Staggered Courses

I will be beginning my second class next week. Since this is a class for High School students, taught at the College Campus, it always starts a few weeks later than the “traditional” college classes. It is always interesting to see how such a process plays out.

This semester, these are the only two classes I am teaching and they are both on TR. In one sense, it would be much easier to simply use the same lecture for both classes. Life would be so much simpler if the two classes were on identical schedules. Obviously, if the starting date differs by three weeks, that cannot happen. This means I need to put extra time into having two lesson plans set, even though the courses are the same.

On the positive side, one of the things that used to frustrate me as a student was a teacher who simply repeated the same lesson, session after session in the day. If the teacher had already covered the material three times in a given day and you had this individual for the fourth session s/he taught that day, the instructor would probably sound bored and be tired of teaching the same material. By teaching different things, it forces me to stay fresh.

Another advantage is, if I am not happy with the way a particular lecture went, if I am disappointed that I did not have time to look over the material as much as I had hoped, had wanted, maybe even had needed, I get a second chance a few weeks later.

So, there is both good and bad in having the classes staggered by a few weeks. Since I have no control over that, I might as well accept it and enjoy it. I hope classes are going well for all of you who are either teaching, or taking them.