Grading at the office until midnight.
An email arrived from a student overwhelmed by an impending assignment. (He reads this blog on occassion, I hope he forgives me relaying this story). Concerned that he would do horribly he suggested he drop the course.
I replied immediately, told him, "Dude, chill." and also that if he dropped the course I would call him a weenie until his dying day. This message was closed with my IM name and an offer to talk him down.
So he pinged me, and we had a lovely chat, and he's not dropping the course and that makes me glad.
Both earlier and later in the evening - I keep a guitar in my office. I offered it to a student who was alternately working and playing in the hall. (He learned guitar by deciding to play the Star Spangled Banner with his teeth like Hendrix - everything else after that was easy). Got to listen to live music outside my door as I continued to grade.
Between critiques wondered whether or not email exchange is appropriate documentation to the mid-tenure committee to illustrate rapport with my students and why I have goddess status among some. (Is the word "weenie" ever appropriate in academia?)
Another student stopped by -- who knew there would be so much traffic so late at night? - and it's only week four-- to borrow my DV cam. (Note: mine. Not the department's. All good).
I can think of yet three other students (fondly) who I check on, ask if they're passing their courses, getting fed, sleeping during lectures. Not straight-A sorts, of the good guy class in need of an occassional kick in the rump.
The lectures are one thing. But these other moments...the small interchanges are what the students (I think) and I (I know) will remember more than anything put on a test.
So I drive home, tired, but feeling - at least for this brief space - relevant to a small local pool of humans.
Posted by at October 1, 2003 12:41 AM | TrackBackthere is something worthwhile about the traditional 'locus parenti' role of professorship.
Posted by: jeremy hunsinger at October 1, 2003 07:54 AMTruly the sign of a great teacher.
(You make me miss teaching)
...
Posted by: fivecats at October 1, 2003 09:10 AMWorrying about tenure committees is one thing, communicating to a student is another, so "weenie" I think is probably quite appropriate and much more effective in showing your humanity than had you used a more formal word (what is formal for "weenie" anyway?). Just today I was walking across campus with a student of mine whose most favored activity (as expressed in a paper about his favorite place) is getting high. His attention span is, how shall I put it, not what a teacher dreams about. I told him in confidence that he was "fucking up," and then I said, "You know I don't talk like that in class." And he said, "Yeah, but we're not in class." I think he got my point much better by it being blunt and in the vulgate, so to speak, than if I had been more academic about it. It's all context, as I see it.
Students need to know we're human and that we care. Just before I met this guy, I had a female student crying in my office about the hard knocks that life gave her (I was almost in tears myself) and so I took what she was telling me and tried to work through some solutions that would get her to stop thinking hopeless thoughts, that would use what resources this college offers, that would show her that a number of people care about her dream to become a nurse and that we can help her help herself. It's where you get into school as community and teacher as guidance counselor, the "in loco parentis" area mentioned above. All in a semester's work. We *do* make a difference, in so many ways. It's why some students stay in touch. Lo and behold, you're a human being who acknowledges that they're human beings. Surprising how many teachers aren't that way, don't let down the mask, don't stop the game. Ask the students about that. It's one of the open secrets of education. When you break out of your role and let them break out of theirs, you've done a great service just in that action. Then when you present your curriculum, you've freed yourself and them of the bullshit that gets in the way of what's true about learning. And, yeah, I'm an idealist. And, yeah, it works; I'm a good teacher, too. As are you, Weez; that much is obvious, just by how you express your attitudes and capabilities here.
Posted by: ray orkwis at October 1, 2003 12:57 PMYeah, what Ray just said. That is what I was trying to say this evening about the interactivity of some professors versus others. Thanks for being interactive. ;-)
Posted by: jay at October 1, 2003 08:55 PMIs Weez a good teacher? Yes, I know that for a fact. Was I ever her student? No, but as her former roommate and friend, I hold dear the life's lessons she teaches. No one else was able to show me how wonderful life can be. "Life is good", has been my mantra since. Even in the darkest times, I have been able to recall Weez's spirit. Thank you Professor Oyzon!
Posted by: Sheila at October 2, 2003 02:23 PMthe formal word for weenie, i believe, is frankfurter.
Posted by: beaujay at October 12, 2003 02:26 AMAnd a big weenie would be kielbasa.
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