Daily Routine

Daily Routine

Every morning I log on and check my classes. I do this on the weekends as well as during the week because I have found that my students are most active on weekends. I have also learned that it is best to answer all questions (email or postings) as promptly as possible. Sometimes I answer within minutes and it is nearly always well within 24 hours. This saves a lot of confusion for students and reassures them when they are feeling panicky. The goal is to get them on track as soon as possible. Of course, that depends on them checking in to the class....another question entirely!

First I do email. Then I check the postings in discussion. In the discussion area, my students are working on a team project every week. This can be a little team research paper or evaluating other teams’ papers from last week, etc. There are about 4 or 5 students in each team. I will “take the temperature” of each team to see how they are functioning. I try not to intercede too much unless they are lost or confused. At this point in the semester they have figured it out pretty well and are most are doing fine on the task. Since it is summer and we have a ten week semester, this week my teams are doubling up and doing two week’s worth of assignments.

I will usually post some feedback to the team about this time in the week; Thursday or Friday. The team tasks are due on Sunday at midnight so they need to know if they are on track. They already know I am present and watching their progress, but a reminder does not hurt. Usually my feedback is pretty innocuous, “Good work so far, team!” or something like that. Sometimes I have to light a fire; “Get to work. It’s not too late to earn points or this week’s task if you get started now!” - that kind of thing. If an individual student is off track I will gently give them some guidance. If I have anything at all harsh to say, I do that in an email to avoid embarrassing the student.

Sometimes, I have to rearrange a team. Occasionally a student just does not function well with the others so I put him/her on a team of one (with reduced requirements). This is unfortunate but necessary on occasion. The social environment of a team is a very powerful tool and when a team works well it is a thing of beauty. But things sometimes go astray. The most common problem with a team is “failure to thrive” or “excess slackers syndrome”, ESS for short. More about that in a future post.

Today, I am happy. Most of my teams are clicking away, working hard on their tasks and doing just fine!

- Dave