Chalk is disgusting. It gets everywhere, from my notes to the seat of my pants. (The latter, apparently, happens when I lean against the chalk tray to take questions.) My hands feel like rocks, and require post-lecture scrubbing and moisturizing before I can return to my office.
When I noted this item in the "you buy it or we throw it away" section of The Company Store's catalog, I had to laugh.
12 comments:
That reminds me of our Spanish prof's favorite joke.
One day, she was teaching, wearing black (as usual), and writing all over the chalkboard. A student started flipping through his dictionary, looking quite determined, and she got all excited (since he wasn't a strong student to begin with). He finally raised his hands and said, "Senora, hay nieva en las montanas."
Senora said, "Si, hay nieva en las montanas," having no idea what he was talking about while the rest of the class cracked up. Another student had to explain to her that she had chalkdust all over her chest.
When I taught high school, I was always careful about where I put my hands after using the chalkboard. ;)
Aw, I rather like chalk. In fact I've been thinking about buying some of that chalkboard paint and turning a wall in my home office into a chalk board.
Then again, I'm not required to work with it for extended periods of time in order to do my job every day.
I'm delurking long enough to say that I'm glad I'm not the only one who does the whole "lean against the chalkboard" thing. I had a three hour class last fall that left me covered head to toe in chalk by the end of it every week.
I've adjusted to life with markers, mostly. I don't miss chalk hands or clothes at all. I do miss the way chalk feels more controllable, and the good sound of writing on the board (not the screeching part, though).
When I was a grad student, one of the bits of teaching advice we got was: "If there's chalk on your butt, own it!" So I have no shame.
The headboard is really attractive, though, in a Stickley kind of way. But the picture with chalk all over it - right next to the kid's pillow??? Crazy.
If the headboard came in king size, I'd order it. Think of diagrams one could conceive in bed! Naughty!
Dry erase isn't much better, and the damage done to clothing can be far more permanent.
Gee, if only they could invent something that allowed one to use one's computer to project information on the wall for students. What? They did? I bet I'll get one of those--- in about ten years. We landed a man on the moon and brought him safely back to Earth in less time than it'll take to see that happen.
The computer-projection approach isn't a great solution for drawings / writings that develop out of the conversation. I work in a Silicon Valley software company, and naturally we use slide software all the time -- but we move quickly to the board when improvising or discussing. So the heavy sarcasm is off-base, I think.
Captcha: cynianch
I had a teacher once who would drag out the school's old transparency overhead projector, put a blank sheet of plastic on the glass, and write on that.
I, as a student, preferred the classrooms with dry-erase boards, because the big lecture halls didn't have blackboards, they had greenboards, and between my difficulty in seeing green (deuteranomaly) and the glare of the fluorescent light tube that some genius had installed right at the top of the board reflecting off the chalk dust, I couldn't see a damn thing but a blank sheet. If I was sitting right up front, I could squint and usually make it out, but often I sat in the back and looked at the board with binoculars. The students around me thought I was goofing around, but it was seriously the only way I could see what was written there.
I got the room with dual blackboards and an overhead projector with a black spot in the middle of it. And of course you could not use the two at the same time. The privileges of not having rank. At least my students had enough humor to bear with me. After all, if you're willing to sign up for the 0800 section, you're pretty dedicated.
My preference is the overhead projector, since I get to face the class _and_ use the colors I want as I teach.
Chalkboards and whiteboards are acceptable, although for the latter, good ventilation is essential. I'm always amazed that the supposedly "artistic" departments have white/yellow chalk, which gets smaller and smaller as the semester progresses, until all you have in the rail are little nubs not even good as miniature dice -- yet when I lecture in a science hall, I get full rainbow boxes of chalk that are replaced several times a term with fresh sticks...
This coming term I'll be doing one class using conferencing software, and I may have to have slidedecks for each session. Cramps my style, but it will give something for the 'virtual' students to hang onto.
First, do you know about chalk holders? That would keep the chalk off of your hands.
As for dry erase markers, they sometimes don't - and woe to you if you use the side of your hand to fix a minor error or get it on your clothes. Worse, they gradually fade away so you can end up in a classroom writing with invisible ink.
Projection systems are fine for what they do well, but they are terrible for working any problem or derivation that takes up more than one line, let alone one that requires two boards. Students can't catch up if they can't see the previous screen.
BTW, my favorite story about chalk and a professor has as its moral "Don't scratch your ass during class".
Post a Comment