Picture this: standing at the front of the classroom looing on a sea of blank faces, (25 to be exact). They are there to learn, true, but are they really interested in what you are about to teach them? Some, possibly, most, most-likely not. It's a requirement, like everything else in college (even college itself is seen as a requirement these days). So, to make things interesting, you toss the class outline out the window and wing it. You buck the system, you can do this with your eyes closed, you can take your hands off the wheel for part of the drive.
That is what my first class was like this morning. Instead of doing it by-the-book I thrust myself into an outline-less world and it worked. Sure, they rarely talk as it is (why must I stand up there and repeat my questions, kids, just look alive, look alive) but at least this time they actually asked questions. Bestill my beating heart (insert Sting lyric here). Pitter pat. The class actually seemed to learn. Go figure. And, on top of that, that film of indifference, that fog of apathy that usually envelopes them lifted, if only for a short while. I saw it. I glimpsed behind the Great Oz's curtain.
Let that be a lesson to you, dear imaginary reader (or to the voices in my head), if you do things your way sometimes that extra effort can pay off, if only for a short while.
**Editors note: After the class the instructor thanked me for keeping the class on the topics that they "actually can use." When I asked what she meant, she went on to relay a story (an all-too-common one at that) of other colleagues of mine (past and present) who talk and talk and talk, despite the obvious whistling sounds of students nodding off.**
