I've been taking some classes to brush up on my forum moderating and Adobe Connect skills ready for this year. Picked up some nice ideas regarding the use of ownership and visualisation as an ice-breaker at the beginning. Basically you get students to think about their graduation and learning journey. And also share cat photos in the introductions thread - I have no cats so I shared a photograph of the sun in ultraviolet.
I've just attended a session on EDI and being inclusive in your introduction emails. I had decided to disclose about my waiting for an ASC diagnosis and had been worried about oversharing and do they really need to know this. Lots of ALs shared about the power of vulnerability and being 'human' in interactions with others - Brené Brown's TED talk was referenced. I haven't shared my laundry list of other issues with the students in general, although I did mention my personal issues and commitment to providing all the supports they needed when contacting some of the students with declared mental health issues.
I think I struggle most of all with vulnerability because I haven't reconciled myself with my undergraduate years very well at all. I've met several ALs who have failed undergraduate degrees multiple times and are now studying for PhDs. I look at them and think how resilient and what a testimony to their students they are. But then I look at myself with my extremely mediocre undergraduate degree and think, well I'm probably just not very good, what on Earth am I doing here, fooling these poor students who are expecting to be taught by experts. I shouldn't, because after I aced my master's degree I'm perfectly capable of teaching this material, but I do.
I guess the positive takeaway is that I am painfully aware how long-lasting a sense of academic failure can be.
Start of a new year
I've been taking some classes to brush up on my forum moderating and Adobe Connect skills ready for this year. Picked up some nice ideas regarding the use of ownership and visualisation as an ice-breaker at the beginning. Basically you get students to think about their graduation and learning journey. And also share cat photos in the introductions thread - I have no cats so I shared a photograph of the sun in ultraviolet.
I've just attended a session on EDI and being inclusive in your introduction emails. I had decided to disclose about my waiting for an ASC diagnosis and had been worried about oversharing and do they really need to know this. Lots of ALs shared about the power of vulnerability and being 'human' in interactions with others - Brené Brown's TED talk was referenced. I haven't shared my laundry list of other issues with the students in general, although I did mention my personal issues and commitment to providing all the supports they needed when contacting some of the students with declared mental health issues.
I think I struggle most of all with vulnerability because I haven't reconciled myself with my undergraduate years very well at all. I've met several ALs who have failed undergraduate degrees multiple times and are now studying for PhDs. I look at them and think how resilient and what a testimony to their students they are. But then I look at myself with my extremely mediocre undergraduate degree and think, well I'm probably just not very good, what on Earth am I doing here, fooling these poor students who are expecting to be taught by experts. I shouldn't, because after I aced my master's degree I'm perfectly capable of teaching this material, but I do.
I guess the positive takeaway is that I am painfully aware how long-lasting a sense of academic failure can be.