The end of the Quarter

Wow - I am exhausted! I can't believe I survived teaching 250 students this quarter. My new job is amazing - I love it, it is more than I ever hoped it would be. I seem to relate well to my students. I have a lot to learn and there are a lot of things I want to do better, but I feel like I'm off to a strong start. I had a very low drop-out rate in my class, and my students did well. I feel like they really tried to achieve the things I pushed them to do. They also did pretty well on my final - I put a question on there that I thought would really challenge them and they averaged about 65% on it - which means that most of them actually managed to do it right.

I gave my students a diagnostic test to see how well we're doing in the courses before doing our curricular reform. I was worried about the results because it was my first time teaching a large-enrollment course and I was new to this student population. However, my students did great. They did far above the average large-lecture class (as compared to colleges across the country)! I am very proud of them, and myself. I feel like things are going well in the class because I relate well to my students - which is largely because I somehow fit in well in Oregon. I feel like I belong.

I also had my teaching evaluated by two senior faculty members in my department and one faculty member from the center for teaching and learning. There are great things they pointed out for me to improve on in the future, but they were also full of encouraging words and seemed to really enjoy what we were doing in the classroom. It was nerve-racking having them observe my class - but that day was very lively and I couldn't even pick them all out from the crowd so it was easy to forget I was being watched. I was a bit nervous though and accidentally dropped the brand new piece of demo equipment (that was just made by my request the previous week!) on the floor in front of all the students! Fortunately it didn't break :)

The funniest thing though was when I nearly knocked over one of my students passing a basketball to him (to show momentum conservation). I haven't passed a basketball in years - and I've been working out my upper body lately. I guess I have a lot more "umph" in my throws than either I or my students realized! I enjoy having laughter in my classroom... I am looking forward to getting back to my students in Jan.