MIT OpenCourseWare http ocw mit edu Resource The Torch or the Firehose Arthur Mattuck The following may not correspond to a particular course on MIT OpenCourseWare but has been provided by the author as an individual learning resource For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use visit http ocw mit edu terms In The Classroom In you go armed with mind boggling stuff and determined that prodded by your skillful questioning your class will have an intense intellectual experience and reveal a brilliance they didn t know they had in them Could you go over problem 3 on page 112 I didn t get the answer in the back of the book General nodding agreement It s a boring stupid problem one you hadn t planned to do Grrr The best laid plans of mice and recitation instructors go oft awry Relax you re a tour guide who has been asked to make a side trip If the group is interested maybe that side trip will turn out to be more interesting than you thought But keep your original plans in mind because your section needs a sense of purpose Firm yet flexible Remember what was said before about the myth of covering the material just because you don t do something doesn t mean it s lost forever Of course it will help if you ve allowed some time in the preparation topics or problems to take up that you won t be too unhappy about abandoning if necessary Your personal schedule for the classroom Come early It says you re interested and available and gives you a good chance to chat informally with a few students find out what s going on and get to know some of them Start on time Assume those who come in later were coping with some crisis but don t review for them End on time Nothing was ever learned after the bell If you ve got two more lines to write that are the keystone of the whole hour s work beg them abjectly to stay for one more minute and swear you ll make it up to them somehow But don t think they ll actually be paying any attention it s just for your own sake you re doing this 22 End ahead of time if there aren t enough minutes left to start something new and the class has run out of steam In particular don t start something new don t preview the next lecture unless the lecturer approves of this don t start pumping them for questions to fill up the last few minutes Let them be first on the lunch line instead Stay Late until the stragglers leave they might want to ask about something they didn t dare ask in front of the others Flub up time You made a mistake at the board somewhere but you can t find it You can t answer someone s question You get stuck working out problem 3 on page 112 These things happen to everyone but they are hardest on newer teachers who often feel insecure at the beginning The main thing is not to become defensive or hostile and above all don t fake an answer or b around Even the poorest students in your section won t be fooled and you will lose everyone s respect Ask for help instead hope you get it and listen to the students who are trying to give it some of them might be right Or promise you ll have the answer for the next class It s all right to make mistakes and you don t have to know it all but you do have to be honest I asked a teacher a question and the answer was something like I m not really sure but I don t think it will be on the test I d prefer and respect an answer on the order of I m not really sure but I ll get back to you on it if you d like Q T he students hissed at me yesterday and I was shocked Don t you think this is incredibly rude Ask Peggy A It s not hissing just letting out steam It is triggered automatically by either of the following Announcement of a problem set due the day after vacation R eferring in class to any course other than the one you are teaching double hissing for referring to any topic that you expect them to have learned in said course redouble if you say the topic will be included in the next exam 23 Q My students all sit in the back row A This is a common problem Some are hoping to be inconspicuous so you won t call on them Others are using well known body language to tell you that they are really just uncommitted observers of the proceeding I am assuming of course that you have not been eating onions Possible solutions are to Adapt Use a megaphone and write big Fight back Mumble write small and call only on people in the back row Ally yourself with The Force By habit students sit all term long where they sit the first day Come early and rope off the back three rows with a sign Reserved for Listeners Offer positive reinforcement Ask them as an experiment to sit up front and that day give your most scintillating class Q Should I be informal or formal in my approach to the class A There are a lot of ways to teach energetic or relaxed in tweeds or jeans the Olympian authority or the humble just another student If you re not relaxed about your attitude your students will be uncomfortable too Just be yourself However if you feel you can manage it being informal in a small section is usually more fun It encourages interaction and it s a bit more comfortable when error time comes around the higher up you set yourself the further you fall The Professor knows everything even his mistakes are correct The TA specialized in proof by intimidation and proof by superior credentials Some roles teachers play and mostly shouldn t We cast you a little while ago as the tour leader for your recitation Other roles that teachers play reflect how they feel about the course and their own place in it and some have unfortunate consequences The union organizer It s tempting to ingratiate yourself with your section by telling them that it s not their fault they are having difficulties they are victims of the System You run down the book the lecturer the course in general Of course any book or lecturer will occasionally be obscure and it s all right to remark on it But don t overdo this because it can demoralize some of your students why bother struggling if the cards are stacked against you 24 The lifeboat captain Do you give your section the feeling of being tossed helplessly about on the seas of your subject by Angry Implacable LecturerAdministrator Gods That s the effect of habitually using they I heard they …