Tuesday Teaching Talk is a regular feature which, as the name implies, is an opportunity to talk explicitly about teaching (and learning) in the practical and philosophical sense that happens on, you guessed it, Tuesday. Hold on to your hats. The CAST coordinators (yes there are 2 of us) are tasked with supplying TTTs to you. Look for questions, videos, tips, etc. Enjoy!
A few quick adverts…
1) Today is the first CAST Pedagogy Subgroup meeting at 2 in 1046.
2) Thursday is the first of four Thursday Teaching Talks (a different/new TTT; CAST loves the letter T apparently). This Thursday is Cookies and CAST where we’ll discuss creating crumbs of curiosity in our teaching.
Without further ado, here’s today’s TTT.
The Harold Lounge 
Learn your students’ names.
That’s a non-astonishing teaching tip, and yet students rate it very highly in terms of how they felt about a particular course/instructor.
Along those same lines, reply to student e-mails in a timely manner. They’re always appreciate this, plus it helps to avoid the tedious work of rummaging through old, possibly irrelevant, e-mails later.
1. Return all assignments with your feedback no later than ten days after they’re submitted.
2. Smile.
(which may prove impossible if you’re teaching 5 x 35 (or 39) instead of 4 x 25, so do your best to be timely without beating up on yourself too much if you miss your deadline by a day. Better to do it well than rushed and poorly.)
Rather than leaving a few of my own non-astonishing teaching tips, I’ll pretentiously refer to my friend Confucius, who we are reading in class this month:
II.9: “The Master asked, ‘I can speak to Hui all day without his disagreeing with me in any way. Thus he would seem to be stupid. However, when I take a closer look at what he does in private after he has withdrawn from my presence, I discover that it does, in fact, throw light on what I said. Hui is not stupid after all.”
We frequently focus on the importance of active learning in the modern era, and rightly so. But it’s important not to idolize or caricaturize it too much. Sometimes, the most active learners are the most silent, concentrating on listening and synthesizing the new and old knowledge. In this way, the knowledge grows into the learner and can affect a lasting change.
II.11: “The Master said, ‘A man is worthy of being a teacher who gets to know what is new by keeping fresh in his mind what he is already familiar with.”
Likely, at some point, each one of us fell in love with our respective disciplines. There was something intriguing and exciting about its concepts and modes of thought. Recalling that initial excitement, and re-kindling that curiosity within ourselves, is often the key to understanding how to kindle that curiosity in our students.
Be respectful.
Project your voice.
Smile.
Yes, learn names.
Introduce humor to balance the seriousness of the endeavor.
Oh yeah, and identify the Sox and Packer fans in the room. They’ll look lost and confused. While they may be good students, their loyalty to the wrong teams may be their undoing in the weeks to come. Make your classroom an extension of The Friendly Confines. Nyuk, nyuk.
Add Real Madrid fans Realist, por favor, lost and confused indeed.
You got it Marta! Con gusto!
I see they are starting to show more futbol games on FOX.
As a Sox fan, I resemble that remark!
What’s funny is I’m pretty sure we share students and as I ask mine to speak loudly enough to be heard at “Sox Park” (i.e. Cellular Field ugh). I’m sure they arrive in your class at 11:00 pretty much puzzled as to how, if the White Sox are so amazing, anyone would be looking for Cubs fans. 🙂
I do like you’re sense of humor Hellokitty! Keep it coming.
So long as they are fans of one or the other BUT NOT BOTH!
Soxfest is this weekend, right? If so, then I hope you can attend and enjoy the festivities.