The class I'm teaching this summer is the one I prepped last fall for the first time. I was feeling optimistic about taking the fall class and smooshing it into the summer session, but I forgot something: this is the first time since 2015 that I have taught brand-new embryonic grad students. Yesterday was Day 1 of grad school for them, and I...might have scared them.
This was not my intent. I was just planning to cruise through a review of the content from an undergrad class in the first week of the summer semester, and quiz them on it in the second week. Just like I did in the fall, except that six classes during the fall semester amounts to three weeks of class time, not 1.5. About 50 minutes into our class today I paused. "You guys are seeming a little overwhelmed," I said. They were indeed overwhelmed, so I regrouped: took extra time for questions, gave them an encouraging practice exercise*, promised to share some additional online resources after class.
*(At least it was INTENDED as an encouraging practice exercise. Some students found it more difficult than I thought they would; "encouraging" is probably not the descriptor they would use.)
There's only so much I can slow down, though. The trouble with summer classes is that the pace is unforgiving. I am contractually obligated to include a boatload of material in this class, and they're going to have to review independently if they've forgotten the foundational content from their undergrad coursework.
I'm not going to say that out loud quite yet, though. I'm going to hope that the week 1 overload recedes a little, and they get more comfortable with what's expected of them in graduate-level classes. Fingers crossed.
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