Lay It On the Line, Lay It On the Line
One of the "revelations" I had over the past few years that has helped me change my instruction was that having someone else waste your time sucks. I enjoy having my time wasted as much as the next person. Which is to say, I do not enjoy having my time wasted at all. It is one of the things that irritates me the most. When I realized that students often feel that way in school, I knew I had to be different. I didn't want to lecture any more than necessary. And when I did, I wanted to err on the side of talking too little. If a student can learn something without me, I want them to do so. If I could assign 15 problems instead of 30, I'd assign 15. I was reminded again recently of what it feels like to have your time wasted by someone else. I am in a graduate class and one of the requirements for the class is that we post solutions to homework problems on a discussion board and others respond to them. You can't see the solutions others post until after you pos