Group Work Video

I was clued into a great video on group work.  It talks about forming and managing student groups to mazimize their experience of working with others on group-assignments.  It is worth 15 minutes of your time to watch if you have not seen one before or a refresher.  You can enjoy this yourself or show to faculty at:

http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/resources/SEI_video.html

Freedom to Teach

Involving the students in designing the way the HR class is to be taught has been liberating to say the least.  Having 20 years of teaching under my belt and tried almost every teaching technique known to human kind has also made this possible.  I am free to teach!

Opening up the class to the possibilities proffered by students got an unexpected boost.  Yesterday I was checking voice mail and ran across a message from Hilton Hotels.  The person calling was from HR and wanted to see if she and Hilton HR could become involved with the class.  I almost jumped out of my chair given what is happening right now to design the HR class.  I was incredulous as she indicated Hilton would help the students with resume writing, job interviewing, getting a job with Hilton and more.  We also talked about doing skype presentations from HR folks to the class.  We talked about them coming to campus or us going to Chicago.  The bottom line being that the phone call could not have come at a more perfect time.  I could not wait to share with the students today.  Which I did at the start of the class.  They were jacked up, too, with the possibilities.

We also nailed down the structure of the quizzes that they gave a unanimous vote to having during the semester.  I am going to essentially put together a quiz after class and give them 24 hours to take it over materials we talked about in class using their notes.  We also agreed on how many case studies they would do involving real problems being experienced right now by those working in HR.  They also agreed on the format for addressing the cases which will involve research.  Hospitality students doing research, never!  Well as it turns out, they are happy to research something that they are interested in researching.  We also discussed what we want guest speakers to do when they come into our class. 

The takeaway.  Same as it was the last blog post. Go for it.  Stop doing the same old mind numbing shit when you teach.  Take all that experience, take a deep breath, and work with your students to teach them what they need to know as a result of taking the class but with their input.  I must tell you that there was no end of class shuffle of jackets and notes today.  We lost track of time.  And so far there are 70 pairs of eyes glued to me as we facilitate what we are going to do to learn HR and satisfy standardized course objectives this semester.  Viva liberacion!

Go Ahead, Take a Risk in Your Teaching

As I indicated on last blog post, I was going to not start my HR class with a well defined syllabus beyond course description and course objectives.  I did indeed do just that in class on Monday and found myself with a very engaged group of 70 junior level students in our program.

I started class by saying that I am constantly being told by students that they are here at Purdue to learn.  The problem is that teachers get in the way of their learning.  I then shared with them the description and objectives we had to meet for the semester.  Then came their first assignment.  They were to complete the following sentence with sufficient detail, "The best class I ever took at Purdue was taught in the following manner:"  I told them they had 10 minutes and we would review what they wrote.  I then left the room putting the class in their hands.

When I returned to class I simply started to go from one student to the next to learn their concept of best practices in teaching.  The discussion was eye opening and the best part of all was that every last student was focused on the discussion!  There was not the usual deadpan look one gets from students on the first day that have learned that their teachers go blah, blah, blah through the syllabus.  This was not the case -- they were starting to design their class.

As I went from student to student we started to get a sense of those things that we will do and those things that we will not do to learn the course objectives.   They do not want exams.  Interestingly enough they want some sort of quiz at the end of the classes.  That was a complete surprise.  They told me it helps them stay focused.  There will be no textbook.  We will generate the content.  We will "go someplace to see HR in action."  We will do case studies.  We will look at current issues facing HR in Hospitality Industry.  They want guest speakers.  They also decided that there will be no need for an attendance policy because we will design a class that students want to go to.  Indeed the students put a lot on the table and we will finalize in the next two classes.  Oh by the way, unbeknownst to me a student had volunteered to become our scribe and handed me notes at the end of class!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The takeaway?  Take some risks in your teaching.  Get your students on board regardless of what you teach or where you teach it.  Build on the message from Daniel Pink's book Drive on the power of intrinsic motivation and apply it to your teaching.  Give your students ownership of their learning and get them to hold themselves accountable to their studies.  You have everything to gain so take a risk, so far I have learned the rewards are great!

Student Designed Instruction

I am going to do something this semester I have been wanting to try for years.  I am going to go out on a limb and walk into my HR class tomorrow with a syllabus that has the description and objectives and assigned text and that is it.  I have no agenda.  I have no lesson plan.  I have no exams scheduled.  Indeed, I have no planned assignments whatsoever for the class ready to go. I am going to leave it up to the students to tell me what they want to do to learn the course objectives!

I am a firm believer in everything that Daniel Pink said in his latest book Drive, that the best motivation is intrinsic.  So I am going to have the students spend the first week working with me on how they want me to teach the class.  I am going to have them decide what it will take to captivate their interest in the subject of HR.  If that means no attendance policy and they can convince me how that will lead to them learning the course objectives, so be it!  If they say no quizzes, so be it!  Of course, if they say no assignments whatsoever then that will be unacceptable, to say the least.  Indeed there has to be a way for them to demonstrate they learned HR because it is a vital management tool.

I intend to keep a journal this semester as to how the course progresses.  But I do believe the students when they say they want to learn the materials, based on my most recent approaches to getting students to evaluate my teaching.  They claim that the problem is that they do not like the way most of their classes are taught.  So now is the time for the students to put their money where their mouth is and prove that they are in college to learn dammit!

I am equally nervous and optimistic and will keep you posted.

Until then, continue to preach the gospel of culinary arts and sciences, my brothers and sisters!  I cannot wait to see you all in Charlotte at the FELC Summit!