Weird Class Sizes
Mar. 30th, 2006 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI taught a class today. Normally I like teaching, especially teaching people who are at a class voluntarily. But in this case, I wasn't looking forward to it.
One reason is that the subject matter is boring and complicated.
Another reason is that an awkward number of people had signed up for the class. Now, if ten or twenty people sign up for a class, I have an outline and I make a formal presentation, throwing out examples and anecdotes and taking questions, and it's all good. Some people hear things they've heard before, some people hear things that are over their heads, but it's okay, because they expect that.
If I'm having a one-on-one training with someone, I you figure out where they are and what they want and go from there. This only works if I have a good grip on the material, but I do.
If I have a group of two or three, but they're all at the same level or at least looking at the material from the same perspective, that's okay, too.
But I had three people sign up for this class from all over the place. One is someone I have done one-on-one training with several times and is an expert at some portions of the material and works in a dean's office. One works in a department in a different college where their workers get a lot of power, but not quite as much as in dean's offices. The last works in a department in a third college that does not even award degrees.
As it turned out, only the expert showed up, so we went one-by-one and it was fine.
After the class, I went back to my office and looked at my calendar for tomorrow--nothing at all. It's amazing how much happier I got. It's amazing how such a little thing can hang over me and make me not even want to go to work.
But then someone e-mailed me that a broken part of the system was now fixed, and he was almost right. It is now fixed enough that I can do my work. But many, many hours of this work have been piling up. So I have catching up on that to look forward to tomorrow.
And Monday I have the second class in the series. Two people have signed up: the expert who made it to class, and one of the other people who didn't make it to class. I think I'm going to call that person and offer to do a one-on-one with her to help her catch up.
One reason is that the subject matter is boring and complicated.
Another reason is that an awkward number of people had signed up for the class. Now, if ten or twenty people sign up for a class, I have an outline and I make a formal presentation, throwing out examples and anecdotes and taking questions, and it's all good. Some people hear things they've heard before, some people hear things that are over their heads, but it's okay, because they expect that.
If I'm having a one-on-one training with someone, I you figure out where they are and what they want and go from there. This only works if I have a good grip on the material, but I do.
If I have a group of two or three, but they're all at the same level or at least looking at the material from the same perspective, that's okay, too.
But I had three people sign up for this class from all over the place. One is someone I have done one-on-one training with several times and is an expert at some portions of the material and works in a dean's office. One works in a department in a different college where their workers get a lot of power, but not quite as much as in dean's offices. The last works in a department in a third college that does not even award degrees.
As it turned out, only the expert showed up, so we went one-by-one and it was fine.
After the class, I went back to my office and looked at my calendar for tomorrow--nothing at all. It's amazing how much happier I got. It's amazing how such a little thing can hang over me and make me not even want to go to work.
But then someone e-mailed me that a broken part of the system was now fixed, and he was almost right. It is now fixed enough that I can do my work. But many, many hours of this work have been piling up. So I have catching up on that to look forward to tomorrow.
And Monday I have the second class in the series. Two people have signed up: the expert who made it to class, and one of the other people who didn't make it to class. I think I'm going to call that person and offer to do a one-on-one with her to help her catch up.