How Are You Feeling?

I gave the first test of the semester in my World Regional Geography course this week. I've started marking them, but I'm not done yet. So far, so good, overall.

For many of the students taking the course, this is the first time they are taking a test with me. And there is a little bit of a learning curve there, I think. This is something we talk about quite a bit in the Education courses I teach: every teacher has his/her own preferences, quirks, and foibles that come out in a myriad of ways in our teaching practices. But one place this happens specifically is in the assessment vehicles we develop.

Students have agreed with me when I have asked them about this. Different instructors have different ways of putting tests together, for good or ill. And until you've taken a test with a particular instructor? You just can't be 100% of their assessment style.

I've said before that I take my work very seriously, though I try not to take myself too seriously as a teacher. Perhaps this is one way this shows up in my teaching practice in the assessments I write: I often ask my students how they are feeling at the beginning of a test. Here's what the top of the test paper looked like for this first exam of the semester in World Regional Geography:

Kind of silly? Yeah, I think so.

But it's amazing what students will tell you if you give them space to share. (Even a short little blank at the top of a test paper!)

So, consider this an impromptu, informal research study based on what my 32 students in World Regional Geography said in response to this prompt about how they are feeling:

• One student left this "I feel..." space blank.
• Four answered with something along the lines of, "Good," "Pretty good," or "Happy."
• One said, "Confident."
• Eight responded with something like Nervous/Anxious/Worried/Scared/Aaaaaahhhh!
• Five said, "Stressed."
• One said, "Not so good."
• Nine said they were "Tired," or "Exhausted."
• One said, "Hungry."
• Two gave mixed responses with some positives and some negatives.

What do you notice? What do you wonder?

I noticed that a majority of my students are feeling anxious, stressed, or tired. Maybe just because of this test, and since it was their first test of the semester? Or maybe a generalized sense of anxiety, stress, and sleeplessness? 

I noticed that a few students seem pretty positive, but they definitely seem to be the minority here.

I noticed that one student was hungry enough to comment about it on their test paper. (To be fair, the class meets during the noon hour, and some students grab lunch right afterward...but it did prompt some thinking on my part...)

I wonder if these results are representative of the students on our campus.

I wonder if the one who said "not so good" needs someone to check in?

I wonder a bit about the one who left this (admittedly silly) prompt unanswered...was it just recognition of the silliness, and not wanting to play along? Or something deeper going on here?

All of this has me feeling like I might want to follow up with a few students after the weekend, and just check in with them. Maybe I should share my broad noticings and wonderings with the whole class?

I care about my students, after all, and I want them to succeed, and thrive, and flourish!