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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!!