Student freedom
This semester I'm launching my SPAN 1300 course: Conversational Spanish. I'm glad we can offer it. People have asked for this class ever since I began teaching college Spanish classes. What I'm noticing is that I allow more freedom in this class than I do in my SPAN 1411, 1412, 2311 & 2312 courses. In those courses I know the students may be going on to the next level of Spanish and I need to be sure they are prepared. However, in 1300 there's this lovely freedom that what the student puts into learning is their choice. We don't have quizzes or tests. How freeing for me as the instructor. But what I'm noticing is that as the instructor I have to be OK with students choosing not to give as much to the class as I think they should. I worked hard to create a class that teaches them how to use Spanish in conversation at a basic level. Some of my students are putting 110% effort into the class. Others aren't. And that's their ch...