Yesterday was the end of the fifth week of classes, and I am happy to report that I am very much enjoying teaching. I am not quite to the point of saying, "I love my job," but it could happen soon. (Though, maybe not until the summer when I can finally breathe!)
At the beginning, I opted to create all my lectures in PowerPoint. I was hesitant due to my own experience with profs who used premade slides because they tended to go quickly through the material. In the past couple of weeks, I began providing my classes with hard copies of the material (another concern of mine because I tended not to take notes with handouts) with blanks that they would need to be in class to fill in. I also provide the handout version of the slides online on the class website. Overall, I think the students like it, but still have trouble grasping the material. In addition to the lecture material, I do at least one example problem each class. Questions of confusion or clarification were slow at first (especially the 7:40am Fluids class!), but they seem to be becoming more open as our relationship grows. I am continually self-evaluating my approach, but will be officially student evaluated at the end of course (though I would like the students to do an additional volunteer evaluation soon).
In general the students are doing well. I gave exams this week and used last year's exams. I suspected but wasn't sure if the exam was too long for the 50 min class period. I came to find out after the exam that the prof who gave the Fluid's exam last year set it up so that the students had 2 hours! I ended up adding 15 points across the board to raise the class average. I have yet to grade the Applications of Thermo exam, but I expect the same issue (not enough time), though not quite as severe. I have told the students and they understand that I am trying to figure this teaching gig out, but it is still frustrating for them.
Both my main classes (I also "teach" Senior Seminar where I mainly manage speaker visits) are with the Juniors. In addition, to taking Fluids and Applications of Thermo with me, they have Mechanics of Materials and Machine Dynamics with another prof and Linear Algebra. They are being pummeled! And it doesn't get much better next term. I don't know all their courses, but I will be teaching them Computation Methods, Control Theory (and labs), and their Heat Transfer Labs. Tough work.
At the beginning, I opted to create all my lectures in PowerPoint. I was hesitant due to my own experience with profs who used premade slides because they tended to go quickly through the material. In the past couple of weeks, I began providing my classes with hard copies of the material (another concern of mine because I tended not to take notes with handouts) with blanks that they would need to be in class to fill in. I also provide the handout version of the slides online on the class website. Overall, I think the students like it, but still have trouble grasping the material. In addition to the lecture material, I do at least one example problem each class. Questions of confusion or clarification were slow at first (especially the 7:40am Fluids class!), but they seem to be becoming more open as our relationship grows. I am continually self-evaluating my approach, but will be officially student evaluated at the end of course (though I would like the students to do an additional volunteer evaluation soon).
In general the students are doing well. I gave exams this week and used last year's exams. I suspected but wasn't sure if the exam was too long for the 50 min class period. I came to find out after the exam that the prof who gave the Fluid's exam last year set it up so that the students had 2 hours! I ended up adding 15 points across the board to raise the class average. I have yet to grade the Applications of Thermo exam, but I expect the same issue (not enough time), though not quite as severe. I have told the students and they understand that I am trying to figure this teaching gig out, but it is still frustrating for them.
Both my main classes (I also "teach" Senior Seminar where I mainly manage speaker visits) are with the Juniors. In addition, to taking Fluids and Applications of Thermo with me, they have Mechanics of Materials and Machine Dynamics with another prof and Linear Algebra. They are being pummeled! And it doesn't get much better next term. I don't know all their courses, but I will be teaching them Computation Methods, Control Theory (and labs), and their Heat Transfer Labs. Tough work.
1 comment:
Dr. Foster,
Glad to hear the teaching is going well. I'm sure you'll love it once you've figured out your powerpoint slides. :-) How are the adjustments to the Pacific NW going? To fatherhood (dang)?
-Alan
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