I probably shouldn’t admit this, but when I was just beginning my teaching career, I had one clear goal on the first day of class: scare the living crap out of my students.
I’m exaggerating, but only a little. And while I’m tempted to say, “I’m not even sure where this came from!” that’s not entirely true: it came from my sense that as a grad student and a young professor not much older than my students, I needed to establish my authority. It came from a fear that maybe I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was and that I needed to hide this behind a veil of superiority. It came from the intimidation I myself had felt semester after semester, year after year, as I sat in class facing professors I assumed to be infinitely wise and infinitely powerful.
4 Responses
This is a good article. Thank you.
Love this! I’m intrigued to try something new…thank you…
You are both very welcome. Thank you for taking the time to leave a note!
This is a great approach for getting students excited about the class material specifically, and about learning more generally. Thank you! Andy Plotkin