To the students who think they're so smart that they can fool the instructor: Sorry to break this to you, but no, you're not fooling anybody! In fact, you are the fool if you think otherwise. So, let me tell you something that might shine a light on your otherwise dead brain.
- Learning is a two-way street. If you want to learn, I am willing to teach over and beyond what is expected of me. I will still teach even if you don't want to learn because that is my job. However, like they say, you can only bring the horse to the water, you cannot make it drink.
- When you leave the class, I notice. When you talk, I notice. When you don't bring a notebook or a pen and pretend to be attentive, I notice. So, to reiterate, you're really not fooling anybody.
- I frankly don't care. I am happier teaching a small class of students who are sincere and want to learn. In fact, that's better for me. As then, we are in sync and I don't have to worry about the distractors.
- If you come to class high on weed and are therefore spaced out and don't take notes, don't think I don't know. I am well aware about those who do not respond and are sitting like duds.
- You are encouraged to ask questions during and after every class. Those who do ask questions, actually learn much better because they make sure that they understand. But, if you don't use this opportunity and later on say that you didn't understand anything, that's completely your fault. I cannot clear your doubts if you don't make them known to me. Fortunately or unfortunately, telepathy doesn't work!
- What is the point of walking in 15-20 minutes late in a 55 minute class?! Don't come in if you're that late. Don't come in even for attendance when you're that late. In fact, if you're that casual even about something that means that much to you (namely, attendance), you frankly don't deserve it. So again, please don't bother coming in.
- Know that I do not like pressuring you to come to the blackboard as punishment for disturbing my class (by talking, making noises, walking in late, etc). It is a waste of time for both me and the students who genuinely want to learn. So, please do me a favor and don't bother to come at all!
- Know this that there are many students who would kill to have good teachers and a good learning atmosphere at the undergraduate level. This cannot be taken for granted. But, if you really don't care about anything, know that you are wasting your parents money, your opportunities and your time. This time will not come back. So, I hope you know what you're doing.
- Finally, lets have a professional relationship. Don't beg for higher numbers or grades after an exam and I too won't care about your presence/absence in class. After all, why should we only meet when I hand out grades. Better to not meet at all. You want to stay anonymous, stay that way all the time!
Having said all this, I do want to thank those students who are sincere, pay attention and genuinely want to learn. I enjoy teaching you. How I wish all the others would just disappear!
xxRS
Respected ma'am
ReplyDeleteCant say for all of the class but i genuinely do get your point, although i do not ask questions in the class but i try to be attentive(most of the time), cant say i have attended all the classes or being involved in discussions (Not a first bencher ), but i do enjoy your classes, and appreciate how you handle such a big class (most number of students from our batch have taken the course ). These problems are arising because of the fact that most of the students(more than 50%) in the class are there because They have no other option-- this new system of taking all the courses of 3 major subjects for natural sciences student is one the reason the class strength is this huge and students do not enjoy the class because many of them do not have any interest in it.as they had to take it because they were forced to.(due to which the system(you) and the surrounding(the class) cant act as a reversible process and sudden changes happen although you try your level best and we appreciate that)
Many of the engineering students have taken this course because they had a similar course last sem and thought it would be easier for them to cop up(one more reason not to be attentive in the class.)
People like me who would have love to learn in a smaller class(easily gets distracted in such a big class) are the one suffering.
As you might know the attendance system is new for us , earlier people only attended the class because they had genuine interest in it but now its mandatory for all of them to get 75% attendance due to which more non interested students come to the class (hence entropy of the class increases abruptly).
Also, I would love to attend more classes from you in the future.
Sincerely,
Soon Gonna be a Chem Major
Thanks a lot for sharing your concerns. :) I agree that when students have already taken up similar courses in the past, they skew the class level for the other students. The Instructor then makes an incorrect estimate of the level the class is at. Also, such large classes do not help anyone. They are a distraction for both the students and the Instructor.
DeletePersonally, I couldn't care less about attendance. I am not in view of holding 75% compulsory attendance. I believe that once you're in college you should be treated like an adult and should be held responsible for your actions. So, if you don't attend classes and fail the subject as a result of that, you bear sole responsibility. I agree with you completely that compulsory attendance fills up the class with uninterested students and creates a huge distraction for genuinely interested students. However, I cannot officially do anything about it. I anyway unofficially let students get away with proxies. And that is the extent that I can go to.
Finally, thanks for appreciating the effort put into teaching. Also, glad to know you are interested in these subjects.
