A shoutout for teachers

When I signed on to teach a weekend class at Portland State, I figured I would learn something about myself in addition to the subject itself. True enough.

Now that I've gone from one end of the spectrum to the other, a brief recap is in order for "Opinion and the Blogosphere."

Preparation: Begin with the objectives (What do I want students to learn?); develop a curriculum (How will they learn it? Through what combination of readings, discussions, exercises, guest speakers, etc.); get a sense of the class beforehand (What year in school? Why are they taking this particular class?).

Execution: Come in with a plan, but adapt as circumstances arise (Fortunately, no A/V lapses, but there were times when a planned unit ran long or short); try to engage students in class discussion (This mostly took care of itself but ...is it better to let a student sit in silence, not participating, or call on him or her, for the sake of accountability?); remember to end each unit with a recap of what we learned.

Evaluation: Not until the wee hours of this morning did I fully appreciate what teachers go through. Grading the work is easy enough, given the criteria I set out. No, I'm talking about missed assignments that simply weren't turned in. Is it my responsibility to ask students for this or that? If I do, what obligation do I create for accepting late work? At what cost? (Half of the points normally earned?) I've given this one a lot of thought, but for me it comes down to this: These are college students, nearly all of them seniors. Seems to me they should be responsible by now for making sure all their work is turned in.

Speaking of evaluation, the students filled out some standardized forms on the final day of class. I have no idea what they said. I suppose I'll find out at some point during the spring quarter.

What did I learn about myself? Preparation is crucial (not that I didn't realize it before). Executing at a high level involves conveying passion for and knowledge of the subject. Evaluation means being clear about what you're asking students to do and being fair about judging their efforts as well as the work itself.

If I were grading myself? A solid "B" -- which suggests a competent first time out, with lots of room for improvement.