Today I went to class – and it certainly felt like my first day of college.
I can’t find the classroom at first, so arrive late. My travel mug is leaking. (Can you bring tea to class?) By the time I get there, everybody is partnered up – what if I don’t have a partner? And I am definitely not wearing the right clothes.
I’m particularly mortified about all this because I’m in STW 105 only as a guest. Along with some faculty and staff colleagues, I’ve offered to sit in on a few classes in order to experience first-hand the full-spectrum pedagogy offered at St. Norbert. (I’m eager to learn more, but for now I’m happy to think of this as: you’ll touch stuff; you’ll interact online; you’ll sit at the feet of some professors, Socratic style; you’ll check in with others via your cellphone; you’ll apply your learning as you make your community better; you might be in a “flipped” classroom; you’ll make things happen.) It’s all part of our Big Ideas Group’s initiative demonstrating how full-spectrum pedagogy comes to life in SNC classrooms. (“Don’t miss this opportunity to discover how learning environments are being created that produce transformative results for our students.”)
For today, I’m in Prof Deb Anderson’s BIOL 320-A class on Human Anatomy & Histology, and I’m guessing this is the hands-on part of the spectrum. For one thing, we’ve just been invited to palpate our own tibias. For another, patella hammers … . And, for another, I’m holding a real human femur in my hand. Our case study is a football injury: “You guys need a femur.” (Bruce Robertson of the Counselling Center has just arrived – yay, someone is even later than me! – and taken the seat next to me. As a duo at the back of the room, we are clueless. But the delightful and highly motivated student seated in front of us is helping us keep up. She hopes to go to physician assistant school, and I have no doubt she will succeed.)
Deb passes out some hand-outs with scary-looking carefully labeled illustrations of the amazing things that go into making one’s own lower leg do its work. I come over a bit squeamish, or at least slightly dizzy – the way you do when you look up at the night sky and really think about all the science and wonder out there. I wonder if anyone has ever passed out in anatomy class from a mere diagram and, if not, will I be the first.
You hear things in anatomy class that you don’t hear elsewhere: “Darn, I didn’t bring a foot.” More naming of parts ensues. “I can’t believe I didn’t bring a foot. I meant to bring a foot!” “Oh – the Easter Bunny just went by.” (True thing. Found out later that this was a season-appropriate Beyond Borders promotional stunt.)
Back to business: “You can look at the foot in lab tomorrow, too.” By lab, I think Deb means the college’s own cadaver lab, and our student pal confirms. Full spectrum!
For now, class is over and my steps match the rest of the campus. I hustle along with the student body as classes change. Tomorrow, it’s off to COME 312 Media Effects with Prof Valerie Kretz. I’m already getting emails from the LMS. (Looked it up: Learning Management System.) Another part of the spectrum? Better not be late …
