Reflections

Well another semester has come and gone and I feel like it has been really different for me this year. Perhaps it’s because I am no longer the student and instead of taking exams, I am administering them 🙂 It has been a lot of fun and I have so much I want to change for next semester that will hopefully add to my classroom experience. Changes to how I handle the class and encourage more participation as well as syllabus changes. I guess I have a bit of work to do over the break.

The one thing I found rather interesting is how my students seemed disinterested in the subject matter, or something, and seemingly unwilling to participate in any dialogue. Of course if you have any suggestions for getting undergrad students excited about learning how to communicate, email me or leave a comment, I would appreciate it. But I think I have a few things I want to try. First, I believe I need to set the tone at the beginning of the semester. I am planning on showing the following video.

I hope that this lights the fire, so to speak, and encourages some open dialogue amongst my students. The other thing I would like to try, but I’m not sure how well it will go over, is to conduct a huge role-play amongst the class that uses the communication principles we highlight. I am thinking of letting the class determine how this will look or take shape. I don’t know what or if it will happen, but it should be interesting.