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Today’s class focused on the practical, down and dirty, aspects of classroom management. Since I knew this was a topic of interest for several people, and that we had already covered IGI and Conversation Theory a bit in another session, I decided to focus our attention on the classroom aspects of teaching. If anyone’s particularly interested in that, though, I’m happy to chat. 🙂

A reminder: Roz and I are meeting next week to discuss this project and next steps. If anyone has feedback, questions, ideas for future teaching initiatives, please let one of us know!!

I also mentioned Central Michigan’s FaCIT Take 5 For Teaching website. It’s a great resource for practical tips if you have a spare five minutes and an area you’re interested in learning more about.

Okay! The things we discussed:

First Day

  • Student Tours
  • Discussion of how students currently use the library (perhaps followed with student led tour)
  • Students fill out card about what they want to get from the class (to be used in refining the syllabus)
  • Showing the library website and how to do useful things (place a hold, reserve a study room, etc)
  • Clickers to get demographic information and introduce the tool
  • Learning style inventory

Getting Students To Talk

  • Room and layout makes a difference. Giz volunteered to help rearrange for a few hours this summer to see if there are any good solutions. I’m in. Anyone else?
  • Worksheets and in class assignments in lieu of discussion
  • Pair work

Group Word

  • No one currently lets students choose if they want to work alone or in a group
  • Students might resist group work, but it’s good for them (they’ll have to do it for the rest of their life)
  • Service learning as a way to do group work with one large class group

Getting Comfortable with Speaking

  • Practice with an audience
  • The shift between the reference librarian’s role as a helper/expert to a teacher’s role as the one in charge is a hard one
  • Praise in public, chastise in private
  • Set ground rules

Multitasking Students

  • Ignore it
  • Ask how what they’re doing is applicable (if blatant)
  • Teach from in front of the multitasking student, wherever they’re sitting

Attendance and Tardiness

  • Quiz grades: that they count towards attendance, that they start when the class starts so their grades reflect tardiness
  • Tick off each comment as class participation
  • In class graded exercises
  • Shut door when class starts
  • Stop and comment when people come in late

Learning Names

  • Name table tent by each student
  • Assigned seats

Establishing Class Rules

  • As a class
  • List that is modified each semester based on previous experiences

So, those are the comments I managed to record during our discussion. If I missed something or you think of something else, please add it! If you have any other Q&A, please leave them here!!