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I felt like a well dressed, wonderful smelling piece of shi*t.
The Departmental recommendation included getting suggestions from my peers and performing mid-semester evaluations to improve my responses. The good thing about student course evaluations is they provide insight into student experiences, but the bad part is this snapshot might not be an accurate reflection. I am a deep believer in reflection and bettering my craft but my responses were all over the place and I'd decided to focus on the negative ones. After many sleepless nights as I sailed down the river of sorrow...yelling to the skies how unfair it was that my job security be judged by less than 50% of the students I instruct, I finally found the cave of wisdom. Transparency, engagement, and voice are the words I heard. If I could increase them I'm sure it would have a positive impact on my evaluations. I mean I had to...student evaluations are a factor in a professor's path to tenure.
In the Spring of 2019, I spoke with several of my colleagues and found several ideas to implement in my classes. In the Fall of 2019, I sent an email requesting a mid-semester student evaluation only to find out I was two weeks too late, no worries I would be prepared for the next semester. I was shocked, but in a good way with some of the responses I received during the Spring of 2020, but I still didn't have the number of responses I was looking for. My hopes of using the rest of the semester to encourages the students to respond were halted by the COVID-19 shutdown. I felt stuck, how could I build stronger bonds with the students if I would never see them again. I decided to use the lack of face to face classes as my wind indirect my sails toward high student engagement. Odd right...but I like a good challenge.
TRANSPARENCY
In the Fall, I began my third academic year at my current university, using a " High Flex" model which simply meant that we professors needed to prepared to shift between Face to Face and Remote modes of teaching with a drop of a dime...wait "pivoting" is the current term. My lecture courses average about 50 students per section but can have up to 100, so there was no way to teach my sections of the course while observing social distancing. I opted to be transparent with the university about my personal concerns. I requested my course be remote and be asynchronous to support both the student and me. Opting for an asynchronous format meant I would never meet my students face to face and students would engage with materials at their preferred time rather than a prescribed. I also decided to be as transparent with the students as possible: Here's what I know.... Here's what I don't know... We will get through this together.
ENGAGEMENT AND VOICE.
While remote teaching and online teaching are not completely the same they both can be a challenge in the area of student engagement. I decided to our first assignment would be an individual conversation. The first assignment of our course was title " Intrest" in the email student talked to me about their personal interests/ concerns they had in relation to the course. I used their responses to inform the content for the course. This was a big undertaking because there were close to 200 of them but well worth it in the long run. My mid-semester evaluator complimented me on my rapport with the students. The evaluator even said that they were surprised by the amount of response received and this was a testament to the virtual community I was able to build. Course evaluation responses were released last week and while I am still not exactly where I want to be I feel my sails adjusted to get me there.
🌺You are in complete control of your reactions.
🌺Observe/identify actions that are out of your control.
🌺Focus on what you can control & be active in those spaces.
If nothing else this pandemic has reminded me of my place in the world. I’m reminded of my impact. And the size of my impact. At times, I’ve been guilty of playing the victim as if life is happening to me rather than me being an active pilot charting my destination. After some reflective journaling, I accepted that while #covid_19 was not decision it’s allowed me to get a little closer to where I want to be when shifted my sails.
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💛Mya
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