This morning, for the first time since I began teaching fifteen years ago, I covered a colleague’s class. This presented some interesting issues, both substantively and stylistically, as to how much the class should sound like me and how much it should sound like my colleague?
Substantively, it presented the challenge of getting up to speed on the content. While I teach the same subject, I do not teach the same cases and my overall approach to the material is very different. I teach certain concepts differently or with different emphasis and in a different way. So I know I did not (and could not) run the class with the same confidence in the questions I ask, the points I make, and (certainly) my responses to their questions. There also was the question of base knowledge to be expected from the students. I cover material in a different order than my colleague. So I know what the class already knows (or should know) by the time I reach this topic in my own class; I was less sure of what these guys knew.
Stylistically, one big question was whether to use my colleague’s PowerPoint slides, since that is both what she wants to do and what the students expect. I chose not to; I would not know how to interact with them, so they would have been more of a distraction than a help. The students were great about it–probably about 1/4-1/3 volunteered at least once. But it was like being a substitute teacher–everyone not knowing quite what to do with me, what to expect from the class, or what they were going to learn. I tried to make the class “mine,” to the extent that is possible with a group of students who signed up for a different style of class.
Fortunately, no one threw spit balls.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on October 6, 2015 at 12:18 PM