The Final Final of the Year

So I'm sitting in the front of class watching my students take their final exam. I'm nervous as usual because this is a test for me too--to see if I've covered everything thoroughly (but they're resourceful and sometimes inattentive so if I didn't cover it, they probably thought it was their fault and went to wikipedia for the answers instead of my assigned reading), and to see if they get the meanings I want them to get.

oops interrupted by late arrival due to traffic, it's a dreary day out there

I let them bring in notes, mainly because I don't want them to memorize dates and events. We all have access to those. But history, I tell them, is not about what happened, but about the interpretations and biases and filters we put on the past. I want to see if they can add up the dates and events and create history. Even rewrite it. The study of history is a thinking exercise--not a memorization one.

oops another one. now all 28 of them are here.

The 29th student is getting commissioned today as an officer in the Navy. I let him take the exam yesterday. He did well. Answered the two questions with essays that showed he read and understood the material. He's an older student (with a wife, two kids and another on the way) and in my limited sample of 100 students in the past 3 semesters, I believe they are more thoughtful students. I enjoy having them in class. They filter these lessons through the experiences of their lives, which is the way I learned Filipino American history. They have more context with which to understand American politics, ideology and hypocrisy. They get it when I say that I'm teaching American history as it has been experienced by Filipinos.

I had a 30th student too. He did not show up for the midterm. Came to one class after that and never bothered to ask me for a makeup or even acknowledge that he missed something. He dropped the class officially after Thanksgiving. I wonder what happened to him?

But it's been hard this semester to feel connected to the class. First, I've never had a class this large (and I know some of you teachers are wishing your classes were this small). Then, I decided to hold the class once a week for 2.5 hours rather than twice a week for an hour and 15, which is the normal schedule. This was a pragmatic decision to give myself more time for other projects--which did not materialize. I feel like I had less interaction with the students because I only saw them once a week. Canceling one class (which I did for election day), was the equivalent of canceling two.

Oh, first one done in less than 45 minutes. Now see, I would have liked to get to know him better. He really needed help with his writing skills. He did badly on the midterm but he tried hard to make up for it in his research paper.

Gotta get up. Nervous energy. More later.