I believe, overall, the class went well. I did’t rush too much (for me) and there were very few breaks where I had to go catch someone up. That is always a good sign.
The problem with the course was the hodge-podge variety of what we covered. Not enough time to teach all of Windows XP, so you give them a quick overview of the process for each bit and piece, answer any questions they have and then let them refer to the handout if they can’t pull the process from memory.
It will be interesting to read the survey results. Teaching a workshop is often like taking a test: you think you did an A (or D) job and the grade is a C (or B) and completely throws you for a loop.
1 comment so far
First, thanks for blogging the process, especially the before-and-after. It’s great to see your reflections this way. I hope you find it useful as well–I know I always do.
Second, I know exactly what you mean about hodge-podge. At some point, no matter how carefully crafted the lesson, most teaching ends up feeling a little like hash by the end of the class. It’s the rare class where everything seems tight, focused, and immediately effective, in my experience. That said, C. S. Lewis once noted that hotch-potch (another word for hodge-podge) was an excellent dish, and that the virtue of hodge-podge was how varied and interesting all the flavors could be if they worked together well. So here’s to hotch-potch (or hodge-podge), and to creative cookery everywhere.
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