How can I avoid being the \u201csage on the stage,\u201d Pitfall #3? As I think about this question, I can\u2019t help but think about the poetry class I taught\u2014on campus\u2014yesterday afternoon. We were talking about imagery, and how a poet\u2019s job is to make the abstract concrete, and I have to be honest: This is a topic that I absolutely love. I had a twenty minute stretch, walking up and down the aisles of the class, where I definitely felt like the sage on the stage. And I won\u2019t lie: It felt great. There are nearly seventy students in that classroom, and I know this is probably delusional, but I felt like I had them all. So, that\u2019s the background for this topic in my mind: Being a sage on the stage actually does feel really good\u2014when it\u2019s working, and when you can convince yourself that the students are benefiting from your presentation.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019m comparing that lecture, and that feeling, to what\u2019s happening in my online poetry class this term. It\u2019s the same class, ENG 106, and I teach it both online and on campus regularly. Online, I am not the sage on the stage. Not by a long shot. And I think part of that is that I\u2019m hyper-aware of the fact that my \u201cstudents may be Googling [my] lecture topic\u2026 finding sources that update or improve [my] presentation\u201d (St. Germain, \u201cFive Common Pitfalls of Online Course Design\u201d). I know the online class has a lot about it that\u2019s good, but I also am keenly aware of the fact that my passion for poetry has a harder time coming through. And this might be a bit simplistic, but I think passion can go a long way in the classroom, to inspire and to encourage learning.<\/p>\n
So, here in this post from St. Germain, I\u2019m realizing that avoiding this sage on the stage is actually advised\u2014hooray! I suppose I\u2019m coming at this assignment from a different angle, but this realization leads me to this: How can I utilize my role as a \u201ccontent curator\u201d (I love that terminology) to do what I think teacher-centered teaching (for all its faults) is good for, to inspire and to convey passion for the material? Is it as simple as collecting and presenting the best of the material available online? Is it a heightened awareness to what\u2019s being advocated for in Pitfall #4, to ask and enable students to create rather than consume? To encourage more student-student learning, as encouraged in Pitfall #5? To allow students themselves to function as sages on stages at least in certain guided lessons?<\/p>\n
So interesting. I\u2019m here in this community to work on my grammar course as a hybrid, but I\u2019m actually ending this assignment thinking more about both my online and on campus sections of my poetry class. Wow! Thanks for reading! Any thoughts appreciated!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How can I avoid being the \u201csage on the stage,\u201d Pitfall #3? As I think about this question, I can\u2019t help but think about the poetry class I taught\u2014on campus\u2014yesterday afternoon. We were talking about imagery, and how a poet\u2019s … Continue reading