Reflections

Learning Names - I make a concerted effort to learn students' names and learn what makes them light up. This not only makes taking attendance efficient, but it helps me increase "fit" between course readings/discussions and their interests. It also  allows me to facilitate connections between them in class, pairing students with similar interests and career goals. I have found this to be effective in challenging students to think more deeply about their skills and career aspirations. Overall, the goal is to move the class towards a sense of friendship and collegiality so the presentations at the end are less anxiety-inducing. 

On Cold-Calling - I personally do not enjoy cold-calling students, as I find it only increases anxiety and can sometimes induce shame. Instead, I design my courses to be "communities of practice" (CoP) so that participation is a natural part of the class structure with multiple ways to participate. I do not expect my students to be "high-performing" every single class section. Instead, I try to assess the energy temperature at the start of class and adjust as needed base on whether the students are wound up about the topic or dragging due to midterms. If I am facilitating discussion where cold-calling is necessary, I explain to students up front that I will be calling on them to ensure they get their participation points for the day because I am invested in them doing well in the course. If a student does not know how to respond, I assure them it is okay to "not know" and support them in articulating their questions. 

Before Class Discussion - I have found success in facilitating a before class discussion that helps connect with me on a human level. I sometimes reference upcoming events (holidays, breaks, campus events, etc) or invite the students to discuss their homes. Sometimes I'll share my thoughts on a book I am reading. Most successful has been sharing "debates from home." I share articles sent to me by various faculty. on student engagement, literacy, and AI. I briefly describe the claim of the article, then my position and then my husband's position. I invite the students to weigh-in on the debate from their perspective. The students often became really animated, and it became a lovely informal way of practicing critical thinking skills as a warm up to starting class. The students often provided nuance to the debate, and validating their questions and insights raised the overall sense of efficacy in class. 

On Support Hours - I prefer the term "support hours" to "office hours" because it both generates a sense of invitation and focuses the time I spend with students. I try to be really flexible with support hours and generally poll the students to see what is easiest or most accessible for them. Some classes have opted for before and after class workshops. Other classes have chosen to rely on zoom for their appointments. I tell the students exactly what support I can offer them at the beginning of term and throughout so they have a clear idea of what questions, struggles, or writing support with which to come to me. From these conversaions, I often generate additional study guides or "how-to" guides that are then distributed to the entire class. Support hours often become group sessions and allow me to assess where the students are at in skill, understanding, and goals. I then adjust subsequent lectures and assignements in response. 

Collective Notetaking - The use of laptops and technology in class has been a source of contention and debate among faculty. I have found it most helpful for my teaching style to incorporate technology as much as possible. To this end, I use microsoft teams to facilitate "collective notetaking." I found that most of my students had not been instructed on how to read academic journal articles or how to take notes from those articles. I introduced the concept of collective notetaking by discussing how to share academic labor, providing a class record of discussion for future reference, and allowing me to provide feedback on their notes. I also wanted to provide a means of engagement for the introverts in class. I uploaded a note-taking template each week, then I pulled it up on the projector behind me as we moved through a review of the readings. The students were on their laptops, but I could see them typing into the collective notes. I would then read through the notes after class and place my comments/corrections in red. These collective notes were then referenced for concepts, theories, and findings as they moved through the assignments. Overall, some students really enjoyed the collective notes and others preferred to process verbally. This actually worked out well, as the introverts would jot down what the extroverts were articulating. It also allowed me to see where their understanding was strengthening and where I needed to elaborate more clearly. The students also expressed interest in the different types of notetaking templates I provided, sharing that they thought their was only one way to take notes and were often confused if a reading did not fit a pre-established pattern. 

Timelines and Concept Maps - Eventually I would like to expand collective notetaking into the development of timelines and concept maps for students. However, the whiteboard function of microsoft teams can be challenging and I need to think through this activity more thoroughly. My first piloting of the idea revealed both general knowledge and conceptual limitations for students, which requires me to have more of the timeline and concepts populated for students. I plan to develop this activity for the next set of courses I teach. 

Approach to AI - While AI provides a number of challenges to higher education today, I am also aware that such disruption is common at the advent of new technology. My position on AI is address is plainly with students in terms of illuminating concerns and soliciting their feedback. I took a unique approach to AI in HSF 422, which I will expound upon in a forthcoming teaching article. 

In-Class Polls - I try to use in-class engagement tools as much as possible. I find they are helpful for introverts and low-energy days, they help students see data collected in real time, and students enjoy seeing their own anonymous data in comparison to their classmates. I use microsoft teams' poll function and mentimeter at present, but am constantly learning about and gathering additional tools. This takes a bit of practice, and not all the sessions have gone off flawlessly. Perhaps the most successful was using a mentimeter poll that showed students how they supported the conclusion of one of their course readings. The students lit up and became animated when they saw how they did actually fit the "generation" discussed in the articule regarding their views on marriage, religion, and co-habitation. 

