and actively tried to counteract this development. However, the inertia of this habit was so powerful that it continued to be a problem.

With all of this in mind, I wanted to begin the second semester with a good first impression. Andy Dirksen, who was a benedictine volunteer at Saint Benedict's a few years ago, visited over break and provided some inspiration. It was good to see Andy because he is fun to go out with, is a good conversationalist, and has a great knowledge of Benedict's. When speaking about how to begin a new class, he mentioned that he started by giving the students a book, told them to read and outline the first chapter, had a quiz on the second day, and did not go over the syllabus and introductions until the third day. I liked this idea and started my first day of class by having the students read the first section of chapter one and outline it. I was amazed by the results: everyone, all 27 students, read and took notes in silence. After a half-hour of silence, during which I felt satisfied yet uncomfortable due to its foreignness, I asked the class to describe certain portions of the chapter they read, and finished with the fact that there would be a quiz tomorrow on the first section.

It is early in the semester and I must work hard to keep the class interesting, but so far everything is going swimmingly. I am really happy with my new class, and hope the things I learned during the highs and lows of first semester will aid me in my efforts this semester.