Had a decent teaching day today, despite the all-day grim and rainy grey, and the way that the halls of the building I teach in retain humidity to a horribly swampy degree. Odd observation: on two successive days, I’ve had most of the students in one section show up well prepared, and most of the students in the other section show up poorly prepared. We moved ahead OK, but after explicitly going over the homework in each class and putting it on the board, I can’t figure out why one section felt so nonchalantly inclined to univocally admit their I-don’t-care unpreparedness and the other section was ready and eager to work.
When I was a sergeant and the squad was out of order, I’d drop them and do push-ups with them, calling out, “One, two, three, Zero; One, two, three, Zero,” until all of them got their backs straight and actually started doing the push-ups, and then we’d begin the count, “One, two, three, One; One, two, three, Two; One, two, three, Three;” up to twenty or fifty or whatever. After a while with me, if they were mad too, the squad would bellow out the Zero-count for at least the first ten reps or so, and they’d eventually decide how many reps we did. They’d get sadistic, too, seeing if they could slow down the count in the last five enough to make my arms quiver, seeing if they could make me keep up, to punish me with their discipline.
It was a lot easier than teaching college. I wish I had a handle on how to kick-start that sort of motivation and self-awareness in an academic context — but maybe that just marks me as a would-be authoritarian teacher, telling tales about macho Army swagger.
I hope not. I guess what I’m getting at is the idea of self-awareness and cohesion in a class, and trying to figure out why one section seems to hang together more than the other. Maybe some of it’s just random chemistry, but when I think about it, I realize that I teach the sections back-to-back on Tuesdays and Thursdays — and so maybe I learn lessons from one session about what does and doesn’t work and carry them immediately over into the subsequent session.
Perhaps. Every class is different. But I really feel like what I do doesn’t differ much, generally speaking. I plan well, I have the materials up, and we tend to follow similar routines in each section. One general difference might be that students in the earlier section often want to interact with me on a one-on-one basis, while students in the latter section often don’t hesitate to call out a public question when things are confusing. Still, it’s odd: I don’t think I’ve ever felt such a radical difference in character between sections. And maybe all the above ruminations are a way to talk about how I know it probably isn’t me, but I wish it was, because then I could try and help make it better.
(Addendum: not trying to call any of you out, discipuli. Just talking generally about how the classes went. If you like, I hope you’ll address the topic in your reflections on the in-class work.)
Dude. It’s them. Trust me. I had exactly this situation my last semester teaching — night-and-day sections of the same class.
I got observed during the day section. Observer thought I was the greatest thing since sliced bread, however clearly I tried to explain that it was the CLASS that was good. Finally I shrugged and gave up.
Does your first class initiate the one-on-one discussion or do you? I have had a similar situation this semester–my 8 o’clock (a.m.) class is awake and with it–they follow me, and when they’re lost, they ask questions. My 11 a.m. section is very quiet–only four people contribute voluntarily, and rarely does anyone ask questions. Both of the latter behaviors are important because that’s one way I can see if they’re following me, if they’ve done the homework, and so on.
So today, I tried a few different things: one, I sat all over the room (chairs on wheels!)while we listened to each student read his warm up outloud. While asking teacherly questions, I’d call on people, and in some cases, roll on over to them. It’s hard to avoid participating when your instructor has pulled up next to you. But, it does mean that I am looking at and focussing on the person and communicating that she matters in the class. It’s also unexpected, and I think it wakes the students up.
The second thing that I did today was put them in groups to figure out and teach each other a part of the textbook that I’d done as a large class discussion at 8.
I’m trying to avoid the grim reaper approach, where I whip out my gradebook, scowl, and check off who did the assignment.
I’ve also changed the way I teach the second class. For me, following the same exact pattern doesn’t work. I remember jokes and retell them badly, and I either get through everything with time to spare or run over. And, I’m bored, which I think may be communicated to the students as they’re being boring. I don’t know. At any rate, the information to be delivered or workshopped remains the same, but the delivery changes, and I feel revitalized. I hope my students do, too.
Finally, what’s your energy level like in the second class? Are you able to maintain the same level of enthusiasm in your second class? Back to back can be rugged.
I’d look at the attitudes of the most outspoken students. It could be something as simple as peer influence: a couple of gung-ho students in one class leading the others and the negative influence in the other. I do think that sitting among them and moving around to get a perspective on them could be helpful.
That’s got to be frustrating, though.