One benchmark that I use on how good a class went is how much writing I’ve done on the board. The less I write, the better. My ideal is that I would not write on the board at all during a 45 minute (or 90 minute) class. Not counting classes where the whole point of the class was working time on group projects and problems, I’ve done it exactly once. It was a very, very good class with some of the brightest kids I’ve taught and we went through an hour of material with the kids writing and deriving everything on the board with occasional hints, prods and sarcastic insults from me.

Recently, I’ve been trying to start getting my classes to be more self-ran (again). First of all, I’m tired of preparing lectures at 11 in the evening—I’m finally at the age when I actually need to sleep at some reasonable time, I guess. Second, my department chair has commended me and wrote a pretty good evaluation of my teaching when he sat in on a class on a day when I accidentally let the kids flow along and did their own thing. And really, this is good teaching practice.

The interesting thing I’ve found so far is that my younger kids are having the best time adapting to a lack of lectures. My morning class—the one filled with my best prepared, most matured seniors—likes to be talked at because they can’t think at 7:45 in the morning.

Not coincidentally, since I now spend over 30% of my time not doing any writing and instead am spending a decent chunk of it commenting and prodding and pointing to the board while sitting in the back of the room, I got myself an executive laser pointer from Staples. It points, strobes, underlines and underline-strobes, and would have been $88 (a rip-off, really) if the box wasn’t slightly damaged and had to be sold to me for $14.

Note: I’m using the word “board” to refer to whiteboards, chalkboards, large pads of paper, a sheet of letter-sized paper in the middle of the table, a tablet PC or whatever the hell “board” means in the situation. The fact is that I have used all these media in the last two months and the more I switch, the more consistent my handwriting across the board becomes.

Wing :: Feb.28.2009 :: Posts :: 1 Comment »