A Classy Post

Welcome dear reader to a post of self-promotion. I am teaching TWO special topics classes coming up and I want you to take them. So here I will give you a brief sketch of what each class is going to be about and hopefully you want to register for one or both of them.

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First, this summer I'm teaching Psychology on Film. This will be the third summer that I've taught this course. The theory of this class works thusly:

1. Art imitates life
2. Artists (film makers in this case) are attempting to capture moments of the human experience
3. Psychology is an integral part of the human experience
4. Artists, perhaps inadvertently, capture psychology in their art (in this case film).
5. As fledgling psychologists we can examine, discuss, and evaluate this process in order to gain not only a better understanding of the film, but also a better understanding of the underlying psychological phenomenon.

In summer class we meet for three hours twice a week, so that means in each class we will watch a film, and then discuss. I try to pair the films each week so that both are about a related topic. Each week you will write a short essay that explores the psych phenomenon in each or both films. Generally during the discussion I give you a solid sample outline of a perfectly acceptable paper. So if you like talking about movies, or psychology, then this might be a good class for you.

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The second class, coming this fall, Drugs and Behavior. This is the first semester I've been able to offer this class and I think you'll enjoy taking it. This is an introductory psychopharmacology class where we will talk about various chemical agents and how they interact with the brain and change behavior. This is not a class about addiction, treating addiction, drug policy, or the criminality of certain drugs. We will however be studying both therapeutic and recreational drugs including: alcohol, amphetamines, caffeine, cocaine, hallucinogens, marijuana, nicotine, opiates, psycho-therapeutic medications, stimulants, and probably some other drugs. So I imagine this class is valuable for students majoring in criminal justice, human services, nursing, or psychology. Although anyone with an interest in the effects of drugs on behavior would be welcome.

Third, is an old class delivered in a new way. This summer. I'm offering Intro to Psych as a Hybrid class. The purpose of a hybrid class is to blend on-line and face-to-face class elements. On-line you'll be doing all the content work, reading material, watching videos lectures, etc. In class we will work specifically on applying that content in activities, projects, and such. So this results in meeting once a week instead of twice a week. For example, you might read in your textbook about the principles of operant conditioning, watch a video on-line about pet training, then class will meet at Rabbit Run Park and we can teach your dog a trick. If you are someone you know needs to take Psych-101 then I think this would be a fun and interesting way to do it.

So I hope you register for my classes, I'll look forward to seeing you. And if you've take my summer film class in the past, feel free to write a testimonial in the comments! 

A TRANSformative College Experience

I like to think that for many of my students college will be more than just test scores and transcripts. I like to think that students will really grow as a person during their experience at SCC. Whether they are traditional students here for their first foray into higher education, or they are returning learners who have a wide range of life experiences but are looking for more formal education. Or even beyond that range I have student veterans who have life experiences beyond those that many students can comprehend and are using higher ed as part of their return to civilian life. Or high-school students who dual-enroll in college to get a head-start on their academic career. Whatever the student I suspect that if they engage in the SCC experience, that they can truly find transformative moments that will influence the rest of their lives.

Recently I created an extra-credit assignment for my Psych-101 students. The assignment was to attend an event, ask a question, and write a reflective essay about the experience. The description of the event follows:

The St. Louis Trans visibility Project, in conjunction with Sex+STL, and Transhaven present an afternoon of uncensored Q&A. Our amazing panelists will be ready to answer any question you might have about their lives and experiences as Trans* identified persons, including those questions you were told you should not ask, and the questions you may have been too shy to ask. No refusals, no reprisals, just honest dialog. Live questions will be fielded, as well as "anonymous write in" questions for anything you do not wish to ask aloud. The panel will be followed by an informal "coffee and conversation" hour.

I was a bit nervous. I felt like my students might be rude (intentionally or accidentally) or offended by the event itself. But, I thought that it was worth the risk. 7 Students (and 5 guests of students) attended the event. My wife and I were also there so I got to witness their behavior first hand. They were, of course, all very well behaved. I shouldn't have worried that they would do all right. But I have to say I was very proud of their essays. All seven essays had the same theme, and all were well written, but I chose one out to share with you. The author is one of those dual-enrolled high-school students and think her writing is a good example of why I try through this and other assignments to offer students the opportunity to have transformative moments. Here is her paper:

