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Spies…Everywhere
By Chris | October 6, 2008
I’m talking about my students. I have 45 of them and I’m still learning their names and faces. They see me around campus and know who I am, but I don’t always recognize them. The other day I was tying my shoe in the library and I heard someone say “see you in class” before running up the stairs. Sometimes they say hi, sometimes they don’t. Regardless, it is a strange feeling to be so visible, and something I hadn’t expected. I find myself feeling the need to be mature whenever I’m on campus. As the semester progresses, I’m sure I’ll get to know all of the students in my class. Until then, I’ll have to act a little more professionally. That’s probably not such a bad thing.
Note: I recently gave my Intermediate Micro class its first test. The average was a 64 and I curved it. It’s tough to know when I’m failing to communicate material effectively and when students aren’t studying enough on their own. I’m tempted to require students to turn in more practice problems, but I hate to penalize the strong students with repetitive problems. Teaching undergraduates requires providing the right incentives…I still need to figure out what those are.
Topics: College, Economics, Education, Updates | 2 Comments »
October 9th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
I have less “Spies” than you do, but it doesn’t make things better. The possibility I may meet them somewhere is not much lower. We feel conscious and try to behave in a professional way even though we only have a class of students and may not meet them ever again after this semester. It makes me think of the situation of our professors. Are we ourselves spies to them? And not only us, all people who think they are grown ups and should be mature are spies to them. They may sometimes want to skip steps or make a strange face like we do. But they always talk well and dress well, because spies are truly everywhere for them. Then, not only professors, all people who are supposed to play a certain role in other people’s eyes can hardly be themselves. I wonder if everyone is feeling a kind of celebrity and being observed in his own world?
October 28th, 2008 at 12:05 am
My favorite professors are those who I thought acted the same around me as they do when they are with their peers. Please be yourselves and I am sure your class will become more interesting to both yourself and the students.