Another working Sunday. I've just finished writing a new quiz for my online sections of interpersonal communication. Did you know that even though my quizzes are open book and objective, people students will still flunk them?
Today was also the last day of my last Bend Public Speaking Bootcamp. The class listened to 15 persuasive speeches. Well, 16 if you count Dr. Bouknight's 10 a.m. promotion of Spring Quarter in London. We got out early because the class decided to take a short lunch break and push through. That's one of the benefits of the Bootcamp. Our focus in on learning and performing the skills.
This morning one student said, "We love you Huck, but we really hate the class." I turned her words on her at the end of class when I said, "Well, I love you guys but we're finished I'm ready to go home so get outa here!"
I remember that long ago I had a student complain about me to the dean of instruction (or was he Vice President of instruction at that time?) She said that I had been biased against her in an interpersonal communication class because she had made a similar remark in a previous quarter's public speaking class as the one I heard today. In other words, she'd said that even though she passed the class she still hated public speaking. I'd taken that a bit personally. I hadn't thought that I'd shown her any rudeness in the class the following quarter but perhaps I did. The course was around the time that I defended my dissertation and I know that I got the lowest teacher evaluations of my career that quarter. I imagine that in my stress my immediacy behaviors and unconscious nonverbal displays of anxiety were bristling. I wound up in a long telephone conversation in which at first I defended my presenting self and then, finally, apologized and cried. Yes, tears, snuffling, sad voice and all. I was really sorry. I hadn't meant to hurt anyone's feelings but I had.
Nowadays, I apologize much more quickly. It saves time. And it was one of the most important skills I had as a department chair. I made so many mistakes in that job that I probably expressed a good apology every couple of weeks.
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