I recall teaching an online class as a Teaching Assistant, particularly teaching laboratory courses online, which proved challenging for both myself and my students. Since the process was entirely new to me at the time, I wasn't aware of many guidelines or methods for humanizing the experience for new students taking general chemistry. The lack of interaction with students significantly impacted their transition back to in-person laboratory sessions. Although tools for online classes have slowly developed, since I returned to teaching in person, I haven't had the opportunity to learn or pay much attention to these available tools.
After completing this STEM Academy training course, I have acquired numerous valuable experiences and skills. Specifically, I have learned how to create videos, a skill I had been interested in acquiring prior to taking this course. However, prior to this STEM Academy training, I lacked both the opportunity and guidance to learn this skill. Of particular significance, I frequently experienced nervousness when recording myself in videos for public viewing. Nonetheless, through this training, I have successfully overcome this anxiety and now feel more comfortable sharing videos with my students.
I have already shared some of the videos I created during this course with my current students and received positive feedback. This training has equipped me with valuable skills and knowledge that will prove beneficial to both my current and future students.
Furthermore, the development of a liquid syllabus as an initial step towards humanizing my teaching approach, which I learned in this course, is another valuable tool I have acquired. I am confident that this tool will be advantageous in my future classes as well.
For my future classes, I plan to utilize the liquid syllabus I developed during this training to allow my students to become acquainted with me before the class begins. Additionally, allowing students to complete a "getting to know you" survey will help me understand and know my students better before class, enabling us to establish mutual understanding. This will help establish trust and foster a more inclusive environment for them.
Furthermore, I intend to create more micro and bumper videos explaining difficult concepts to share with my students. These videos will aid in their comprehension of complex topics and provide them with the opportunity to review the material after lectures if they encounter difficulty understanding it the first time.
Another important strategy I will implement is sending kindness cue emails more frequently to encourage my students. Despite having in-person interactions during class, sending reminders to make students feel understood and relatable is crucial. The humanizing tools I acquired from this course will provide invaluable experience and skills that I can apply in my teaching endeavors.