Last weekend I was exposed to a whole new world. I went to a little coffee shop downtown. When I walked in I saw men and women. I always thought that when it came to men and women you were straight or gay, but I learned that is not always the case. When I left I saw human beings. A panel of 5 transgendered people sat on a stage and answered questions about their lives and how they have changed from years ago. First there was Lilly who used to be a man but now identifies as a women; she basically looked like a man dressed in women clothing to me. Then Eli, who used to be a girl, but now identifies as a boy; on a normal day I totally would have thought that Eli was just like any other boy. Next was Linda; she made me feel really uncomfortable actually, but she had male parts that were inactive or something like that. She was really interesting. Then there was Tim who used to be a girl but identifies as a man now. Before the presentation started I was kind of looking around the room to decide if I could tell who was going to be on the panel and I would have never guessed that Tim would be up there. I couldn't tell at all that he used to be a girl. Lastly, there was Susan, who used to be a man but now identifies as a woman. All had their own story to tell as well as information to give.
    I was really intrigued by the entire presentation. Like I said, growing up in a St. Charles County suburb, I have never been exposed to the topic of transgender and transsexualism in such a way. I knew that some people got surgery and stuff like that to change their gender, but there was so much that I had no understanding of. Eli and Tim transitioned when they were middle school/ high school age. That is insane to me. I have so much respect for them because I think we all know how brutal kids can be in high school. Some of the other panelist didn't transition until they were in there mid thirty's or forty's. These people reshaped their entire lives to be happy. Some were lucky, like Lilly, who seemed to have a very supportive family system. Others weren't as lucky, like Susan, who described how she lost most contact with her family, friends, and a marriage. Even though I cannot fully understand the feelings behind the panelists' needs, I can relate to wanting to find happiness and be at peace with myself. I think that is a part of everyone's journey in life, we all just have a different path we chose to follow.
    I learned a lot from the questions that people asked. Honestly, some things I had no idea what they were talking about because a lot of the audience was educated in the subject. Actually, when you looked at the audience it was quite obviously that a lot of them were “gender queer” and transgendered or transsexual themselves. I thought I would be uncomfortable at this event because of that fact alone, but the atmosphere was cool and everyone gave off an open minded attitude, I guess you have to when you are talking about changing someone’s biological and genetic background! I asked a question about dating; I wanted to know when is a good time to tell someone you are a dating that you are a transgender person. I was hoping to get information about how transgender people find each other but the panel kept their answers pretty short and direct. Basically, they all said that it's best to just be honest, and if you are not honest then it could get to a point where someone could be hurt. That is the answer I was hoping and expecting to get, but I just wanted to see if there was any other information they would reveal about dating. In some cases, like Tim, he had the same girlfriend through his transition. 
    I guess the answers I got from the panel kind of reminded me that a relationship with a transgender person in it is just like a relationship with straight people in it. Both people are looking for the same qualities and characteristics as anyone else would. Another question I thought was interesting was when a lady asked what she could do as an ally of trans people to help them. The panel pretty much said to just spread the word that they are normally functioning people in society. Lilly actually said something like “Tell them I won't hit on them, I won't hit on their girlfriend, I won't molest their children, but I will be their friend.” That phrase really stuck with me because the whole topic of transgendered people is really unknown to a lot of us. A lot of people just kind of write them off as freaks or perverts. A lot of people don't know what to think about trans people because they don't have information so they just judge them. So you could say the panel just really wanted to be treated as equal, and to help spread information that would tell the public what they are actually like.
    This whole experience really opened my eyes and gave me a new perspective on things. I used to be one of those people that didn't know what to think about trans people and would kind of write them off as weirdoes, but after I actually met some of them, I realize they are normal people. It really hit me that they are just like me when I was in the room with people who were trans gender and I would have never known unless they said something about it, like Tim. If someone important in my life got a sex change or ended up being transgender, I would be supportive of them and help them through a time of need. Everyone has their own problems; we are all humans.

Comments welcome. And if you know of any community events in the spring that you think psychology 101 students might value, please let me know.Maybe you want to have this kind of experience? It's not to late to enroll at SCC or just sign-up for one of my classes.

Who Cares About Student Feedback?

Some professors don't. They make the argument that students aren't qualified to judge a teachers ability. They might be right, but for good or ill I care about student feedback; I want to know what my students think about my class. One thing to consider is the way in which I receive feedback, well ways really. I get feedback through five main channels: RateMyProfessor, unsolicited student messages, solicited student surveys, our official student survey (IDEA), and direct feedback from a boss.

As of August 28th, 2012

1. RateMyProfessor - This website has become pretty famous among students as a way to suss out the quality of higher-ed professors. I imagine only students who feel strongly one way or the other will post comments here, so the data might be a bit biased. That said I'm doing ok on their 5 point scale. Most students like it that I tell stories, so I'll keep that up. I have the creepiest picture imaginable on the website which I think is responsible for my lack of hot peppers.



An example of a positive tweet



2. Unsolicited Student Messages - I'm referring mainly to social media messages. Since many students are my friends on Facebook and twitter I see when they write about me. During these first few weeks of the semester there seems to be a lot of positive feedback, which is great in that it makes me excited to be here too. My goal is for students to find each other on twitter so that they can commiserate about class and support themselves through the more difficult chapters.
   

