I've been swamped the last few weeks. I'm teaching three different classes with three different labs. This is not horrendous in itself - one course is in it's 10th iteration, another in its 4th. I did make a major change in the 4th iteration course, which is taking some time. The other course I taught once 10 years ago, so that's a little more trouble. The real problem is all the stuff I have on top of that, committees, other teaching/research responsibilities and the like. This week, I also had my sabbatical research presentation. That went well, but what I want to talk about is how having no time has influenced my teaching.
I don't have a lot of time to spend on class preparation. As a result, I've lost track of what I'm supposed to "cover" each week. In my faculty development days, I was fond of telling people that "to cover" normally means "to obscure". Merriam-Webster has the definition as "to hide from sight or knowledge" - not exactly what I'm trying to do in my classes.
I have built up a library of in-class group exercises for that course now in its 10th iteration. Normally, I schedule days to do group work, and when the day comes, I build an assignment based on something new students are ready for, what they are having trouble with, or some upcoming topic I have a cool problem for already. This term, I feel so busy, I keep looking at the next thing in my lecture notes and think "I'd rather just have them DO this". And, as it turns out, I usually have some problems or an activity in my stash that addresses that topic. I'm using all of them. I'm lecturing a lot less. And, what do you know? My students are learning more. This should be no surprise to me, as I have recommended the practice to others. I've given workshops on such approaches. And, I must admit, I've always wanted to figure out how to do more of it myself. Of course, this approach does take more time under normal circumstances. You have to figure out what you want your students to be able to do after the class session, find/design/create an appropriate activity, plan the lead in to the activity to prepare the students, and figure out how to lead or guide the activity. The only reason it is working for me now with less time is the extensive problem and activity base I have built up already.
I'm doing something similar in the course I have not taught in ten years. We are currently working on topics now that underlie the basic ideas my graduate work rests on. As a result, I'm just letting the class go where it goes, presenting some, throwing up problems on the board when everyone is having trouble, leaving half the class period open and filling it with what the students seem to need at the time. I won't be able to do this for every topic in the course, but for now, I can. It is a senior level class, the students are excellent and interested, and I know most of them well.
Recently, I was in need of an icosahedron for this course. After considering making one from card stock, starting and deciding I had no time for such an endeavor, I looked at Dr. H and said "You played D&D! Where are your dice?" The result was an excellent activity in which I emptied Dr. H's "geek kit" onto the table and gave two sentences of instructions. The second sentence being this one: "You can ignore dots and writing."