Worksheets- Reflection after using the Work-Family Research Worksheet I designed with HSF 422 (See Teaching Samples). I wanted to do it as a think/pair/share activity in the first week to set the tone for questioning how we think about families and working. Of course, it is always tricky using worksheets with college students, as they do not want to be thought of as children. The worksheet went remarkably well. I almost couldn’t get their attention back for a debrief, which was awesome. They were really caught up around the coping strategies- particularly how negative they are and what could be available to them today. They also critiqued the gender ideology continuum because it doesn’t account for single-headed households. This led to a wonderful discussion of how Hochschild might need updated. 

Research Activities To Improve - The activity was to research work-family issues in their industries (I loosely assigned them to industries before class based on their chosen positions in discussion #1). I explained how to find keywords, but a lot of the students didn’t know how to ask a question/formulate key words to find articles of interest to them. Not my most well-planned activity, I’ll admit; but I was jarred by the level of frustration from the students, their unwillingness to try, and then how quickly they refused to do the activity when they realized they wouldn’t have to turn anything in. I ended up spending on hour after class mocking up an example of what I wanted them to do and posting it on BB and via announcements. In the future, I will  also integrate this better by setting up how it will facilitate their literature review. 

Card Deck Activities - Using the Fair Play card deck after assigning the docuseries to be viewed after class. The class was split into small groups of four and given a family senario (adults, professions, domestic arrangement, children, etc). They then had to decide which role they were playing, sort the deck with the domestic labor tasks that applied to their family scenario. From there we divided up tasks. The students were challenged to think through the pertinent tasks based on families with contexts different than their own, to asses their own bias in who does what in the house, and understanding the magnitude of household tasks. The students were enjoying this activity so much we extended it into a second session. We then debriefed about what came up or comments I heard as I walked around class. We also critically thought about the message and solution offered by Fair Play, both as a business and in the docuseries. This activity was facilitated in the first month of the course to illuminate the topic and spark student buy-in to the learning process. Per course feedback, this remained a highlight of the term for many students. 

Discussion Circle - Offered at the end of course after trust had been firmly established, students were given a choice of three mom-fluencer docuseries to watch prior to class. We gathered in a circle, I handed out a concept list from the course, and we discussed the themes in the docuseries based on these concepts. I was quite unprepared for how successful this activity went. The students were so passionate I often struggled to call on all the raised hands. The students connected themes in the docuseries to concepts and their own course-long project. They agreed and disagreed with each other respectfully. There were questions, and laughter, and "by a show of hands" real-time polls that sparked nuanced debate. We were having so much fun, we actually ran over time and several students asked if we could stay a bit longer. The students told me it was one of their favorite class activities. 

Discussion Posts - Faculty design discussion posts in a variety of ways. I chose to design the discussion posts as "mini-tasks" that would build into the larger paper at the end of the course. Per my pedegogical training and reading articles on student engagement, it became clear to me that students need to understand the "why" of what they are doing and resent being assigned "busy-work." I used the discussion posts to help them connect the readings with their overall research project, noting where the discussion post would fit into their paper at the end. This proved very effective and students shared that it helped them connect the dots between the subject matter and their own concerns. 

Literature Review Workshop - The students expressed early in the term their anxiety regarding writing a literature review. To offset this anxiety, I set aside a day to do a workshop. I began with a skill demo on how to synthesize and analyze sources, emphasizing that this would be a draft and will go through a revision process. This seemed to lower anxiety. I then asked after music preferences, and put on a neutral playlist while they took the rest of class to write their literature review. I walked around providing real-time technical assistance. This workshop had near perfect attendance, with students attesting that it was extremely helpful and lowered their anxiety. 

Revising in Real-Time - After grading the literature reviews it became clear to me that this was an area of growth for many of the students. After discussing it with my Faculty Mentor, I approached the class. I shared with them my thoughts that doing a revision would be more beneficial to them than a separate draft writing assignment. At this point it was mid-term, and a substantial change of this nature would require adjusting the remaining discussion posts and the final paper assignment. Nevertheless, the students affirmed their high anxiety and desire for a second chance. Many shared with me that they had never been asked to do a literature review, and furthermore they had never been asked to revise their work. We did a mini-session on the revision process including a skill-demo on how to revise. They then submitted a second revised draft of their literature review with incorporated feedback, which demonstrated growth in their writing and analytical skills. Overall, I received positive feedback from students about using every assignment to build toward the final paper and how much they appreciated me adjusting to their needs.