How close is too close?
I teach career development at a career college. Because I am the first instructor most of the students have, I have incorporated a lot of student retention theory into my courses. Part of my teaching style, both to achieve my classroom objectives of creating a safe and effective learning environment, and to foster a sense of inclusiveness for the students is to have a strong interpersonal connection with my students. However, occasionally I wonder where to draw the line when asking students to share their personal and valuable experiences and insight. I want to use the valuable life experiences my students enter the classroom with in a productive way, but I don't want it to just seem like a social session. Any suggestions?
Hi Tim,
Thank you for sharing this great way of opening up a new class. You have interaction, communication and information sharing. All of these components are important when it comes to setting the stage for a successful class.
Gary
I am in a similar boat. I also teach the first course that all students take at a career college. I use a particular introduction activity to get the students to open up on the first day, as well to get some of their life experiences on the table, and some of their motivations under discussion. The activity is simple:
Write "Why are you here?" on the board.
Tell the students to write about a paragraph in response to the question, which everyone will read to the class.
Explain a few of the various meanings hidden in the question, and give the students several options to answer, as well as the opportunity to create their own option if they wish (for example, "why did you come back to school?" "why do you live in your locale?" "why do you attend THIS school?" "what's the meaning of life?" "why did you pick the seat you picked?"
Let the students think and write for about 15-20 minutes.
Then spend about 40 minutes of class sharing the stories, making sure to validate, respond to, and thank each student for sharing their story.
What I've found is that the activity does triple duty. First, it is an ice-breaker that allows the students to build confidence in speaking and sharing their experiences with the class in a productive way. Second, it fosters critical thinking and creativity skills. The answers will range from the outright silly to the direly serious, but will allow the students to foster a personal connection with each other and with you as their instructor right off the bat. And thirdly, it lets you, the instructor, get to know your students much better on the first day of class, allowing you to get a feel for their goals, motivations, experiences, and feelings in regards to school on the very first day of class. Which, in turn, allows you to create a more personalized classroom environment for every student.
~Cheers,
Tim
I find that allowing the students to have and create journals of different experiences relating to the course is effective. This way, I can choose specific topics and give them timed "venting" sessions that I can then go back read and share with the class when time is permittted or where content is relavant to subject matter. This is not only a way to gain valued perspective of their thoughts. It allows you to gather information in a controlled yet meaningful time frame.
It sounds like you do a great job by allowing the students to share and you are also gaining insight into their personalities. I like to give my students a few minutes to vent & maybe go a little off-topic if it seems pressing, and then I steer them back to the topic at hand. They have learned that they can't veer off the goal for long.
Hi Cambria,
Good strategy to get the students engaged. How you limit and focus the information is up to you. I would create categories in which they can supply information as well limit the responses they can share. For example a category could be "Work Experience" and have them list the last two jobs they have had. This way the class session will remain on course and you get the information you want.
Gary
