Thank you for your detailed reflection on this class. I have saved your post to refer to when I prepare to teach a class in the future.
Author: Anurag
Comment on I’m not a professional by Anurag
It’s been almost 4 years since I joined Graduate School and I feel the same way. I think this ruthless competition in R1 research universities is not for me. My ideal academic job would be at a smaller school where I can get tenure by teaching and research is an added bonus but not a requirement. This might of course change, but the more I observe my advisors and other faculty members, the more I am apprehensive of this environment.
Comment on Like Deer in Headlights by Anurag
I agree with Alex’s comment about not treating students like 12 year olds and policing what they do on their or lab computers. Maybe our focus should be on developing a more inclusive and engaging class rather than focusing on how to stop or curtail use of technology or penalize it?
Comment on Why Are You Here? by Anurag
I have tried going down the handwritten notes path and realized that my handwriting is so bad that I find it hard to decipher things I have written (or doodled) in my notebooks after. Since the beginning of graduate school I have used and re-used just one notebook to write down notes from meetings etc. Beyond that, I’d rather take notes on a computer and be able to read it later, than take notes in paper and don’t know what it says.
Comment on Gazing at the shiny internet by Anurag
I have this chrome extension called Block and Focus where I have added the websites I frequently visit to procrastinate. Every time I sit down to work, I activate that extension and it blocks the access to reddit, facebook, twitter etc and shows a motivational quote instead. Just that reminder is enough to get me back to work instead of aimlessly browsing.
Comment on Free Food Anyone? by Anurag
I agree that the fighting the urge to check notifications from social media is tough. I personally have either deleted most social media apps and/or have turned off notifications to break the cycle of “checking notifications > checking other things > time spent doing nothing”.
Comment on I am me and I can be no one else. by Anurag
Thank you for the post, Faith. I appreciated the insight into how you teach and what you value.
I like to teach skills and not dates.
I take teaching very seriously.
^^ Yes! I lost count on the number of times I have hated modules in a class or classes just because the teachers are either focusing on useless details instead of explaining the significance and concepts or do not care about teaching.
I have noted all of these down and will remind myself of these things when I go to teach.
Comment on 6:30 pm: will you give me an A+? by Anurag
Exactly! Give me my A and then we can talk about reform in grading and assessments. I definitely think we are testing who does the best under pressure. I think we in engineering are too lazy and too comfortable with numbers and grades to even acknowledge that there may be alternatives. If we try, I am sure we can come up with ways to evaluate without the pressure of tests or grades. The qualifier and prelim in EWR is a great example of that. But who will take the time and put the effort for such rigorous evaluations, when you can feed the multiple choice OCR sheets and grade 40 exams in 10 mins.
Comment on The difficulty with narratives rather than grades by Anurag
Thanks for the post, Lauren. You have an interesting perspective to this week’s discussion. Assessments were created to manage a large number of students, and I think most of us will agree that they are doing a shoddy job of being a tool to compare students (grade inflation, dilution of education standards etc.). I agree that the current system is probably not the most conducive to implementing reform in assessments. I mean, at the end of the semester, you have to submit grades to VT. So how do we bring change…..
Comment on 12 Years Without any Grades…Kind of by Anurag
I got here first! I’ll take that A, please. Thank you for this insightful post, Bethany.
I had a few questions for Dee:
1. What prompted you to homeschool your children?
2. Were you ever worried your children might lag behind their public school peers of the same age?
3. How much of a time commitment was this for you? Was this your full-time job?
4. What kind of support/guidance did you receive from the community?
I am fascinated by the whole concept of homeschooling and how homeschooled students integrate with others in the higher education setting. I didn’t even know one could be homeschooled and be eligible to go to college until I moved to the US.
