Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A bit more Student Humor...

Having gone into the old archives, having been reminded of how long I've been doing this, I offer another snippet of student art; this was from the very first class I taught, period. I was working as a laboratory assistant at my alma mater with a newly minted BA in Geology (this was 1981), and I hadn't really decided what I was going to do next. Another nearby college, which did not have a dedicated science department or majors, still needed to teach some basic science courses, and they wanted to know if anyone at my school wanted to moonlight for a semester. None of the professors was available, but the school twisted some regulations to allow me to be the teacher of an Introduction to Geology course. I had 8 or 9 thoroughly disinterested students in a night class that I thought lasted from 7 to 9.

I was nervous. I begged my professor to let me copy his lecture notes and I did so thoroughly, practically memorizing them word for word. I held on to those notes like a security blanket during my lectures, hoping and praying the students wouldn't ask any questions. But somehow that first night I made it to 9:00 o'clock and told the students they could go. They looked at each other quizzically and got up and left. This went on for weeks. The last week of class, I looked at the grade sheet, and saw that the class was scheduled from 7:00 to 10:00! And not one student ever said anything about it!

I learned a lot about teaching that semester, but the most important thing I learned is that I could actually teach. Maybe not the most brilliant academic mind, but I could communicate the interest and excitement about the earth that I myself had. And I especially liked field tripping. The comic above was one of the two pieces of paper a student turned in at the end of the field trip along the San Andreas fault at Cajon Pass in southern California. No notes, just a pair of comics.

He passed, but barely.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope you got a FERPA waiver before you posted this!

Gaelyn said...

LOL! First time out is always rought. Thanks for sharing more student art, and your story.

Rosenow said...

Congratulations for continuing! And, the art submittal is fantastic. Pictures paint a thousand words. Thank you for the interesting blog and teachings. I love to travel too. This gives a new perspective to the experience.