On Numbers

SLAC has a J-term, that is, students take one course in one month (January).

The courses offered during J-term don't typically have prerequisites and they're supposed to be "experiential" in nature.

As my contract stipulates that I must teach during J-term, I proposed a course on Digging and the Second Half of the Good Book.

Students would learn about the method of digging, about significant sites in TLWTMS, and build a model of a site for the final project.

And I would preserve my sanity by teaching a whole course in one month on a topic that I actually know something about.

I like to think that I'm a good teacher, but the evidence over these past two months would seem to indicate otherwise: students dropping my courses (for personal and non-personal reasons), students failing the mid-term miserably, students fighting with me over grades. So, my ego has taken a bit of a beating.

As a result, I was not anticipating much interest in my course at all.

But I was wrong.

Registration opened at 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon. And as of this moment, all 25 spots are filled. What's more, three of these 25 are currently taking my Intro to the Good Book.

Cognitively, I know that numbers don't indicate whether I'm a good teacher or not.

But I think that it's a good sign when students want to take another course with you.

ETA: Man alive, a fourth student from my Intro to the Good Book emailed me, asking to be put on the waiting list for this course!