Assorted Thoughts on Teaching

My students are better learners. They are also artists.

Grading System Check-in

It might just be my selective hearing, but I feel like my students are asking me better questions. Instead of, “Is this good enough?” it’s: “I’m not sure if I’m just summarizing or if I’m actually analyzing.” “Is this how I format the quote or does the period go somewhere else?” “Did I do the evidence right?”

One of my students this last week said something along the lines of, “I actually really like the way you do grading. It helps me learn to write better.”

There are still aspects of the system that I’m thinking about and working through, but it’s fun to hear the positive responses.

Continuing Questions:

• I’m unsettled about my late work policy.

• It’s tough to promptly provide high quality feedback simultaneous to all the demands of teaching.

• Every assignment is marked either with a 1 or a 2 to signify if the student needs to revise their work or if they’ve passed it off. I also provide qualitative feedback on each assignment. Sometimes, though, it would be convenient to have a quick signifier to convey the nuances of a student’s ability. (In theory, this is what a letter grade might do, but it’s attachment to a GPA (and everything that’s attached to GPAs) spoils it.)

Student Art & Whiteboard Grafiti

To teach synthesis, I shuffled some “how-to-draw steps” together from three different pictures and had students pick three random steps. They had to draw a picture that incorporated every step. (After the initial drawing, they had to work together to figure out what the actual drawings were supposed to be.) Here are some of their first drawings.

Whiteboard Grafiti

Teachers are Like YouTube Videos

I love teaching. It’s also challenging. Some hard parts I expected, others I couldn’t have guessed. Here’s an attempt to explain one of the difficult social/emotional aspects of being a teacher:

Being a teacher is like being a YouTube video. A lot of the time, I feel more like a thing than a person.

People comment on YouTube videos as if the creator of it is a step removed from the video itself. In a similar sense, as a teacher, I feel I sometimes become a thing to be commented upon by my students. I’m part of their collective experience and am a reference point in their lives.

They’ll say things about my appearance, or interests, or social life, etc. I’ve learned to take as much as I can in stride and laugh at their jokes/the things they say, but it takes emotional energy to do so. 99% of the time, my students aren’t malicious or intentionally rude. They’re just saying things in good fun. And, truthfully, what they say really is funny and brings me a lot of joy (that’s why I collect and share their quotes). Occasionally, though, when my bandwidth is low, all the comments add up and leave me feeling a little insecure.

And You Became a Teacher??

I did well academically. Occasionally my students find out. They’ll ask me about my ACT score or my GPA. As soon as they find out how well I did, their immediate response is, “Then why did you become a teacher??/You picked the wrong profession.”

This reveals how the profession of teaching is viewed in society. It shows that students are socialized to prioritize salaries. Their responses imply something interesting:

“If you are so smart, why would you choose to teach?” = It’s a dumb choice to be a teacher, or smart people don’t teach (a.k.a. teachers aren’t all that smart).

Choosing to teach is one of my favorite decisions.

Photography

Thanksgiving; SLC; Kitchen; SLC 2

Piano

I inherited my parents’ old piano and recruited help from my neighbors to get it into my room.

Goodies

Gentle Playlist ☞ My carefully curated (and continually updated) playlist of gentle, neoclassical music.

Moderna Records ☞ A lot of my favorite piano songs come from Moderna Records. I also love the album covers.

Felipe Pantone ☞ I’ve recently been introduced to this artist (thanks to the algorithm).

Arc Browser ☞ I downloaded this browser a year ago and recently started reusing it. A lot of the features are helpful. It allows me to pin/organize tabs in different spaces. I have one for all the regular folders/websites I access for teaching my juniors. I have one for my sophomores. I can toggle between the two spaces easily. It’s like having a bunch of work rooms set up for specific purposes. They are flexible and last as long as I need them. (I’m excited for when they come out with a version for Windows so I can use it at my work computer.)

From School

• Student 1: “I’m so hungry, is there anything edible to eat?”
  Student 2: “You could eat this eraser.”

• Me to a student in the hall: “Good morning. What’s your first class today?”
  Student: “PE. And what am I going to be for Halloween? Someone growing up in a corrupt world. In other words: myself.”

• Student: “We were going to dress up as you for Halloween, but they were all out of single, middle-aged men.”

• Student: “This is bad, Merrill. You got me to like reading AND writing.”

• Student: “Since when do you have a beard? Why are you old??”

• Student: “Sheesh, Mr. Merrill, you’re making me think. So whatever your goal was for doing this teaching thing, it’s working.”

• One of my students who wasn’t a fan of the activity I planned: “I literally hate you, this is so dumb.”

• Student: “Mr. Merrill, I made you crème brûlée."

• Student: “Mr. Merrill, when I first read your disclosure, I was scared. You sounded like a professor.”

• I said “bet” in class and a student said, “Mr. Merrill, don’t try to sound young. Are you a millennial? Just stick to like YOLO or whatever.”

• A group of students when researching AI:

  • “This is scary! I’m scared for my children and their children.”

  • “Let’s just go back to better times. Like the 1600s.”

  • “Nuh uh, I don’t wanna be a pilgrim.”

  • “Or like the 80s. Or the 60s with Elvis.”

  • “Or what about like the 2000s when we had One Direction? That’s what we need.”

• Student: “Mr. Merrill, do you consider yourself a man?”

• It’s been interesting. With my juniors, a few times I’ve prefaced an activity by saying, “This will be challenging/difficult.” For the most part, they lean into it rather than complain.

Cheers!

p.s. Can you believe it’s almost 2024? I purchased a Hobonichi planner and am excited to give it a try.