Tuesday, May 19, 2020

The End of the STRANGEST SEMESTER EVER

Yesterday was finals for both of my classes. I'm doing a lot of grading today, in the hopes that I'll wrap up by Thursday or Friday. All things considered, the semester went a lot better than I thought it would. Had you told me back in January that I'd spend the last half of the semester teaching remotely, I would have freaked out. But professors and students got through it! I sent an email to both of my classes last night thanking them for being part of this crazy semester with me, because none of us signed up for this. What a ride.

I have 3 more projects that I'm waiting on, and then all the work will be turned in. (Two from a student who has just disappeared, and one from a student who had some family issues - so all of this feels just like a normal semester!)

Here are 3 Facebook posts from this past semester. First, something I shared in a private online teaching group:



Second, here's part of a post from mid-April (about a month ago) that talks about how much work this has been:



And finally, here's something I posted on Facebook a few weeks ago:



Such a strange semester.

Not surprisingly, critiques were the thing I missed the most. In both of my classes, we did something where my students uploaded all their project files, and then they looked through everyone else's files and sent me feedback for each classmate regarding "what was done well" and "what needed some work." Then I anonymously shared all the feedback for each student on his/her grade sheet on the second page of the rubric. That was a great way to get peer feedback (and to get MORE than you'd usually get from just the half of class that usually speaks up in critique), but it was also a lot of work to make happen. And there's nothing like seeing these photos in person and giving face-to-face feedback.

Well, on to the next one. I'm already re-writing my syllabus for the fall to include a section about what to expect if we are forced into remote learning again. Right now, next fall and spring are still one big question mark.

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