Post by carnivorousoak on Nov 26, 2011 21:41:13 GMT -5
Professor Cook surveyed his new class. Class had only just begun and there was already a small group goofing off in the back, clustered around somebody's phone. One girl had her textbook open and was using it as a pillow. He could faintly hear the music from one of the three students wearing ear buds, all of whom were across the room from his chair. What an excellent start to the first day of class, he thought sarcastically.
Phillip wasn't unaware that that most of the students in this class were just trying to fill credits, but he thought that some of them could at least pretend to be attentive on the first day. But for all of the years he'd been teaching he'd never found any trick to engage students who refused to be interested. He glanced thankfully at the handful of students in the room who seemed to want to be there.
He adjusted his glasses and tried to smile encouragingly. "I thought that none of you would really appreciate just getting a syllabus today, so I'll just pass it out today and go over it next week. Today, we'll scratch the surface of some social problems right here in Plethora and analyze them in terms of cause and effect."
Phillip started to pass out papers with a line graph of drug related arrests in Plethora from year to year and accompanying time lines of policy changes and other factors to explain the fluctuations in the graph. He thought it was interesting. With any luck, at least five of the thirty students in the class would agree.
Phillip wasn't unaware that that most of the students in this class were just trying to fill credits, but he thought that some of them could at least pretend to be attentive on the first day. But for all of the years he'd been teaching he'd never found any trick to engage students who refused to be interested. He glanced thankfully at the handful of students in the room who seemed to want to be there.
He adjusted his glasses and tried to smile encouragingly. "I thought that none of you would really appreciate just getting a syllabus today, so I'll just pass it out today and go over it next week. Today, we'll scratch the surface of some social problems right here in Plethora and analyze them in terms of cause and effect."
Phillip started to pass out papers with a line graph of drug related arrests in Plethora from year to year and accompanying time lines of policy changes and other factors to explain the fluctuations in the graph. He thought it was interesting. With any luck, at least five of the thirty students in the class would agree.