Feb 19
I just received my teaching evaluations for my first academic semester at UNCW. I am delighted to say that the students felt I did a good job teaching my first semester. This makes me extremely happy as I was very concerned that teaching in a new environment would be devastating for my teaching evaluations. Not to mention I became deathly ill for part of last semester. Anyway, according to my students, I did pretty well for my first term. A big thank you to my students for making the teaching effective. After all, it takes two to tango!
Sep 19
Today, I had a discussion with my boss about the number and types of assignments I have my students complete in their classes. In my classes, I generally have my students complete five to six programming assignments. I usually create my own assignments with the intent of minimizing the amount of busy work my students have to do.
I hate busy work, and I am sure most students do too. However, my boss and a colleague both agree, as well as educational research, that keeping students busy strengthens their work ethic and increases their performance on exams. I have decided to find a happy medium. I am going to have, at minimum, seven assignments in my programming classes from now on with three exams. This way students move in smaller increments, and I am not bombarding them with menial tasks.
Aside from that, I am also working on a paper for my social foundations course and assignment two in my interactive media course. I have to drive to Tampa, again, this weekend. Hopefully, things will slow down after my qualifying exams. Well, back to work.