Another professor in the family

Monday, January 16, 2012

I got my wish and I am officially teaching my first university course at my alma mater. It is bizarre to be back in this role, walking the sidewalks and greeting my old professors now as colleagues. I am fortunate to be working at an institution that values collegiality. I am treated as an equal, not a newbie adjunct who used to be a student and doesn’t belong with all the “real” professors. During my office hours, when no student darkens my doorway, I find myself chatting with other profs and receiving helpful tips from them. And I get to use the fabulous copier that whipped out my nine page syllabus, collated and stapled, in record time!

The first day of class went well, although it was slightly intimidating to have 40 students staring back at you, and I was left wondering if I truly would be able to engage them and help them to think about marriage and the family in new ways. We actually didn’t even have enough room for everyone because the class was supposed to be capped at 35 (well, originally I asked for only 30 students but there was an error in the paperwork and more students registered before the cap could be finalized). But then there were one or two with special circumstances and another one that snuck in somehow. But the last two students who attended the first class, hoping that they would be added from the waitlist, got the big boot from me. Brutal, I know but there weren’t even chairs for them, besides the fact that I am trying to make this a discussion and interaction type of class. Teaching so many students is quite a change from the workshops and seminars I taught in Zambia, where the max was 25 students. I could arrange the students in a horseshoe shape and walk down the middle to get closer to whoever was contributing to the class. But here I feel I need binoculars to see the sleepy students in the back of the class. The class is held Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8:00 for an hour and a half. I’m hoping that my sheer enthusiasm for the course material will hold their interest during that time slot.

I encountered my first glitch after class our first day. A student informed me that the textbooks for the class were not in the bookstore. I had placed my order back in October, actually before the deadline that Peter informs me most professors ignore, and I had received a confirmation email so I assumed everything was set. Unfortunately, I came to learn, there was a website glitch that day and they lost all the orders and had no way of finding out who had submitted orders to contact them. The bookstore eventually placed the new order but the books wouldn’t arrive for over a week, after the first quiz the students were scheduled to take on the first two chapters of the main textbook. Peter saved the day when he scanned those two chapters and uploaded them so the class could read and prepare for the quiz without me having to shift everything around. My hero!

On the second day of class, I taught the class how to complete a genogram (like a geneaology but focuses on relationships). We used the example of Joseph in Genesis to track the relational patterns of three generations. If a student could identify a pattern (such as sibling rivalry, favorites, deception) and who exhibited that behavior, s/he could come to the white board and draw in the squiggly lines that represented that pattern. One student, who looked to cool to care, actually volunteered a pattern and came up to mark it on the board. Another student, who obviously hadn’t read the assigned chapters out of Genesis in preparation for this exercise, was looking at the board with amazement. She quipped, “You mean all this crazy stuff is in the Bible? This family is even crazier than my own!” Yes, I think we will have a good time learning together.

I have most of my classes prepared until the midterm break, in the middle of March, although I will probably tweak each one as the actual class approaches. Somehow, I will need to find the time to do the groundwork on the second half of the semester but I am trying not to stress about that. Because I have been out of the field for awhile, I feel like my knowledge of the subject is shallow. I know I have read enough to engage the class as an introductory course, but I am also aware of all the things I don’t know. My knowledge feels “thin” instead of “thick.” I also know that accumulated knowledge will happen as I read, interact with students, and continue teaching the course. I also recognize that I probably know more than I think I do.

So with the first week under my belt, I think I like it. However, the grading starts this week as the weekly quizzes commence and an initial assignment is due on Thursday. We’ll see how much I like it when I am bogged down in grading!