Kristine's Reading Notes 8

This weeks reading really hit home for me. I feel like we are going through this stage in the classroom right now; where the count down to finals week is on. Classes that I once thought interesting are now becoming repetitive and monotonous. When reading Lang’s ideas for stirring things up in the classroom, I loved the field trip idea. I know that with a larger class this idea would be more impractical. However, as I am constructing my course syllabus for CPR and First Aid next year, I think having a guest speaker or having the students go outside on a hilly platform to perform some of the techniques they will learn will be a great idea to keep momentum in the classroom going. What are some other interesting project ideas to battle doldrums?

            For Lang’s Week 12 chapter, I found some of his common problems were related to those we discussed in the classroom; for example, the rude student. I think handling disruptive behavior privately is a very good idea so that way the student knows straight up what you expect from him and that this type of behavior is not tolerated. I think that on page 258 an interesting topic is brought up about dating students, even if they aren’t in your department. I feel like I disagree with Lang on this point. I don’t see a problem with dating a student who is at the graduate level or enrolled in a totally different, unrelated department of yours. For example, a first year professor teaching mathematics wouldn’t have any contact with a student in their forth year of pre-medicine. I understand his point of view, that new professors are at this vulnerable stage of making the wrong impression, but at the same time what if the couple had been dating previous to the teaching? I think more clarification and discussion on this topic would help.

            Whenever reading Davis’ chapter on disruptive behavior and classroom decorum, I was actually a little surprised how the end of the chapter twisted more toward tragedies and a class responses to them. Whenever 9/11 occurred, I remembered wishing my teachers would just explain to me what had happened instead of pretending nothing had occurred. I guess however that this could be pretty difficult for a professor to stay on top of all current events happening around the world. If a tragedy did occur in a foreign country, would it be appropriate to ask a student from that country what they think about the incident?