Off to school

I taught my class at the university last night; after days of agonizing in anticipation, and feeling extremely nervous, I finally met my new students. It was a wonderful class -I was over prepared, as usual, and my students seem to be intellectually curious :-).

In addition to bringing everything I needed to bring -from textbooks to syllabus- I also brought all my supplies in a cute box -just as I do for my high school classes; and, if as that was not enough, at the end of class, I gave them a post-it, and I asked them to tell me what they liked and hated about how I taught the class; I advised them not to sign their statements, because what matter to me was what they had to say and not who said it. Just like well-behaved high school students, they all left their post-its with their thoughts on the door before they left. It was obvious that they had never done anything like that before -college professor are too "good" to listen to what their students have to say about their classes :-(.

The students' feedbacks were very positive; there was only one student who said that he liked the class, but disliked having so many textbooks; they seemed to be genuinely excited about what I did in class. I think that students' feedbacks are a powerful tool for teachers - especially for those like me, who are always reflecting on what we do, always adjusting to our students' needs, and always finding ways to reinvent ourselves. This is not a tool that can be used by teachers who can't accept criticism, and think that there is nothing that they can improve because they are already perfect.

Today I reverse roles: I will be the student tonight. I hope my teacher can inspire me to learn, as I tried so hard to inspire my students last night.