Classroom Victories

[Aster]

The victory for me this term is being alive, being safe, and having a job.

[mamselle]

The pass rates (C and above) were higher for all of my classes this spring, including the F2F sections that got pushed online.  Attrition was high, but the vast majority who withdrew after midterm were ones who needed to go anyway, i.e., students who were already failing miserably before everything else fell apart (in most cases because they'd submitted fewer than half of the assignments to that point).

My F2F students did just fine in the transition, but I use Bb heavily in those F2F classes, too, so there wasn't much of a learning curve for them.  I'm proud of all my students who stuck with it and finished the semester with me, and I told them all so!

Just finished teaching a music lesson, read this and thought, "How's the key of Bb going to help them....???...Oohhh...she means BlackBoard!"

Duh......

M.

[OneMoreYear]

This week (1st week of summer term), I have survived teaching 14 hours of direct, synchronous instruction. My computer only froze 3 times, and students stayed on until I was able to get back into the LMS. Everyone enrolled submitted the small-stakes Week 1 assignments on time. Only one student had to withdraw due to internet access issues.  I'm calling it a victory.

[mamselle]

Yea!

M.

[Parasaurolophus]

Just got an email from a student who took an incomplete from me last Spring, due to some seriously adverse circumstances. Her email contained her final paper for the class, which we agreed would substitute for the other coursework which was outstanding. It was excellent, clearly demonstrating her mastery over all of the course material, and it was a delight to finally be able to reward all of her very, very hard work to finish what must have been a truly awful semester for her.

[OneMoreYear]

I guess victories are far and few between around here.

One of my students sent me a video assignment that ended with a happy dance.

[mamselle]

Cool!!

M.

[Caracal]

A student wrote the best timed essay exam I've ever read. It was just lovely. She incorporated lectures and readings, but put it all together in a sophisticated original argument that directly addressed the question. On top of all that, it was beautifully written-assured, concise, clear. I can't really take any credit, but it was nice to see that I've at least organized the class in a way that a really bright student can pick up things like that and produce something so great.

[nonsensical]

Puget, do you feel comfortable sharing any information about the game-like activity you mentioned? I'm interested to see if I can adapt it for any of my classes, especially since it has seemed to go well for you.

My victory was one of the students from my seminar telling me that she's taking this class in part because someone told her two years ago to take a class with me. What a thing to remember for two years! Hearing this was super affirming, especially during a year that's been such a mess in so many ways.

[Puget]

Puget, do you feel comfortable sharing any information about the game-like activity you mentioned? I'm interested to see if I can adapt it for any of my classes, especially since it has seemed to go well for you.

Wow, that's going back a ways, all the way to the Before Times-- had to look back at my earlier post to see what this was referring to.

Sure-- to teach them about how many different factors interact to influence development, each group had a "sim child" and every week they rolled to determine traits/experiences for their child relate to that week's topic, and then we discussed the effects of that roll and how how it would interact with all the previous ones. I came up with four of the options each week in advance, and let them come up with two more. Sometimes someone would raise an interesting question about one of the options and we would roll again to decide among sub-options. We spent the last class with each group making a cumulative map of all the factors and how they interacted, and coming up with a description of what they thought their sim child would be like as an adult.

They got very invested in their "children" and I think it definitely enhanced their understanding. It was a bright point once we had to move online mid-semester.

[nonsensical]

That sounds like a neat activity; thanks so much for sharing it. And, I guess I should pay better attention to the dates when things were posted!

[mamselle]

Intriguing.

Almost like constructing a fictional character's biography in addition to the study values.

M.

[OneMoreYear]

Puget, that is very cool, and I'm glad nonsensical asked about it, even though it was from "Before Times." Is the child a virtual simulation or a written case? I'd love to do something like this the next time I teach development, but I'm teaching it as a compressed class (5 weeks--development across the lifespan), so I don't think I'd attempt. When you say "roll," are these virtual dice? Also, love the cumulative map idea. Must not spend time revamping class . . .

[Puget]

Puget, that is very cool, and I'm glad nonsensical asked about it, even though it was from "Before Times." Is the child a virtual simulation or a written case? I'd love to do something like this the next time I teach development, but I'm teaching it as a compressed class (5 weeks--development across the lifespan), so I don't think I'd attempt. When you say "roll," are these virtual dice? Also, love the cumulative map idea. Must not spend time revamping class . . .

Why thank you.

No avatars -- I'm not that fancy. I simply wrote options down in a spreadsheet and then added theirs in class. These were not involved storylines (though the students came up with some during discussions), just things along the line of "dopamine system under-reactive to reward" or "participated in preschool enrichment program" that were directly tied to the topic for that week.

When we were together in the classroom I had big foam dice for them to roll, which made it fun and playful. Once we moved online I used a random number generator, which was not as much fun.

I wish you strength in resisting revamping your course.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Puget, that is very cool, and I'm glad nonsensical asked about it, even though it was from "Before Times." Is the child a virtual simulation or a written case? I'd love to do something like this the next time I teach development, but I'm teaching it as a compressed class (5 weeks--development across the lifespan), so I don't think I'd attempt. When you say "roll," are these virtual dice? Also, love the cumulative map idea. Must not spend time revamping class . . .

Why thank you.

No avatars -- I'm not that fancy. I simply wrote options down in a spreadsheet and then added theirs in class. These were not involved storylines (though the students came up with some during discussions), just things along the line of "dopamine system under-reactive to reward" or "participated in preschool enrichment program" that were directly tied to the topic for that week.

When we were together in the classroom I had big foam dice for them to roll, which made it fun and playful. Once we moved online I used a random number generator, which was not as much fun.

I wish you strength in resisting revamping your course.

Sounds like a potentially fun D&D campaign.