Well, the spring semester ended about two weeks ago, but with grading final projects and quizzes, taking a mental break, handling a death in the family (and thus, taking another mental break), I am slowly but surely getting back to the grind! While I had the chance to breathe and give myself some grace, I wanted to write a bit about the end of the semester and my semester overall.
As a student, I took some interesting courses this semester! One course that I feel prepared me for research more than I honestly thought it would—and I knew it would to begin with—was an “understanding statistical research” course! It’s given me a good foundation for a statistical methods course I aim to take this summer starting in July. I’ve never taken a stats course ever! Once I hit 7th grade and was enrolled in a math class where the teacher was more interested in us completing Sudoku puzzles while she did who-knows-what at her desk (my Lindenhurst friends may remember her), I not only was enrolled in a math support course for 8th grade, but I ultimately struggled with math moving forward because I didn’t receive my much-needed foundation for algebra. Because of this, I was never recommended to take any stats classes in high school or in college. I’m really happy that I took this “understanding statistical research” course, as it made me feel comfortable in at least reading, deciphering and analyzing statistical research. This skill actually came in handy, because the week that we were learning about correlation data, I had to analyze a HTKS-Kids study for Claire to include in my Fellowship talk! I’m confident that I’ll be prepared for my methods course this summer, though I’m a bit nervous.
I also took a special topics course focusing on disability and systemic oppression from a societal and school-based point. It was so interesting! I got heavily invested in the eugenics movement, which I’ve come to find out is still around. After reading about this, I decided to write final paper about eugenics within special education, which I received excellent feedback on! I’m not sure if I’m going to take the piece with me anywhere, but it was definitely something I enjoyed writing about!
What I really wanted to talk about though comes from an instructor viewpoint. While it triggered my anxiety heavily at the beginning of the semester because of classroom abuse I’ve received in the past, I am proud that I was able to not only get through it, but that by mid-semester, teaching a college course became a very smooth experience for me. I think for me and my anxiety, being able to hold to a predictable format and routine throughout the semester was beneficial for me, and also for my students. Every now and then I would veer off-course and include a more immersive activity for them, but I felt that as a first-time instructor, I included as many opportunities for them to critically examine and explore key points in child development with the help of visuals, videos, think-pair-shares, in-class discussions, and what I lovingly call “text-to-self or text-to-world” monologues.
My students have given me some points that I will consider for future courses I may teach. While I received an overwhelmingly positive response from them according to my UB feedback survey, some brought up good points.
For example, a few mentioned how the exit tickets at the end of each class seemed unnecessary, and I can sympathize with that. When I was in undergrad (and even in my first grad school experience), rarely did we ever have exit tickets. I could see the potential for exit ticket use at the undergraduate level if the class met more than once a week, because than the following class could be tailored based on the understanding of students from the previous one. But it’s difficult to do that when you only meet once a week, like we did for my course. Every class was a brand new topic/chapter. For me this was more of a summative assessment to see what my students learned, have them enforce their learning, and to have a little bit of fun. I’m not sure if this will be something I will continue with. If you’ve had positive success with exit tickets at the college level, let me know! I’d love to hear what others are doing.
Other points of contention seemed to come from a place where even other faculty members struggle with: going over the whole chapter vs. trusting your students to do the readings. I honestly thought at the beginning of the semester that students would come to class having read the chapter, or at least skimmed it, but there came a point where it was apparent that this wasn’t the case with all students. Most of the time, I ended up reviewing the whole chapter while offering opportunities for students to expressive their thoughts and play with the content. I’m not sure if I would do this if the course was offered multiple times a week, but as a 3 hour class and a foundations one, I wanted to make sure they got the most out of it.
Even with all of this, as said before, responses from my students reflected a very positive outlook of my course! I’m really glad that I was able to create supportive, positive relationships with my students. I can say for a fact that there were some students that absolutely benefitted from my counsel on multiple occasions, from convincing a student to stick to the course while they received mental health treatment, to helping a student get back on track so they could pass and graduate. Working with these young adults was both a challenge and reward for me, and I am so honored that I can say that I was their professor at some point in their lives.
To which, of course, I give many thanks to those that supported me this semester, especially my early childhood teacher support group at UB. The thoughts and prayers that were given for this new experience were also spiritually received as well, I’m sure of it. I also wish that it was something that Dr. Mira Berkley could have seen the fruits of, but I hope that she knows that I did my absolute best.
For now, I’m finishing up my final poster for the ISLS 2024 conference which will be here in Buffalo so soon! If you’re attending, my poster session will be on June 13th. Otherwise, I have new developments on the horizon, so stay tuned for more information on what I’ll be doing for Fall 2024!
Samantha Didrichsen, MSED. 