Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Sure, the Student was Sucking Up, But I'll Take It

A student today, upon turning in hir take-home exam, told me that it was "awesome." I thought that ze was being sarcastic, but no. Ze went on and on about how much ze learned in doing the exam, how interesting it was working on the different parts....

Now, again, I do think there was a good bit of sucking up in the mix on this. But the other students, too, seemed to feel like they learned something from the take-home and like it was, in context, fairly enjoyable.

I love a test that students learn from doing. Love. That I appear to have succeeded in producing that for this class, well, that was the sort of thing that I needed today.

By the way, thanks for all of the comments on yesterday's post. It occurred to me today that yesterday would have been my mom and my dad's wedding anniversary, which may have had some effect on my emotional state. (It's always a weird day for me, in no small part because my dad often would call me on that day after the divorce, which I do think was a little bizarre, but whatever.) Anyway, I know I'm not totally alone, though I do wish that I had a brother or a sister who "got" things from my perspective. As far as going through this goes, I've got huge amounts of support from lots of corners, but I don't have anybody who is actually going through it with me. That's hard. And, frankly, I'm not into going through this at all, and I would like to throw a tantrum and refuse :) But so anyway, thanks again.

2 comments:

Bardiac said...

Wow! That's always my goal in writing a test, that students would actually put things together in taking it, and learn something. Well done!

k8 said...

I just saw your earlier post. You sounded very even-handed about the whole situation. I'm sorry you are going through all of this.

As for that student, that might be sucking up, but it is the kind of sucking up I would take any day. That test is doing exactly what it should do and the student recognizes it and appreciates it. This is wonderful.