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I think one of the ways that a large classroom can feel not so large is
when that little magic line, between where the podium is and where the
students are sitting, evaporates. And so, I do like to move around the
classroom. I do that in a number of different times either just while I’m
speaking. If I’m asking a question, I might just start roaming around the
classroom to ask. And the nice this about that is sometimes then,
someone who is less apt to just shout out their answer, when you’re
walking up and you’re now right there beside them, they’re more apt to
just say their answer to you, and then you can say, “Oh, okay, I heard
someone over here. Here’s what they had to say.” And I can, then,
make their voice loud for the rest of the group, by sharing what they have to say.
The other opportunity that I had a chance to really roam around the
classroom and get a little one-on-one conversations is when the
students are engaged in some sort of activity. So, in anatomy,
students bring their body to class, which is really helpful because
they can move it, they can palpate it. I’m actually amazed that not
all anatomy classes include some degree of movement and
palpating, but I figure, hey, their bringing it to class why not take
advantage. And so, we often will stop, especially in our fall term
muscular-skeletal class, and the students will palpate a certain
structure. So I’ll say, for example, when we’re talking about the
bones in the wrist, and so then we’ll talk about how can you
actually find which bones in the wrist you’re palpating. And
so, I can walk around the room and help them. I’ll kind of
give them some points like, “Hey, look for these,” and I’ll put
an image up there of the bones themselves and then myself and
I have a few GTFs that are sometimes in the classroom with me
will walk around and try to answer questions and then students,
again, while they’re in the class can be very loud, they’re all talking
to each other and palpating and trying things and I can walk around
and someone can say, “Hey, can you come over here ‘cause I can’t
quite figure out if this is my pisiform or not. Can you help me figure
that out?” So, it just allows for a completely different dynamic than
you would get if you never crossed the magic line in front of the room.
I think it really feels very intimate and friendly and people feel
very comfortable with that.
And then I think that the other opportunity that you have when you’re
walking around the room is if you’ve asked a question and you get
an answer, but it’s just sort of a starter answer that my goal is to
never answer questions completely on my own. And so, you know,
there’s a few different techniques to keep yourself from doing that.
One is if you get no answer what so ever, that you must assume that
students do know, they’re just either not sure what you really asked
or not sure if they have the right answer, so let them talk to one another
first and then, almost, I can’t say that I’ve ever had a time where after
turning the question back over to students in groups and saying,
“Just talk to your neighbors. I know you’ll figure it out together, even
though you haven’t figured it on your own,” that they’ll always come up
with the answer. It just seems to work every time, so I’m happy to
keep using that technique until it fails. But also, sometimes someone
will give an answer, but, you know, it’s a beginner answer and
there’s some more content behind that. I think sometimes you can
say to another student, “Hey, can someone follow up on that? You
know, I agree with this, but does someone else have an idea? Or do
you have some more to share?” And so then you can turn it back over
to other students or ask them to explain. Sometimes I ask them just to
explain simple terms like, “Someone just tell me your gut feeling on
what does this mean? And just use whatever language you want."
And so, they’ll start there and I’ll say, “Okay, so someone take that
and now turn that into anatomical language. You know, how would
we say that now if we were right in the text book?” And just asking
students to build on each other’s answers, I think can help them to
slowly build in the direction that you want them to go and get a more
and more sophisticated answer once students, the ones that maybe
at first weren’t sure what you were asking, have a chance to really feel
confident about it. They kind of keep building on each other.