January 2022 -- another beginning

 One quite fabulous thing about teaching is that you constantly get to try again.  As something of a perfectionist (in the creation of ideals, not in getting close to those ideals), this is both a good and a bad thing as each semester I can tell myself "this semester I'm going to get it right" and by the end of that semester I'm telling myself "next semester I'm going to get it right."  The good part is the promise of constantly getting to try again where the bad part is feeling like I've never quite achieved what I want to.

That said, I'm feeling good about this upcoming semester.  And, honestly, at this point in the semester (the weekend before it all starts) that's unusual.  Usually, I feel best about an upcoming semester in the final moments of the previous semester.  But, as I work on the upcoming semester my enthusiasm wanes as I become convinced that my plan will not achieve what I'd like it to.  So, the fact that I've planned my courses and classes start on Monday and I'm feeling good about them is somewhat novel.  And, since I'd really like to get some writing done (and published), I'm going to start articulating my thoughts on teaching here as I go through the semester.  So, my thoughts.....

A significant reason for feeling good about this semester is that I completed a wonderful coaching training program that not only helped me develop the skills to help people achieve their goals, but also provided me with the support and encouragement to work to be more the sort of person I'd like to be in the world.  I've long wrestled with who I'd like to be (a wise, thoughtful, supportive, generous, kind person who sees people in a way that leads to folks feeling seen and cared about) and who I think I ought to be (some version of rigorous professor who helps people understand difficult but interesting ideas) -- think Dumbledore vs. Snape.  My experience in the Hudson Institute of Coaching gave me the confidence to do more that gets me to the what I want to be instead of how I think I ought to be.

I'll share more about this later, but now I want to get to one thing I'm instituting this semester that I'm really excited about -- early semester one-on-one conversations with each student in my classes.  I've asked students to answer these 5 questions and to both submit their answers and come to our first meeting with their answers (just so I'm not taking folks by surprise and they can think about their answers).

Presumably one of your goals in this class is to get a good grade.  I assume that.  Let’s assume you are guaranteed that A as you answer the following questions

(1) As you think about this class, what are some specific areas where you’d like to really focus your time on improving (e.g., writing, discussion, patience, listening, reading, taking other positions seriously, etc.)?

(2) What do you take to be your current strengths as a student (obviously these may also be areas where you’d like to improve)?

(3) Thinking to other courses you’ve taken, where have you struggled to be as successful as you’d like?

(4) What are the characteristics of classes that you’ve felt really excited you and had you interested in attending?  Is there anything in particular that led to these characteristics 

(5) What in your life are you particularly passionate about?  How do you see this passion connecting to your major and to your hopes about life after college?

I've had students sign up for 20 minute meetings with me so I can just get to know each of them and what they want to get out of the class.  The motivation for this is that I've returned to the practice of 'ungrading' -- a practice I started 15 years ago but then eliminated, not realizing that there were other folks doing this and really needing the support of others -- and early conversations with students to figure out what they want to get out of the class is a good way to introduce this approach to grading.  While this was the impetus of having these meetings, as I've been looking more and more forward to them, I'm realizing other benefits.

Most importantly, these early conversations (they need to happen within the first two weeks of the semester and, yes, Monday I'm booked from 9-6 with classes and conversation) give me and the students an opportunity to get to know each other (a) individually and (b) out of the classroom.  Regarding (a) there are always students who, because some students are more outgoing than others, I simply don't get to know all that well.  And all the research from psychology & neuroscience tells us that connections are important.  But, crucial to this is (b) -- getting to know each other as people not as student-professor.  Now, of course, they are coming to my office (or talking to me on zoom) and it's for a class so it's not lie we're sitting at a bar striking up a conversation; our roles are well known.  BUT, at the beginning of the semester, expectations haven't been ruined yet.  We don't have the barrier of how things are or are not going in class to get in the way.  We can talk about who they are and what they want with little influence from class since class is still in early days.  I think this will significantly help because I will be forming initial connections with them based on what they want out of the class and who they are independent of class.  My hope is that these circumstances of our initial connections will, if nothing else, help students to really appreciate that I care about them and their success as learners and, really, nothing else.  We'll see.

More to discuss in an upcoming post: changes to syllabus (a letter to students that explains grading instead of a document informing them -- the letter is more hospitable and less defensive in nature).