From Maria:

First, I have to say I am not much of a blogger either, but I find this very valuable for the goals of this course.

My teaching experiences are very conflicting. When I was in Greece and tutored I never enjoyed teaching English, mostly because most of the students did not really want to learn a language. They felt they had to because that would help them find a job (yes, I know, ironic to say that in a time where unemployment is rapidly increasing in Greece). At the New School I really enjoyed being a teaching assistant, mostly because I enjoyed the readings and also because the people I was interacting with were graduate students in their first year so (hopefully) all of them wanted to be there. My last semester I really enjoyed being a teaching assistant; I loved most of the readings that Will (the professor) had on the syllabus, and was also familiar with –which always helps. Mostly, I loved the fact that the class was so “alive,” everyone asked questions, participated. This semester I am assisting for a similar class and so far I hate it. Half the class is logged in Facebook and the people who do pay attention are not that excited about the class. What is interesting is that there are 12 men and 10 women, an unusual ratio for a theater class. I don’t know if it’s true that mostly male students do not talk much but these men in my class are certainly awfully quiet. 

In the beginning of every class the professor posts some questions about the readings in Power Point and divides the class in groups of 4-5 people. The people should preferably not know each other (it often gets hard as this is not a very big class) so that gives them an opportunity to engage in the questions while also learning things about each other. I find this particularly helpful as it creates fruitful conversations. However, once the group work is done and the professor starts to talk many people lose interest. I am thinking now that I will be teaching my first class on Marx’s Communist Manifesto how to engage people without seeming that I am lecturing at them. Something that a group did last semester in their presentation is this: they pretended they were members of a union and were talking about the issues that Marx proposes. One of them played Marx (yes, it was fun) and was answering all the questions they had. What that caused was a number of questions about the reading itself while taking the conversation outside the classroom. It also helps that most of these people we are teaching are actors, but generally, I would say that role playing whenever possible is something that I consider a strong pedagogical tool to engage people in the readings. The reason for this is that most of the students associate reading and homework with boredom. This way they get to be passionate about them!

 I remember after grading the mid-term papers I would always meet with them individually and tell them to remember that they don’t have to spend hours summarizing the text to me: I know it. I’ve read it. Another thing I posted on Moodle is George Orwell’s essay on the English Language and the maxims of Paul Grice. That’s because a) most of the students would use passive voice because they were taught that it is more “formal.” As I told them repeatedly, they should use it (as long as it does not get repetitive). I know it’s them who wrote the paper, it’s not a secret. This way, I wanted to encourage them in expressing their ideas about the material since they have to create their own arguments. Most of them admitted they felt scared not to see too pompous, or worse “wrong,” about what they were saying. I remember this because one of them confessed that he thought he came off as racist with what he was arguing but he felt it was inappropriate to admit it in a paper. I told him that he should write anything he wants and if he could provide strong argumentation I would give him an A even if he said that Hitler was the best person in world history. He did it and got an F simply because there was not any substantial argumentation. My point is that I find very valuable to allow the students to feel free to express their viewpoints without dictating what is “wrong” or “right.”

In the meantime, I keep thinking of other constructive ways to keep a classroom alive—without turning it into a zoo. 

Maria