Today I was lecturing and noticed that we were running out of time. I began to speed things up a little and noted that no one had so much as capped a pen. This is uncommon in my teaching experience at this and my previous place of employment. In fact, I tell students on the first day that I find it the height of rude when folks pack up before I stop talking and request that they refrain. In general people comply with my request but, all the same, usually there is discernible change in the tenor of the class in the last 5 minutes. Today I thought to myself, "Damn, I knew this was a good lecture but I didn't realize it was that interesting."
Finally, about a minute after the class-time, I used my "I'll leave you with this [somewhat debatable statement] and we can pick up here Wednesday. Still no one moved and slowly it dawned on me. "We still have another 15 minutes don't we?" To which there were universal nods and a few snickers.
No comments:
Post a Comment