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!