Whew - Glad That's Over!

While I'm late in posting this, I wrote it on Monday of this week...

It is over - thank goodness - and I am tired, but I suppose it was a success?!

RJ and I are on the planning committee for a regional conference on college teaching. We've been on this planning committee for years (probably 8) and the committee meets once a month all year long. We tend to enjoy the other committee members and we enjoy planning the conference, but the conference itself is a beating.

First of all, it is very informal, even though there are a few "presentations" to the whole group (100 college faculty) and "resource sessions" where people choose what to talk about - these are more conversations than presentations...and the participants are the facilitators of conversation. It is held at a campy-resort on a lake in the hill country - the wildflowers are in bloom and the weather was beautiful. Those who attend are, for the most part, faculty who want to be better teachers...which is odd at the major research college campuses. Since I am not tenured, I don't have to do research - just teaching and service...so, I get to focus on being a great teacher all the time - and things like this conference are a part of my service.

RJ and I conducted a "community forum" on student development...this is not our background, but the nature of the course I teach and RJ's job is such that we observe student development and actually try to get students to develop more quickly, if you will. With some research we discovered the major theories that one would need to know to be somewhat educated on student development theory - considering there are entire graduate programs devoted to this, what can you really do in 1 hour? The general concept is - while no one would argue that you can see physical, cognitive, emotional, etc. development in children, these types of developments are also occurring during the college years...do you want to keep this in mind when teaching? What do you see as your role in the development of your students? Are you a person who is merely an evaluator of their cognitive development (for example, they earn a grade on their exam and it may not be a good one if they have not cognitively developed to the level you want them to)? Are you someone who facilitates their development? Or are you wholly unconcerned? I won't go into it in more detail because I doubt most people are interested. But, we did weave in a student survey by playing Family Feud - and I think this was wildly popular. I'm not going to toot my own horn, but I think (judging from the # of people who told us so all day long) that most people thought it great.

But, now I'm tired and I have to go to class - and while most conference participants are likely re-energized regarding their students...I am not particularly so. Of course, in general, I'm usually perfectly happy to see my students. I've just noticed we only have 4 weeks of school left...this makes me very happy!