Thanks Gary! I think that an important part of our education is really helping us realize who we want to be both in our professional and personal life… I think that for me things like working in groups, engaging in conversations which I might not necessarily agree with, learning about various cultures and ethnicities has definitely made me realize what I would/would not do as teacher, industry practitioner or more generally as a member of the society! We should realize that good interpretation and evaluation of such experiences combined with our technical knowledge is what makes us more competent.

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Great points thank you for sharing Abdelrahman! I think that the most importing thing that we have to do is to find our teaching personality knowing our strengths, weaknesses and capabilities… I think the most important thing about this course is that it gives you general guidelines and things to think about, while it also allows you to explore who you want to be as a teacher! I think connecting these guidelines with our teaching personality is key.

Great points! I should first start by saying that I am definitely a non-procrastinator! I like to plan for things and get them done way before the deadlines so that I have time to revisit them before the submission date… Same thing with studying for my exams etc. However I think that you are making some great points and I can understand where you’re coming from…

I think that one potential solution to this problem could be having more in class exercises where we keep the students engaged and involved. I have never really experienced this during my undergraduate studies, however in my graduate studies, I have taken many courses (like the GEDI course) which involve preparations before each session. Also, the need for preparation weather it is reading the material and doing an assignment comes from the fact that in order to be part of the class and engage in the discussions you will need to get the tasks done before each class…

I think something like this at a lower level will definitely keep the procrastinators engaged as well!

Exactly Karen! I also have the same problem when I read… I feel like I need more time to process and become comfortable with the material! As a PhD student there is so much that you need to read once you get started so I think it is not possible to take your time with every reading material… However what I have found is that as you move forward throughout your degree (I just finished my first year), you have a limited number of resources that really pairs well with what you do and in that case you have more time to really dig deep into your readings…

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Great points Cassie! I think that there should be a balance between the two… To be honest I always panicked over not be able to take my calculator to the exam! That is mainly because there is so much calculations that we have to do in our Civil Engineering exams… And doing all of the computations manually will take from the time that you need to think the other problems through… However I should say that if we had more time in our exams I would definitely agree on not allowing students to the bring calculators, phones, etc. to the exam…

Great points! I definitely agree with you on the fact that we should live in the moment! Taking pictures, videos is a great way for us to remember some of the memorable days in the past… However I think that at least 80% of our moments should be experienced purely without keeping ourselves busy by trying to save these moments in the external memory! I, myself was known to be very annoying and spent most of my life taking pictures, videos, etc. Then I realized that I enjoy looking at a picture or two a few years after the event, but what I enjoy the most is just being present in every moment of my life and not worrying about capturing every minute of it! This helped me enjoy my life a lot more and when I looked at those few memories that I had saved in the external memory, it was just more pleasant!

Great point Aakash! I definitely agree with you on the fact that at some level in undergraduate studies and in graduate school, learning has shifted towards learner centered environments where the teacher mainly facilitates the learning process! However I would like to see this happen in elementary school, middle grade, and high school since the strict and teacher centered environment of school might impact students (alike myself) in a negative way and make them loose interest to pursue their education! I was lucky enough for my parent to help me throughout school and once I made to the university, I liked it a lot more since it was not as standardized, and boring as my school years…

Thank you so much for sharing! I definitely identify with you since I, myself was a “miserable child” during grade school, middle grade and even high school! My parents always tell me that they never thought that I could make it this far! Throughout my academic journey I learned to be more patient and focused… I was never a fan of standardized processes, tests, etc. For this reason as I went from grade school to middle grade, high school, undergraduate and graduate school, I was less and less miserable since there was less standardized processes and more open ended, learner centered activities…

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Great points Abdelrahman! I definitely feel the same way and agree with you… I took two courses in the Industrial Systems Engineering department with the same professor last semester and this semester. He is an assistant professor and I can confidently say that he is a much better teacher than some of the full professors. He is always open to ideas thoughts and suggestions. This makes the course very interesting, exiting and relatable! In one of our classes he explained a concept wrong and once he understood that he has made a mistake he said “I take that back, that explanation was wrong”. That stuck with me and made me realize that owing up to our mistakes will make us better and more trustable and relatable teachers…

Great points Atiyeh! I definitely agree with you on the fact that students tent to study for exams and that large classes are harder for designing learner centered activities, etc. However I think that we should reduce the weight of the exams by adding group projects (in large classes we can have larger groups), assignments, in class quizzes/assignments where students can grade their own quiz (assignment) at the end of the class, etc… I think that breaking down the final course grade between various activities will also work for large classes and will keep the students engaged. This will make the class fun and exiting and lead to a learner centered environment… What do you think?