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I try to keep my empathy as a teacher by learning new things so I remember what it feels like to struggle. This summer has offered good chances. #Thread #TeachJMC
2/ My self goal was to try to learn a little Arabic with @duolingo and an 80-plus street later, I can say Tamer has a pretty house and David is an amazing translator. What are my lessons?
3/ Skills in my field come in big-bite classes (basic level...you learn a little, but it feels like a lot. Things like beginning media writing) and small bite classes (advanced...you polish those basic skills. Tedious, but you learn a lot)
4/ I learned that small doses of gamified learning are good, incentive wise. Any piece of learning doesn't seem daunting, so you are more willing to take it on. But it relies on the learner to integrate across lessons. I know stuff, but not how it fits together.
5/ My unplanned learning activity has been how to teach a hy-flex class. This was about half the summer figuring out what it is and the other half how to actually make the components.
6/ This reminded me of how much my students struggle emotionally with unstructured problems, but also how going through the hurdle of project definition is so very good for them.
7/ The uncertainty about the fall semester is cranked up to 100 for faculty (and for learners) and I think institutions of higher ed writ large have made some regrettable decisions for which faculty and staff are paying some of the price.
8/ BUT as I see this in myself and my colleagues, how much more for the learners, who have, at best, a novice's grasp of the structure of the knowledge.
9/ It's been a good and necessary exercise for me to reflect in action this summer. I will have to build this in for my students as well, with scaffolding. I think the process will be painful. I think the results will have advantages over a typical fall term.
10/ You learn to do by doing. I will be asking my learners to be resilient. They will learn resilience.
11/ My disciplinary conference this year was this week, and it taught me another thing as well. I think there is some stereotype threat around teaching and learning, and it can be addressed through perspective shift. We can help each other make those shifts.
12/ Is re-imagining how you have taught or learned into lower fidelity channels hard. Yes. If you are uncomfortable, it's not because "faculty like me aren't..." It's difficult for you because it's difficult. For everyone.
13/ But the isolated and competitive nature of most faculty life does us a disservice.
14/ I've seen a few models of faculty collaboration. They often fall apart due to too many demands, meetings, etc. (Or they get lost in the random chaos of email in-boxee). Moving into the new semester, we need to prioritize this. For us. And for our learners.
