Learning New Stuff
Well, I started teaching today. I'd love to say that the first day went off without a hitch; but if I did, it would be a big, fat lie. Late last week, I got a brief tutorial on how to use the AV carts for our dumb rooms on campus. And I thought I understood everything. I came back to my office and told my office mate that it was a piece of cake. But like our tech manager says, "it's not that difficult, but it's not that easy." And so I found a way to screw it up in both of my classes. The first class I had a simple problem with a simple solution. I had just forgotten that the tech manager had explained that I overlook a certain security warning. So I called him; he came in and clicked "okay" and left. So of course, I felt really stupid. Then for my next section, using the same cart, I had a different problem. This time, there was no wireless network available. Earlier, it had connected automatically. I really didn't feel like calling the poor guy again, only to have him click one button and walk out again--this time, probably rolling his eyes. So I used a backup plan, which was to pull my syllabus off of my thumbdrive and show it to the class that way. (Apparently, printing copies of your syllabus takes about a week, this time of year.) That meant that I didn't get a chance to help students look at our LMS, but I think most of the students are at least sophomores and should have experience using it.
So now that I've been humbled twice by the AV cart, I'll show it a little more respect in the future. And maybe if I'm nice to it, it will work for me.
Otherwise, classes went okay. Today, I had one class that seems pretty talkative and one class that isn't. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
So now that I've been humbled twice by the AV cart, I'll show it a little more respect in the future. And maybe if I'm nice to it, it will work for me.
Otherwise, classes went okay. Today, I had one class that seems pretty talkative and one class that isn't. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
posted by Brad Smith at 10:23 AM
5 Comments:
It is a fun challenge, isn't it? At ICC, most of our computer classrooms are pretty old...and difficult. (some are snazzy and new, but they belong to the business dept. and we only get them if they're open). With my reading classes, I'm in a plain ol' room like in Stevenson...with a chalkboard...oh yea, it's fun :)
Two of my classes are in a plain ol' room too, with dry-erase boards that look like they haven't been cleaned since Clinton was in office. And two are in rooms that are being converted. So right now, they're just tables and chairs.
Wait...get this! At Hawkeye, sometimes we have to be scheduled in classrooms that are in the more "vocational" part of the college. For my very first class each day, I get to walk through the automechanic area, passing cars hoisted up on lifts and machines used to check tire tread. At least the classroom is relatively decent with a computer station plus projector, doc camera, and dry erase board. But wow - behind the podium (which I never use) are misc. car parts. Very interesting!
Hey Brad -- how many classes are you teaching total?
Fun times, Marcy. At WVC, I had an office for awhile that overlooked the autoshop. One of my colleagues called it Kafkaesque. :) I'm teaching four total classes, two sections of writing and rhetoric I and two of writing and rhetoric II--essentially 101 and 145 with some differences.
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