Thursday, February 26, 2009
Time Management
Lately we seem to be spending nearly the whole class time either discussing the readings (Mondays) or discussing their exercises they bring in (Wednesdays). Then I have about 15 minutes to rush through all of the other things I had planned: lectures, handouts, exercises, etc. One problem seems to be if I say something about one person's piece-of-the-week, I feel I have to say something about everyone's, and it just drags on forever. When discussing the readings as a group, I'm having the same problem a lot of people are having: lots of monologues and bits of silence. So, when things finally get rolling, I'm reluctant to stop them. Any suggestions for how to get through these things quicker? It just feels like the class is more interesting when we have time to jump around to several different activities.
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I was having a similar problem earlier in the semester in the "comment on one, comment on them all" situation. I have figured out that if I comment one everyone's at least once A SEMESTER that it greatly decreases time spent talking about the pieces individually in class AND my students are now waiting to see who's piece gets examined/talked about. Not that I'm running the class like a workshop, just that sometimes when we're going over homework and someone is a good example, I say so. It's worked for me so far and it's gotten me out of having to comment on everyone all the time.
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