2.8 Discussion Board III: Relationships (Required to earn certificate)

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  Posted by CUNY Mindset Initiative on March 11, 2024 at 10:57 am

  💬 Discussion:

  In your course(s), how do you get to know your students? Share an activity you use, or plan to use, to learn about students’ personal information, interests, &/or goals.

• Careen Purcell

  Member

  July 23, 2024 at 12:41 pm

  In the course I teach, I will start by posting a warm welcome letter on BB before the semester begins. During our first class, I will introduce myself by sharing my professional background, personal interests, and goals for the semester. I will also allow each student to introduce themselves, share why they chose their major, and discuss their aspirations for the semester.

  After reviewing the workshop readings, I consider integrating the discussed value systems into my teaching approach. I want my students to understand that teaching this course is vital to my life. Additionally, I aim to create a space for students to explore the connection between their personal lives and the course material. This approach will cultivate a sense of community, purpose, relevance, and value, ultimately motivating students, increasing engagement, and leading to progress and success in the course.
  Katherine Joubin

  Member

  July 25, 2024 at 1:44 pm

  At the start of the semester, I have a Discussion Board in Blackboard where I ask students to introduce themselves and tell the class and me about their interests. After reading through the module, I am going to make my question a bit more purpose-oriented and ask what specific things they hope to get out of this class. Even if the class is just a prerequisite for classes they might be more interested in, I will try to show why the content covered in my class will help them understand those other classes.

  In one of my classes, students have the opportunity to write a research paper on any cell biological topic. Some students don’t know what topic to choose, so I try to show them how cell biology is relevant for them. It can be as diverse as understanding the cell biology of a rash they got from poison ivy or understanding the mechanism of action of a treatment a family member is undergoing for a certain disease. This is an assignment students really enjoy as a result of seeing its relevance.
  Karyna Pryiomka

  Member

  August 7, 2024 at 3:36 pm

  One of the projects I assign asks students to develop a research question and use themselves as a research subject to collect data. That way, they get to use course material (statistical methods in psychology) to learn something about themselves and hopefully recognize the relevance of the course to their personal and professional lives.
  John Beaumont

  Participant

  August 14, 2024 at 12:16 pm

  In the first week of class there are several opportunities for students to introduce themselves to their classmates and to me. I model several of these tasks by giving information about myself. In one early writing task, students write a letter of introduction to me. This assignment allows them to be direct and honest with me about who they are and what they might need. In this letter I ask them to tell me what is important for me to know about them: essential information or background about who they are, what their major is, what their interests are, and what their future plans are. I also ask them to tell me specifically and honestly why they are taking the course–all honest reasons are valid. If they are working, they can tell me about their job. If they have a family, they can tell me a little about them. If they are taking other courses, they can tell me what they are. I also ask them to highlight at least one detail about themselves that they think might make them unique from other students in the class. I also ask them to complete a survey that asks about to share other information, like comfort/experience with online classes, possible barriers to their success in the class, etc.
  Lara Stapleton (She/her)

  Member

  August 14, 2024 at 4:17 pm

  In your course(s), how do you get to know your students? Share an activity you use, or plan to use, to learn about students’ personal information, interests, and/or goals.

  I have students write about themselves, and I learn about them from our discussions as well. Their first writing is about their experience in English class; in this way, I learn about what challenges students have had in the past and get ideas about how to help the more insecure students gain confidence about their capabilities. Their first essay is about a challenge they’ve overcome. I find students very open in these essays, some really discuss trauma, though I tell them they can write about light or heavy things; it’s up to them. In the last two years, many students have written about their loneliness during the pandemic. This inspired me to do more get-to-know-you exercises. They interview, introduce, and write about each other.
  Cynthia Chris (she/her)

  Participant

  September 11, 2024 at 1:09 pm

  Like many others posting to this board, I try “icebreaker” activities that help me learn the students names and their interests (and each others’ names and what they have in common). Since I teach media studies, my “getting to know” you questions tend to involve your favorite movie, TV show, favorite when you were a kid, preferred source of news, stuff like. I often share with these students that when I was first working as a teaching assistant way back in 1997, I once asked students returning from winter break the last movie they had seen — every single one of them said Titanic (well, not me, but that’s another story). Nothing like that has ever happened since, in a media environment where choice of platform and quantity of content have ballooned exponentially in the intervening years. Now, in a class of 30 students, you can get 30 different answers when you ask a question like that (though it’s likely that there’s some overlap), we don’t share as many cultural referents. So I’m able to move from an informal conversation about our media consumption habits to a more formal passage about the structure of the industry, and back again. I also think it’s important to ask students about their career goals, though I often do that privately as an ungraded question on a quiz or something like that.
  Diana Samaroo (she/her)

  Member

  October 16, 2024 at 12:02 pm

  First day ice-breaker – I share my own undergrad experience taking the course I am ‘now teaching’ – and ask why they are taking the course; and what their interest are beyond the course.  I invite them to my drop-in hour (aka office hour) to discuss their goals – recognizing that not all students want to share with the entire class.