Back to the grind

So I had a lovely spring break and I even have photos but I'll have to post those later.

Today I want to describe one of my classes for you. Several folks have asked me in the past to write about my experiences teaching. I must admit that other than the ever present slacker and brown-nosing students that are in every class, I haven't felt that I've had much to write about.

That was before this semester. This semester I have a lab class that is worth writing about (and no, not a single one of my students or TAs has the address to this blog, nor is it listed anywhere except by friends' blogs) .

Normally you get a good mix of all sorts in any group of students you teach. Sometimes you get groups that are so enthusiastic that it makes teaching a real joy and sometimes you get that apathetic group that is so soul sucking that you consider leaving academia all together. This lab class fits neither description.

But this one group I teach this semester is either so funny I can't help but laugh or so sad it makes me want to rip out my hair. I still haven't made up my mind which it is. This is the kind of class about which people write sit-coms. My students fit every possible stereotype and have formed little cliques that seems to accentuate these stereotypes. Now realize that I teach at a fairly selective school and that these students were definitely the cream of the crop in their high schools and generally do have a clue (of sorts) so all of these statements are relative.

1. I have the cute blond girls who must have been wearing some sort of short cheerleading type skirt not too many years ago. They spend a great deal of their time talking about anything but class. They are the last ones to arrive any place we need to go during class time (but always with an excuse). And they generally seem to look down on everyone else in the class (I'm fairly certain I am included in that "everyone else"). However you often hear them wondering out loud and VERY loudly if other students in the class are talking about them. So here you have the typical, cool but with a low self-esteem group that people probably love to hate (I would not be included in these "people" -I am a professional folks! And besides, they were probably the nerdy cheerleaders in high school so you can't really hate them).

2. Then you have the awkward, geeky kids that will never be picked first for anything and will never win a beauty contest plus the lone black student of the class (who is neither as brilliant nor as geeky as her clique-mates, in fact she's very cute but in a school as white as Wonder Bread, the black kids fit in where they can). These kids are very smart (even for this place) and will probably go far if they can ever develop their communication skills.

3. Next there are the stylish, alterni-girls who have wardrobes that most of us would kill for but with an edge. These are the ones who tend to shoot nasty looks over at the blond cheerleaders most days. By an odd coincidence, this is also the group that has the one student (there is one every year) who wants to have her hand held through every step of every exercise. This seems like a bit of a contradiction to me but perhaps it is just one of the joys of the selective liberal arts college.

4. Of course it wouldn't be a sit-com without the group that somehow manages to contain both the class clowns and the most uptight girl of the entire class. Much hilarity ensues as I'm sure you can imagine.

5. And then there is the seemingly catch all group that isn't really catch-all as it will reliably form with similar members every year. This is the group of the rather effeminate gay boys and the uber-self confident girls who don't wear quite enough clothing to avoid being labeled sluts regardless of their behavior.

6. Lastly you have the jocks who are never seen in anything but running clothes and are generally fairly outgoing and friendly to all of the other students but still manage to form their own little clique.

Now take all of these groups and make them form working groups limited to four people that then have to count bugs, grow plants, row out in small boats to take pond water samples and force their way through shrubbery to collect data. Obviously group 4 describes one of these working groups as the class clowns and uptight girls would probably avoid interacting under any other circumstance.

This last week we had our aquatic biology lab. This takes place out at the campus field station (just north of campus) and involves students using microscopes to identify a large number of pond organisms including leaches as well as the afore mentioned rowing of small boats. Do I need to even describe my day with this class? I'll just leave it to your imagination and then, just shy of students falling out of the boats, let your imagination go wild. You'll be fairly close to the truth.