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Table of Contents
AY 300 - Fall 2009: Curriculum Recap
Boot Camp
Josh's Thoughts
- As usual, one of the most useful things for the students
- Primarily me talking and little student work
Student Reactions
- Generally favorable
Suggestions
- We should try to make this more interactive, as Jeff suggested last year–get them up in front of the class to feel that feeling
Worksheets
Josh's Thoughts
- I didn't spend much time on this
- Didn't like previous year's model of dissecting worksheets and designing new ones..
- I did have them put a worksheet (original or substantially modified) on the eBRB
Student Reactions
- Would have liked more
Suggestions
- We should spend some time improving this, if for no other reason than to keep fresh ones coming to the eBRB
Video-Taping
Josh's Thoughts
- Time-consuming for me, but will be more manageable with two of us.
- I thought it was instructive for me as well as the students seeing themselves teach
- Hard to get them to actually watch the videos when not being forced; not sure if we can/want to try to address this
- I think it's important and useful–“parent-knows-best” kind of situation I think
Student Reactions
- Hated seeing themselves on video, wouldn't review independently
- Balked at the idea of a second video-taping
Suggestions
- Keep it for sure, maybe add a second go-round to show improvement
- This could be moved forward if we want to do it twice, or later if only once
Teaching Logs
Josh's Thoughts
- I felt like these were largely a chore both for me and the students
- Nonetheless these are very useful in future teaching semesters, so they will be kept
Student Reactions
- ??
Suggestions
- I would like to think about whether we can make this seem more relevant throughout the course of the class
- Perhaps we could have them exchange them and read each others, then discuss how others' sections went in class once a month?
Experienced GSI Visit/Peer Visits
Josh's Thoughts
- Of the two, I think they got the most out of the EGSI visits, though I did not have a lot in place to structure their post-game analysis
- This required little to no work for me, but I could've done more
- Did this early and I believe it should be kept there, i.e. Week 2 or 3 (the first weeks of real section teaching, not ice-breakers, etc.)
Student Reactions
- Liked the EGSI visit
Suggestions
- I think if we do the above suggestion with the teaching logs, then we could get rid of the peer visitation (maybe)
Design-A-Demo
Josh's Thoughts
- I think I did a poor job with this one, but it's mostly the students' responsibility
Student Reactions
- ??
Suggestions
- Depending on class size, we could have them actually lead the demo with the class as if they were teaching
Mock Lectures/Mock Reviews/etc
Josh's Thoughts
- Following recommendations, not everyone got up to do these. I think this was a good idea to save time.
- On the other hand, not everyone got that practice in.. hard to say which way to go
Student Reactions
- ??
Suggestions
- We should spend some time thinking about this
Assigned Readings/Written Responses
Josh's Thoughts
- This all felt like a pain in the ass last year, but that was my fault in the implementation
- Felt forced, maybe because I didn't ask for specific enough responses to the readings
Student Reactions
- Generally negative
Suggestions
- We should read all the stuff from my year, and maybe the year prior, and cull
- Whatever we keep should have a clear purpose, and if we assign something, it should address that purpose
General Comments
- It was definitely useful keeping in close contact with the Head GSIs, we might even formalize this to a weekly/bi-weekly meeting/lunch
- I still had a hard time helping them implement group work, and the sense I got from the videos was that some are just better than others, and it had little to do with my course
- Both they and I enjoyed discussing the previous week at Celia's happy hour towards the end of the semester, but I like the idea of having a more general pedagogy discussion with the dept. too
- Visits from the profs and GSIs for advanced courses were useful, but again I could have done more to structure the discussion I think. Alex went off on his tangents, and Marc had some pretty pessimistic ideas about teaching…
- Mid-semester evals remain a positive/important part of the curriculum
