This past week I introduced a new lesson into a classroom full of students. While most of the students understood the exercise I was introducing there were several questions. While many of these could be answered by simply clarifying something there were a couple that I hadn’t previously thought about before introducing the exercise. They caught me off guard. Today I’m going to talk about why that is NOT a bad thing. In fact, it’s a very good thing.
Some teachers really don’t like hearing that something they are doing or presenting or requiring is unclear — I love it. The reason that I love it is because it makes what I am doing better. I’ve talked on and on before about the importance of filling out teacher evaluations at the end of the semester. In many types of classes this may be the only time that students feel comfortable enough to speak about the effectiveness of their instructor and the instructions they are to follow. I’m quite pleased to report that the students I am working with this semester feel no such need to wait until the end of the course.
So what happened? Where did all of this lead? Well, I seriously examined the complication the student addressed. I realized that it was not only a problem for him but a potential problem for others in the future. I made a necessary adjustment that resolved the problem in order to accommodate the specific complication and sent him an e-mail letting him know that he could now employ this newly added clause when using the exercise I assigned. That one student did an amazing thing: no future student of mine will ever need to worry about that specific issue again. That student improved my exercise. That student made me a better teacher. A thank you is in order — thank you.