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Lec 8 | MIT 5.95J Teaching College-Level Science and Engineering, Spring 2009

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    Today, Teaching with Blackboards and Slides. And also several questions from last time.
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    And related to that, a handout - which I've put online - which is
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    how to make a lesson plan.
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    So I'll do all that through the questions
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    Ok, now just a quick bit about lesson planning
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    because a couple of you pointed out you'd like to know more about lesson planning
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    And then reminded me that when I taught the chemistry TA workshops
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    I actually gave everyone a handout on how to plan a lesson
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    So I've put that handout online and I'll just show you what it looks like here
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    So this is basically the sheet i use for planning any kind of lecture recessitation.
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    Ok so, at the top we need some kind of course and date
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    And then the objective
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    So that's quite important
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    You'll see the exact sheet
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    And there's a .PDF file. You can just use it yourself.
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    There's a course objective
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    for that particular section
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    And that relates to your overall goals for the course.
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    So for example, in this problem, my objective might be something like
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    To show that easy cases.. in fact this was my objective...
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    I wanted to show that easy cases.. extreme cases... are useful not just for checking formulas
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    but also for generating formulas.
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    Ok, so, I write that on the top so I remind myself
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    Why am I here?
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    What am I doing?
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    Then, there's a 3 column table
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    Basically you just plan items in your lecture
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    The first column is minutes... how long you expect each thing to take
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    And then your... here is your... middle column, most of the spaces..
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    What's your goal in this local part of the lecture and what are you gonna do for that?
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    So here is my overall objective
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    And my local goal may be just this example
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    Getting that one third
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    And then here, the third column is props
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    Ok, so there's actually a piece here too
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    So props are anything I need to bring
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    So I just stick that in the margin
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    Ok, bring the cones or the pyramids.. whatever they may be
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    And so then when you're planning your... when you're filling this piece in about what to bring
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    you just scan down all these columns on your, this last column
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    And just write everything here
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    Ok, bring cones
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    Homework 3, Solution set 2
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    Ok so now, at a glance
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    Before you go to your session
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    You review these two things
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    Make sure you have everything
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    You know why you're here
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    But then here you're gonna follow your script
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    Which is a loose script
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    It's not exact word for word script
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    It's.. maybe a few equations
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    Suppose there's a question:
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    What is this constant?
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    Ok, so that's my overall what I'm gonna do for say.. .10 minutes
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    And then I break it into sub-questions
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    Ok, what is H & B? How many pyramids do I need?
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    What's my goal shape?
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    So these are questions I ask students.
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    And for each one, I write down the minutes
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    Maybe in parentheses.. because I put the total up here
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    Ok so now when I've done my two or three pages..
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    And by the way, I find just the level of detail I use, if I ever go beyond three pages
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    I never get to that material
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    So, it's just sort of for a security blanket
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    by the time I'm beyond three pages
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    It depends on how detailed you write these things, but I've generally found that's where I am
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    And then you estimate the time
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    And what you'll find, the first time you do stuff, you'll massively underestimate the time
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    You'll be off by a factor of two
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    So in other words, if you thing it'll take five minutes, it will really take ten minutes.
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    And that's true even after you take into account this rule.
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    Sort of.
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    Ok so then you put down all your minutes on this page, the next page
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    You add them up
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    And you make sure you're not over fifty or whatever the amount is
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    And then what you'll find what you thought was fifty
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    Really is gonna take you one hundred and thirty
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    So the next time you evaluate the minutes
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    You'll have a better idea
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    And you'll find yourself actually tuning your time sense pretty well
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    So now I've got my time sense
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    So that I really don't need to put the minutes down
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    Because I can just do it by the number of pages
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    Three pages, too much
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    So you'll find for your own writing detail level, how many pages to use
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    Ok, now the other point is.. where do these questions come from?
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    Ok, well this is a way you can turn any regular lecture into an interactive one
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    So, suppose you have a long derivation you're going to do
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    Or some.. like for example, the first way I planned this, I wanted to show people
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    that this was one third over here
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    This three here
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    And the way I was gonna do it was I was gonna draw 6 pyramids
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    Show them in a cube
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    And show the six V
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    And do all this showing
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    Well, first draft, write it all out like that
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    With times and everything, without questions
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    Then, any time you come to something interesting
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    So here... so before you have tell.. so now you look at your sheet
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    And you say hmmm... where did something interesting happen?
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    Hopefully, there is at least one point
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    Because if there isn't, maybe you shouldn't be giving the lecture at all
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    Alright.. so now.. let's just saw by instruction, you found some interesting things
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    Ok, so... wow that's interesting.. it's interesting that it makes a cube.
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    It's not obvious
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    You know.. so.. just think... where does something require thought
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    and you're short circuiting the thought by telling
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    So then you just put a... what I do is I have a green pen... and I turn it into a question.
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    So I circle it in green and write "ASK" next to it
Title:
Lec 8 | MIT 5.95J Teaching College-Level Science and Engineering, Spring 2009
Video Language:
English
Duration:
01:34:16

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