Positive Vibes from A History Classroom

[smccormack]

Lately it feels as though every article or news story I see about higher education is highlighting a negative: budget cuts, contentious debates about academic freedom/free speech, and arguments about the perceived value of a college education. This year is my nineteenth at a community college and my twenty-fifth as a college professor. While there is no shortage of issues to worry about my goal for this week is to accentuate the positive. Here are three bright spots from my first month of the school year: 

1. Enrollment in Latin American History doubled at my college this semester! Two years ago I agreed to add the course to my load when the college was designated an Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). This fall we filled two sections of the course. It hasn’t been easy to reacquaint myself with material that I had not studied since graduate school but now two years into the challenge it is thrilling to see more students taking advantage of the opportunity to learn about this critically important area of the world. Many of my students are first-generation Americans, which makes teaching the class even more rewarding.

2. More students than ever before are taking advantage of peer-tutoring! Once again this semester I am fortunate to have an embedded tutor in my 7-week intensive courses. Students this semester seem more willing than in previous semesters to both ask for and accept help. My peer-tutor reports to me that on a weekly basis she is seeing a higher number of students this semester than in the previous two. Given that my attendance has remained steady since the start of my current 7-week intensive I am sensing a correlation (hard numbers to follow at semester’s end) between increased visits to the Tutoring Center and potential positive student outcomes.

3. Two students thanked me for requiring them to participate in class! When we are in small groups in my US survey classes each person is expected to be engaged in the conversation and prepared to answer for the group if called on (in other words, no “spokesperson”). Last week as one of my classes reluctantly formed groups of 4-5 students I gave them a mom-style lecture (no other way to describe it) about organizing themselves so they could see, hear, and interact with all group members. They had to start by introducing themselves. There was a lot of groaning … a lot. 

As the class period went on, however, the room grew louder. By the time we needed to come back together as a class the students were actually talking to each other – not just about the nonimportation movement of the 1760s but random things such as which math professor they have. As they were leaving two students individually approached me to say they were glad that they had been forced to interact with their classmates. One even asked if we could do another group activity the next week. In this era of digital/virtual/online the students’ expressed enjoyment felt like a huge win for human interaction!

So I’m taking these three personal victories with me on the journey through the next two and one-half months of school. I’m using the positive to, as much as possible, block out the negative noise all around me. How about you? What’s giving you reasons to smile this semester? Please share!