Danielle Blog

first exam

“First exam.” Don’t those words bring back memories of angst and long nights of studying and worry? They do for me, at least.

So, this week I gave the first exam to my classes. I spent quite a while designing it and comparing it to last year’s exams by different professors. I felt like it was a good average of their exams. Well, as I was grading them, I found that most students had trouble with the multiple choice but did well on the short answer. This was particularly ironic since they were all excited (ahead of time) to have multiple choice instead of having the whole thing be short answer. It ended up being half and half, and I think more of them would’ve done better if the multiple choice had been a smaller percentage.

The average score was a little higher than the department’s average score for this course, which is good. I also had a good mix of letter grades. But that also meant that I had more D’s and F’s than I was expecting. I am meeting with all of those students one-on-one. Thus far, I think it has to do with their waiting until too late to study and not studying gradually. We’ll see if I can impress upon them the importance of studying as we go along. I know it is always hard to find the time for that during the week. But, well, that IS why they are in college after all. They really should pretty much spend their time learning and studying. A lot of the students are playing college sports, so that sucks up their free time too. But other than that, they really don’t have outside responsibilities, because this isn’t a school where students are also parents or working full-time jobs or that sort of thing. There is one girl with a job outside of school that takes up a lot of time, but she is one of a few, as far as I can tell.

All in all, it seems like they are learning. Some are learning Very Well. Again, I talk about the exam so much, because it is one of the few ways that I can gauge how my teaching is going. I think it is going well, but I don’t really know for certain until quizzes and tests reveal their learning.

I also find that I really like meeting students one-on-one. It is probably my favorite part of teaching so far. It takes a lot of time, but I feel like it makes a difference. And that is one of my goals, after all. To impact the students in a meaningful way that helps them learn better. I like that I can really tell where they are having problems. And I like that some of what I teach them about studying can apply to other classes that they take in the future. The only thing about it is that some students seem reluctant or unwilling to meet with me individually. I can’t really force them to come meet with me. And I know that I don’t want to do something like give them extra credit for meeting with me. You know the saying about how you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink? I feel like sometimes I can’t even lead them to the water (to talk about their study habits etc.), much less get them to drink (study). Ah well, I can only do so much. I can reach out to each student individually, but he or she has to be willing to reach back.

All in all, it is still going well. I’m learning more about what they are capable of learning. I’m trying to challenge them and not discourage them. And soon, I have a couple days where I don’t have responsibilities for class. I’m hoping to catch up on lectures during that time a little bit. Maybe I’ll even take some time off to read a fun book.

Oh, and I almost forgot to say – I asked them to draw the structure of DNA using shapes that I gave them to represent the different parts (like the phosphates that were the twizzlers, etc) and almost all of them got it completely correct! So, I think the model building was a success!