AY 300 - Fall 2010: First Day Lesson Plan (Aaron's version)

Class begins as a real day-one discussion section in 264 Evans. Students are broken into groups and lead through an activity that emphases group work and student-student interaction. The remainder of the discussion section will discuss what happened, and overarching themes of running a discussion section, teaching at Berkeley in general and an astronomy class in particular.

During all discussions, Aaron and Josh are circling the room and seeding ideas in groups, which they will bring into the class-wide discussion.

• The passcode to get into the discussion room is 1-9-4-4.

• Our names, contact info, office locations
• Classroom time and location for Day 2
• Any announcements?
  • Code for 264 Evans (1944)
  • Sign up for the class if you haven't done so yet (CCN: 06325). E-mail Dexter Stewart (dstewart@astro) if you get waitlisted.
  • Bring your semester schedules on Day 2?

• Welcome to Astro 300: Instructional Techniques in Astronomy!
• What to call us: Aaron and Josh
• “Let's begin with a question, and feel free to just yell out responses: Think of one of your favorite teachers from your undergraduate days. What made them a good teacher? Give one aspect.” Make a list on the board. (To Josh: We could have then talk in groups and give group answers, since we are emphasizing group work. Or we could push this to later. I feel like we want to start with the icebreaking type activity to set the precedent for how group work will be emphasized.. maybe end with this? I agree. It breaks the flow too much. I liked the old first homework, so it would be nice to put it in somewhere.)
• What's our purpose in here?
  • To give YOU the confidence to hold a discussion section.
  • To bring to your discussion sections (and any future courses you may teach) elements of this list we just made. This list will serve as our goals, and we will keep it in the back of our minds as we develop our teaching philosophy.

• Last, First
• E-mail
• Department or Major
• Year
• Hometown
• Astronomy Background
• Teaching Experience
• Enrolled in the course and/or section
• Reason for taking the course? (“because I need a science course” is a perfectly acceptable answer)

• Poll the class to see who's enrolled in AY 300, Section 003 (CCN: 06325). The number of credits is variable, but technically it's two credits for the course plus one discussion section and three credits for the course plus two discussion sections. If you get waitlisted in the class, E-mail Dexter Stewart (dstewart@astro) and ask to be added to the course.

(To Josh: I'd say emphasize “Name and department on front of card, rest on back, have the notecard out like a nametag.” Sure, that's fine.)

• Hand out the syllabus.
• Hit the major points, but don't dwell on this (will return to it later)

Taken from Modelling Discourse Management by Desbien

• Put together a set of instructions on how to make a paper airplane in small groups (We can change the specific activity used Aaron: “I like the airplane idea, let's go with that.”)
  • This is the only instruction we will give
  • Based on my experience with Compass, we need a specific time limit. Here, I say 10 minutes to make instructions, 10 minutes to interpret and build paper airplanes, 10 minutes of big group discussion of the activity.
• Collect instructions and exchange in between groups
• Pass out instructions and tell to follow instructions exactly
• Must interpret meaning of “lengthwise,” etc.
  • We are going around making them question these meanings (i.e., what is “lengthwise” if holding paper in landscape orientation, etc.)
  • The idea is to get crazy things out of the instructions.
• Bring together into circle and discuss the activity (We are also in the circle, if not completely outside it.)
  • Point out that this is how we will hold discussions in this class (Precedent setting)
  • Questions:
    • Why did we get crazy-looking airplanes?
    • What terms were ambiguous?
    • What assumptions needed to be made that weren't explicit
    • Why would we do this?
  • Where we hope to get them (meaning consensus):
    • Terms/definitions must be agreed upon before being used
    • Pictures are often better than words

• Re-iteration that this is how they should expect classes to proceed in the future.
• Announcement/reminder of any homework, etc.

• Brainstorm in small groups about what we did/accomplished. Consider the following (our ideas about these):
  • What atmosphere developed? How? (Comfortable (hopefully!) and collaborative. Humanizing ourselves with answers to questions, humor. Putting ourselves in the circle, not in front of the room.)
  • What precedents were set? How (be specific)? (Group activity will be the main mode of learning. Students are responsible for developing main points. Consensus must be reached. Placing in small groups. Very little lecturing on our part. Not placing ourselves in front/middle, etc.)
  • What did you like? Not like?
  • Gather in big group and discuss what they came up with. Reach some consensus.

• Syllabus (and the other handouts we'll pass out later today) are all online on the course wiki page. It is useful to occasionally check for updates since the syllabus may evolve slightly (e.g., the list and order of topics).
• Discuss designing your own section syllabus (not a lecture syllabus):
  • Brainstorm in small groups what makes a good syllabus? What about ours is good? What is missing? Use whiteboards! (Aaron: “I like this, have each group try to answer the questions themselves on whiteboards.”)
  • Where we hope to get them:
    • There's no need to be very long or hard-edged.
    • The course syllabus should have the key information, but you should emphasize your contact info and any section policies that you want to enforce.
    • It's important to be yourself in your syllabus and try to strike the same tone and tenor as section will in general.
  • Gather in our circle and discuss/come to a consensus.

(To Josh: Are we handing out example syllabuses at this point? Perhaps just refer them to the EBRB at some point… like the following section)

• Course website contains copies of handouts and links to relevant pages. (Perhaps show the webpage using an overhead projector. I can bring my laptop.)
• Make an account on Badgrads so you can view the EBRB and contribute to our course website.
• EBRB Website. Examples and templates. Invaluable resource. No need to reinvent the wheel.
• You might start thinking of how your own syllabus will look. We are happy to look over it for you when you have a draft.
• Further Resources on syllabus design: See the optional readings from Davis Tools for Teaching.

• In Ay 300, what do you fear? Want to learn? Want to practice?
• Get answers from the class and list them on the the board.
• Ay 300 instructor should add 1 or 2 things not listed that they'd like to teach (how to deal with disrespectful students, how to engage students, etc.).
• GSIs could do something like this for their first AY 10 section but asking for astronomy topics that their students would like to learn about.
• Use good boardwork

1. In at least one paragraph, but not more than one page, answer the following questions:

• I bring to teaching a belief that …..
• In the classroom I see myself as …..
• I believe students are …..
• I seek to foster in students …..
• I think the role of discussion section is …..

Be prepared to briefly share at least one of these responses at the beginning of the next class. (To Josh: The thought was that they will answer these same questions at the end of the semester to see how their teaching philosophy has evolved. Sounds great! Let's do it!)

2. Make an account on the BadGrads website.

• Enroll and complete the GSI Resource Center's Online Ethics Course. You are all required to enroll in this course and complete all five online modules during the first 3 weeks of the semester. You can do one module at a time (or all of them at once) and each module will take anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes to complete.
• Take a quick poll of who's finished it and who's started it.
• All first time ASEs (Academic Student Employees) must attend the New ASE Orientation, which will include a 30-minute orientation by the university and a 30-minute presentation by UAW Local 2865. The dates, times and locations for the Orientations can be found at http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/labor/ase_orientdate.htm
• Poll who has a computer account and who receives astro.berkeley.edu email (or at least the first email I sent) in a timely manner.
• Remind everyone to see Nina Ruymaker (ninanina@berkeley) on the sixth floor of Campbell so that she can see your student ID and get it coded for entry into Evans after hours. Either Nina or Dexter Stewart can help you get keys, if necessary.