My life would be better if…
Yesterday was the last day of classes for me at Notre Dame for this semester, and probably for a very long time. I utterly enjoyed teaching this generation of students. I got to know them well. I wasn’t “careful” with them. I opened myself to their friendship, I allowed myself to be vulnerable with them. I did not have reservations in showing them the person that I am.
So to conclude the course I wanted to take advantage of all that these 102 brave souls may have learned about me throughout our 29 meetings this semester. I asked them to write in a piece of paper the answer to the question: “Eduardo, your life would be better if ___________ ” and to give that piece of paper to me.
I got about 90 responses. Some of the responses are hilarious, some are goofy, and some of them are just plain beautiful and informative. They really got to know me well, it seems. What a privilege, to befriend this collection of humans that I called my “students” for the past five months. You can see the responses I got from them below:
Thank you, guys and gals. You really made it worthwhile.
May 8th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
The responses from your students were worth the downloading of a PowerPoint Reader to see them. You were obviously more to them than an average teacher!
It has been so long since I was in college that I have no idea where the line is drawn between students and teachers. However, our son is preparing to start this fall at Evergreen State in Olympia, WA specifically because of its reputation for more effective partnering between students and faculty. They seem to actually encourage the type of interdisciplinary discussions that you appear to have brought to your classes. (www.evergreen.edu/about/curriculumoverview.htm)
You have said that The Work informed how you teach math. It will be interesting to see if your background in math will be an asset in your facilitation of The Work!
Don’t stop sharing with your blog readers–especially those of us who read your student comments and now want to know how the British connection works out for you, whether or not you ditch the Prius for an Audi, etc.
May 10th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I enjoyed your students’ comments. I am curious what my students would come up with. As I mentioned to you, many of my young charges are not fully aware that I am a human being, much less a person! And perhaps I have learned a lesson with that realization. Keep posting.
May 10th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I like the part about the chocolate chip cookie. But I project…
I’d say MY life would have been better if I’d known about your blog before, I would have blogrolled you sooner too! But then I would not have the joy of reading it now.
May 13th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
This fine article is included in Carnival of Creative Growth #5, adding your value to a great collection of articles.
I might mention that Blog Carnival has emailed me that the Carnival of Creative Growth has been selected to be the featured carnival on their home page May 19. I would love to see this next edition filled with high quality articles, so please consider submitting to it as well.
May 13th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Zambrano presents My life would be better if? posted at The Way of […]
May 14th, 2007 at 2:57 am
Living by Design Blog Carnival No. 5
Welcome to the May 13, 2007 edition of the Living by …
May 29th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
So you’re not going back to teach there next semester? C’mon, the next generation of students needs a leader, er, teacher like you!
June 19th, 2007 at 9:49 am
This is great. How interesting it is to hear others answer the question of what would make our own life better!
Just a suggestion: ditch the powerpoint presentation and put the answers online. My guess is that 90% of people who land on this page do not download the presentation. We, the web users of the world, are lazy & want instant gratification! Plus there are those who can’t read the ppt file extension.
FYI this post will be included in the Inner Exploration carnival, coming out later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for submitting it. It’s hard to get content that is both good and unique.
July 14th, 2007 at 10:33 am
John: Thanks for your nice comments. I will keep you posted as for the brittish connection
As far as your comment about math, well, I have a very analytical mind, and I don’t turn it off when I’m facilitating. All aspects of mind are welcome here, and I notice that my facilitations work best that way.
Christian: I will be teaching elsewhere, so a different set of students will benefit from whatever it is that I do in there, in the classroom. I know I benefit!
Ben: I ditched the powerpoint and posted the content in a youtube video. Much better idea. Thank you!
July 19th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Carnival of Education: Week 128
This beautifully binary edition of the carnival of education is brought to you by the Education Wonks. I’d like to extend a hearty thanks to them as it seems like this is one of the hardest (largest) carnivals to post. Not only that, it looks lik…
June 30th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
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