After 2 months of shying away and avoiding looking at it, I finally accessed my students‘ course evaluations for Phil 127, the first class I completely taught on my own. The evaluations were …. … very good, what a surprise -.- I personally had the impression that I was doing a good job but hey, my perception of things can be totally different from others. And that made me nervous as fuck. Sure, my students cooperated well, they were engaged, eager even and when given the opportunity for criticism or voicing their desires, no fundamental problems came up. And still… My course evaluations for Phil 127 weiterlesen

I have never been a fan of it: in school, it always felt like a waste of time. In Uni, I barely ever did them, but my professors did and – the quality was… fluctuating, to be diplomatic. But oh, has my mind changed: Big shout out to the OG digital tool: Powerpoint! (Or rather, apple’s Keynote) The switch from co-teaching 75min to 50min was rough. Especially, given that I was teaching a seminar aimed at freshmen in their first semester of uni. There was so much to say! Encouragement, motivation, guidance and help for being a successful student, introductions… Shout Out to the Underdog! weiterlesen

I gave my class a simple task: go on TikTok, find a video that you would consider „educational“ and share it in the discussion section on canvas. Further, I asked them to be prepared to speak about it in class: What makes it educational to you? I adjusted the discussion in such a way that students could see what others had posted only after they had posted something themselves. I wanted to get a grasp on each student’s intuitions and have them think for themselves, without taking inspiration from others. That week’s reading was by Alvin Goldman, Experts, which ones… TikTok (+) Philosophy weiterlesen

Herrje, where did the time go? I made it through the first 3 weeks of teaching and besides some early hiccups, it surprisingly has been smooth sailing so far! The class initially started out with 20 students and after some swaps and drops, I have a stable group of 13 students. I am very pleased with the students, they are curious, disciplined and very smart. Part of me wishes for them to participate more. But then again, the texts we have been reading so far and the way we talked about them „didn’t allow“ for that much engagement yet. (Since… Looking back: 3 weeks of teaching weiterlesen