   

   Solicited Student Survey Free Responses



3. Solicited Student Surveys - At the end of each section of my class (there are five sections) I ask my students to complete an online survey to give me some feedback on how they feel about their learning in my class. I really want all my students to have a good learning experience and since I am regularly trying new and different activities, assessments and assignments I want to make sure that these changes are having the effect I intend. It might be a bit of a hassle for students to do this again and again but it really is the most valuable to me, since it is direct and immediate feedback about specific things we have just done in class.


4. IDEA Survey - This is the colleges official student feedback form. All students receive this for all classes via email toward the end of the semester. We started using this last year and student response rates were too low for meaningful statistics to be done. Hopefully this year we (faculty) can all encourage our students to complete these surveys so we can do some useful analysis. I really want this to be valuable because it can compare how students rate me against other psychology professors or against the college as a whole. I mean it is great that my students seem to like me, but what I want to see is if they feel they are learning in my class and learning at least as much as students in other classes. 


5. Direct Feedback From a Boss - This last one only happens on rare occasions. Sometimes a student is so upset that they will go to a program coordinator, department chair, or division dean to complain. Whenever this has happened with me I have been impressed with how sensible my dean, chair or coordinator has handled the situation. But should I change my style because of a vocal student complaint? Even if I'm still getting good reviews from so many others? I weigh this carefully. I don't want any student to get this upset in my class. I'm ok if students get uncomfortable (that's part of learning), but I don't want it to be more than they can bare. So I always try to weigh the pedagogical advantage that I give to the majority of my students against the displeasure of the few... Is there another way I can achieve this that will be less objectionable? Is there a way I can soften this information in consideration of student sensitivities? Could I tell this story with less profanity? The answer is sometimes yes. 

The short story is I care what students think. I won't always change my teaching or behavior because of your feedback, but I do carefully consider it. So please continue to inform me about your thoughts, feelings, and opinions on my teaching, and I'll continue to try to be a better teacher.

About Me: Preparing to Teach

During the interstitial time between semesters I always think back to my first semester teaching. Every semester we teachers prepare for our classes; we usually just call it prep. Prep can be a verb ("I'm going to prep my course sometime in the non-specific future when I will allegedly have more time to work on it.") or it can be a noun ("My prep for 101 hasn't changed in 30 years and if I don't notice any problems then it must be working fine."), but either way it refers to all the work we teachers do before the first day of class. It always feels as though there will be time to get this done, but it also always seems to devolve into laying tracks before an oncoming train. The first time I had to do prep was daunting; I had no idea what I should prepare. 

I did the same thing  a lot of new faculty do --  I read the text book, downloaded the powerpoints supplied by the publisher, and perused the Instructors Resource Manual (IRM). The IRM was a binder that had been given to me that had a HUGE amount of instructions about how to run lectures, what sort of activities one could do and a bunch of other junk delightful materials that teachers could use like worksheets and crossword puzzles. I thought I was well prepped for day one. I was wrong.

A PowerPoint Wall of Text

The publishers powerpoints, while detailed, are essentially the same information that is in the text. So, I found myself reading them and then saying, "Any Questions?" to a classroom of bored students. So by the second week I had cut most of the text out of the powerpoint, but then what should I do with my time in class? Activities. But, crosswords didn't work for me; my students sat quietly looking up answers in their books and trading them amongst themselves. Same thing with any "work sheets" but what did I expect? That is high school style. So I went to work transforming those work sheets into real interactive learning experiences. It wasn't too hard to reshape them into a discussion followed by a writing exercise where students generated answers that used material from the textbook instead of regurgitating vocabulary terms.


Then I went nuts. I made a disturbing amount of assignments, rubrics, and activities. I tweaked and re-tweaked my syllabus. Ultimately deciding to run an experimental classroom where I did things way differently than I had before. Each semester from then until now I've had experimental elements in my class trying to find out exactly what works for me, to achieve the classroom that I want. Never once though have I felt "prepared" by the time the semester starts. I always feel there is more I could do ahead of time if only I had more time.

Which brings us to now. After this summer I think I have it locked down. I'm not adding anything new this fall. This is the first time that everything I'm doing is something I've done before. This semester will be the semester of refinement. Without doing anything new I will be able to tweak, adjust, and weave my course into a fine afghan of teaching (or liberty blanket of learning I suppose).

For those of you that are interested here is my syllabus complete with a list of assignments my students will likely do this semester (Fall 2012). I, of course, reserve the right to alter this at my own capricious whimsy. Oh I guess that is one new thing I'm doing this semester; I put my syllabus on my Google Drive as a Google Doc.