Sorry for the gap in blogs for a few weeks, but wow it’s been busy. I’ve started teaching a new class on co-creating learning environments, and I’m loving the students’ enthusiasm and creative ideas. I’m trying to use a range of different ways in which they can co-create the course with me, and it’s been wonderful that so far, the students have been really game to try some new things with me. I asked for some feedback from the students in week 2, just to see how things were going, and one of the pieces of feedback included a statement ‘Cathy is an angel’ – which was totally unexpected and delightful! Several other students said ‘I love this class’! So I think it’s been going well. Maybe it’s because it was Valentines Day that week, they were feeling the love?! However, we have a class project and we don’t have many weeks to do it in, so it’s getting more challenging as the weeks go by – let’s hope we can all stay positive. I’m certainly really enjoying the teaching and getting to know the students better.

I’ve also been getting on with my research – which is examining how teachers and students form positive relationships in the first few classes they have together. I’m trying to get at what it is that good teachers do to form and maintain positive relationships with students, and to encourage good relationships between students. In order to get hold of students to complete the questionnaires, I’ve been visiting some classrooms at the end of classes to ask if any students are willing to complete the questionnaires. This week, that involved going to Prof Tony Crider’s Astronomy at night class, where because it was a rainy night, I was able to get the students to fill in questionnaires, and the bonus was that I was treated to 15 minutes of class learning about different kinds of telescopes.

It was Valentines Day last week, and I thought you would appreciate a picture of the subtle area of my local supermarket dedicated to all things heart shaped! Let’s just say they seem very enthusiastic about it! I did receive some lovely unexpected flowers from my housemate Kristen (see top left of this blog page) to say thanks for looking after Elsa the dog, which was unnecessary, but lovely. Meanwhile Elsa herself has a romance blossoming with next door’s chicken (see second picture in this blog)! Although to be honest, we think the chicken is keener.

Another thing I’ve been feeling the love for, is the American institution known as girl scout cookies! When I first heard of them, I presumed these were cookies baked by girl scouts – however, they are cookies baked by a biscuit manufacturer and sold by girl scouts (and their long suffering family members) in aid of girl scouts. They come in many flavours and people usually have strong views about their favourite variety of cookie. My students have been educating me about all the different flavours and I’ve bought a variety of them to ensure I keep my students fed at break times (ah, maybe that’s why they think I’m an angel – cookie bribery!). I’m feeling the pressure to buy them, because someone said to me the cookies are only available January to March every year, so those who are addicted to particular flavours have to stock up!

One more thing that made me smile a few weeks ago was the sight of this microwave in a student kitchen at Elon University. I was torn between admiration for the ingenious problem-solving of smart students, and sheer horror at the health and safety nightmare that might ensue!

Feeling the love… / Star spangled banter by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0