Thursday, May 08, 2008

A new way to review for a final

Following the maxim that "the teacher understands the topic best because he is the teacher and not the other way around" our German instructor is requiring all the students in the class to take 2 or 3 subjects that we have studied this semester and teach those subjects to the class. If a student is having particular trouble with one or two topics, he or she is advised to select those topics for teaching.

I don't have a particular subject at which I'm any worse than the rest so I pretty much picked my topics at random while the rest of the students were selecting theirs around me. The teacher told us not to get fancy with presentations or PowerPoint slides and we will do them in English. "Just follow my example," she said. I protested, "You're a hard act to follow." Which garnered a smile but no change in the process.

At first I questioned the practice thinking that this lets the teacher slide through the rest of the class sessions while the students might be misled or mis-taught in some subjects. Then I realized that our teacher will be monitoring the instruction and making corrections where necessary. So she will probably work harder and we'll get correct instruction. Another check mark on the positive side for Frau Professor Martin.

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