I am currently taking a computer science course* with (as far as I know) a bunch of first-year students. (The professor, whom I know fairly well, is older than me and thinks this is all hilarious.)
Last weekend, I turned in an assignment which, in frustration, I had made do a completely different thing than intended, which still met the assignment's requirements. (It had to do with tkinter class extension which didn't include a 'deselect' method, in case you really want to know; I couldn't get it to deselect so I nuked the list and regenerated it.) "Creative," the professor said, "but here's how you do it in two lines."
Oops.
Today I re-created this experience from the other side with my own students - it seems so easy once you know how to do it! - and it reminded me to keep being sympathetic when I can see the answer very clearly, and they are twenty years of experience behind me.
(In other news, office hours are still endless. They should slow down in a couple weeks, but right now, I want to hide under my desk.)
* I need a new job and the only thing I'm actually willing to get more education in is programming. So here we are. However, yikes, I didn't really HAVE an extra six hours a week. Also, I got booted from the first-semester course on the grounds that a) I already knew most of it and b) I would probably spook the untenured faculty who teach it. Yes, I am also untenured; but I have a full decade and a lot of crankiness on all of them.
On the upside, you ARE learning new things in your computer class.
ReplyDeleteIndeed! Part of what I'm learning is that if I had more time, I'd do a better job.
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