Respected ma'am, i get your concerns, but don't blame the students like stupid reasons. I will tell you why people fled away in your class. By the way not only in your class but in other teachers class also being affected by the same thing. Say as a example biodiversity class, where most of the students flew away by putting their attendence or even coming after the class and asking instructor for attendance on the manual sheet (if the machine is not working). See the main problem of our batch is that it is huge and probably people are forced to take unwanted courses to pursue. So many of them find no interest in and try to avoid as much as possible. Might you have seen people seating in first few rows are actually the persons who fled away, see our class got huge number of students from eco, eng and nat science dept. But now the condition is that the eng science student and eco students have already gone through a same kind of course where thermodynamics is included whatever you've. Now if someone teach people same thing again and again then perhaps he or she will loose the interest of the subject. Same thing is happening to our class. So you can't control it as institute is pushing us to take courses wheather we have interest or not. The regulations of our institution is going by one major factor, that is taking decisions abruptly, not talking to the students and teachers. See, most of us are forced somewhat to take 3 major courses in premajor. Even we are not sure that whatever i am targeting to get a major that i will get or not. Seriously i saw the students are just become copy machines as they are put in rat race to score, not to study. Our students want something new, but this institution give only the old syllabus and topics which we have learnt in 10+2. Madam, see our 10+2 system is working on the competitive market, meaning to get a good rank in NEET, JEE, IAT,JAT etc. So we are already being taught most of the syllabus whatever iiser is putting on us. That's why interest is very very low. For my prospective when i came in iiser i thought i will get best biology, chemistry course here. But i was kept in some boring courses, most of which i already know. Here the reason comes, now crowd handling is different in different people. For me if you asked for the maintenance of the whole class i will fail. It is not so easy to go through the process of creating a bonding in teaching and professional development. So it is not your fault that students are gone away during the class. Most of them have already studied the thermodynamics, so they have a chance to get out of the class and spend a time with some other thing. Now i will demonstrate the fact why we are not attempting to be consistent during any of the classes we have 1) first of us iiser do not push students to go to the class, who ever is interested he can come. No attendance, now the attendance system came, so unwillingly lot of us are forced to attend. 2) When we joined iiser, we are being told that after 2nd year you could choose your favorite subject any time. No one will stop you. Your percentage will not matter much in taking of subjects. But now 50 students cut off came. People have fear that he or she might loose his favorite subject forever. See if you compare the interest in subject around 100 students most of them will have Bio preferences and then physics and then come chemistry then EES and at last math. Now if someone force us me to take physics instead of bio(i like bio very much) then what happen?? My performance will go down, and probably interest will also go down. That's a same thing happening in iiser now for every subject. Not for thermodynamics.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your concerns.
Delete1. There is always going to be some overlap between courses taught in the 1st and 2nd years and your 11th and 12th std syllabus. This is because 11th and 12th std syllabus give you a basic introduction to the subject, whereas the college level courses dive deeper. So, if you only look at the topics listed in the syllabus, you might think that you already know everything. Yes, most of us have learnt a little bit about all the three laws of thermodynamics during out high school years. But, if you think you already know the entire syllabus of the college level courses, I would say that you are wrong, mostly because I have data to back me up. If it were true that most of you already knew everything, you would have performed much better in class and during your exam.
However, I do agree that people who have already taken a similar course offered by other departments skew the class in terms of understanding level. Then the instructor makes an incorrect estimate of the level the class is at. In the present system, there is not much that one can do apart from taking your concern to SAC (who can then share this with higher authorities) and the instructors taking up their concerns with the department and Deans.
2. The Institute had to put a limit on the number of students who could take up a major purely because the departments cannot handle a strength beyond their capacity. This becomes especially important during the MS research work. A lab can take in only that many MS students for the year. So obviously it cannot be a free for all. Anyway, in life nothing is free. One has to compete for his/her preferred choice. And this goes both ways. Instructors too sometimes do not get students of their choice because of this competition and I feel that's completely fair. One can of course come up with better criteria for making these cutoffs, however that kind of policy decision is beyond the scope of a single instructor and has to again be taken up with SAC at the student level and with the HOD/Deans at the Instructor level.
Continue on my comments--
ReplyDelete3) the second most reason is that due to huge class, even not all got your point or solution. We all know that not all of 5 fingers in one hand is same, the same law applies to the brain also. Even not all students are good in chemistry and not all students can interact good from a very distince. Madam if you notice in our class that your platform is far away from the back rows,even i sometimes does not hear properly what you are talking about. That is a major problem keeping a big number of students. So that time lot of people miss their lectures and eventually don't have interest to study in class, so as a result they try to keep away from the subject. They flew away by putting attendence.you have to look on this. Sometimes you have to come down to the stairs and interact with them.
4)And again a most important thing is that the mess timing and your class timing. Both of them are critical in case. See our daily class started around 8 am in the morning on an average to all of us, even the mess opens at7:30 am. Not all the people are able to eat the food and so lot of them are sitting hungry to whole 4 hours fron the morning to reach you class timing, so the interest will drop again.See since mess opens at 12:30 pm for lunch and in each mess long queue was made, and again we have a lab or other classes in 2:00pm so lot of guys start to flew away just to attend lunch. By this ways some of the people fled away.
See madam there is lot of issues in your course. So please take some measure to know our concerns.
By - an unhappy student (want to take bio major)
3. Yes, I can try and walk around more in the class. That is a great suggestion.
Delete4. The class timing is not completely in my control. I was handed the timetable just like you guys were. But, I do agree that 4 hours of continuous lectures for the students neither help you nor me.
Anyway, such huge class strength does not help anyone. However, with that said, one you're an adult you are responsible for your actions. No one hand-holds you for your studies in college. If you're pro-active you will learn better, but if you wait for the environment around you to get better, you will keep waiting a long time.
Thanks for sharing. :)
Hello Rati ,
ReplyDeleteYou made a great point ! However , the proportion of the students interested in your class as compared to the ones being burdened with this course is too low , coupled with the nonsense implementation of 75% compulsory attendance makes the class too difficult to handle . I guess it's better to let the uninterested students to mark their attendance and flee . It would make the class less crowded and your strength would be directed towards teaching rather than disciplining the class .
Thanks for reading the comment and I would be glad if you would implement the same .
-A genuinely frustrated student by the attendance rule and not by your class !
As I've already mentioned, I couldn't care less about attendance. I anyway unofficially let students get away with it. But that is the extent that I can go to.
Delete