Tips for Students

 

Finally, some answers! 

Ever wonder what your professors are thinking? How about your fellow students? Well we asked and found out! Here are a list of questions we asked of students and faculty and here are the answers we received. Do you have a question or an answer? Leave them as a comment below, and we will try to get back to you ASAP. Thanks!

Questions for Students & Responses

Questions for Faculty & Responses

Questions for Students & Responses

1. What were / are your personal hopes and goals as a participant in the TLI?

My long term goal is to become a faculty member at a college or university, and thus I also have a great interest in how to educate effectively at the college level. I feel that through my experiences I have a great deal more respect for the work my professors put into my education, have learned so much that I will take with me as I work towards my goal of teaching at the college level.

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2. Why do you usually see your teacher for office hours?

I go to office at the beginning of the semester to get to know my professors and to give them an opportunity to get to know me. As a result of this meeting, I am more comfortable with asking the professor for help later when I really need it.

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3. How do you make the best of a class that is not in your area of expertise or with which you do not feel completely engaged?

It is a struggle–I confess I am not the best at this, I tend to get extremely frustrated when not engaged. However, I make an effort to try to make an effort to understand where the professor is coming from in his/her actions, and by focusing on what the professor is trying to achieve, I find it easier to cope with my frustration.

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4. How do you approach really dense or long reading?

I especially focus on the beginning and end of the reading. And then I read the first couple sentences of each paragraph of the middle section of the reading.

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5. How do you usually start a conversation with a teacher when things do not feel comfortable or when you are struggling in a class?

I will go to his office hours and bring a few exercise questions to ask. After the professor finishes explaining the questions to me, I will start talk[ing] about how uncomfortable that I am with this material and that I’m struggling in class.

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6. What prevents you from going to office hours?

I don’t feel comfortable going to office hours when the professor’s tone in class doesn’t seem very welcoming or when she does not encourage students to come to office hours.

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7. How do you take notes on assignments and in class?

I usually write lecture and discussion notes on one side of the paper and then I write my questions, comments, reflections on the other side. This is helpful to me because I find it hard to participate in class without writing down my own thoughts and not just those of the professor and other students.

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Questions for Faculty & Responses

1. What were / are your personal hopes and goals as a participant in the TLI?

I participate in TLI to honor my aspirations as a teacher.  Regular meetings with a student consultant or a seminar of consultants and other faculty commit me to reflecting on what I am doing in the classroom and on my students’ learning.

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2. When and why do you want your students to come to office hours?

To me, it is particularly important for a student to come to office hours if they are struggling with the material, or aren’t quite sure how to study for a particular class. It’s also important for students to come to office hours to develop a stronger relationship with the professor, which can be very valuable when the student needs letters of recommendation for jobs or post-graduate study.

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3. What do you want students to have done before they come to office hours?

When they are coming on their own, I want them to be clear about what they want me to give them – the more specific the better. “I didn’t understand last class” is less helpful then “I lost you when we started talking about….”

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4. How do you recommend that students approach reading, particularly when it is long and dense? (read it all at once, read it in pieces, do a ‘book club’ style, etc.)

Devote focused, peaceful time to become absorbed in it.
Don’t expect fully to grasp every word.
Annotate.
Talk/converse about it in some way.

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5. How do you recommend that a student approach a class that is not in his or her particular field or with which s/he has limited experience? In other words, what is the most optimal way for students to fulfill distribution requirements or explore new classes to get the most out of them?

I found that explicit discussions on how to read writings in the field (as discussed earlier) was particularly important.  Given that most of our classes do not have pre-requisites, the students generally are compelled my their own interest in the subject matter which helps to naturally lead them to get the most out of it (those aspects that spark their interest).

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6. How do you prefer that students format emails to you?
At first: begin with Dear [first name], Dear Prof. [last name].
Once we are acquainted, Hi [first name] or Prof. [last name] is fine.

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7. What are your feelings about computers in the classroom?
 
I want students to have at hand anything they think will enhance their learning. I understand that computers can distract a student (checking email is tempting). But, my view is that if I’m not keeping classroom activities sufficiently engaging that students surf, then the fault lies with me and my planning.  My one reservation is that student A’s off-topic computer activity could prove distracting for students sitting next to her.

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