Yesterday, I had my upper-division students watch a talk I do for my lower-division ones.
(This recording is from when I gave it to the EOP students a couple of years ago: https://video.ucdavis.edu/media/2015-08-28_STEP_Karma-Waltonen.mp4/0_rd2ugqus.)
I thought it would be a good way for my students to learn more about me, my energy/vibe, and expectations.
My students’ responses have confirmed what I’ve suspected for a long time:
It’s not just lower division students who need a “welcome to college” talk.
I asked the students to tell me what surprised them. Here are the top three answers:
- Many didn’t think we cared if they weren’t paying attention or if they were doing something distracting in class.
- Some were surprised that their peers are so rude and casual in emails. Others were surprised we think they’re sometimes rude and too casual in emails.
- A bunch of them thought it was fine to email us for a letter of rec after never having spoken to us at all.
Maybe your students need to hear my talk too.
