Very much the same goes for students, too.
They didn't sign on to me having a look around their room (or their parent's or sibling's or friend's, as the case may be).
Their friends and family didn't sign on to be overheard by me in their home.
Talk of professionalism is silly.
They didn't sign on to me having a look around their room (or their parent's or sibling's or friend's, as the case may be).
Their friends and family didn't sign on to be overheard by me in their home.
Talk of professionalism is silly.
I've been video conference by sitting on the floor of my bedroom. Depending on the angle of my laptop, and the reflection of the closet door mirror, students can see my bed. They can see hangers and piles of clothes. If I get up, they can see me struggle stretching my legs.
You know what, with the students who have had video consultations with me in the past few weeks under these conditions, I have a closer connection to the work and the thinking they are doing in the context of our course, in relationship to me and my bedroom-floor instruction.
It feels human.
It is necessary.
We experience a unique and tragic historical time period together.
In that context, talk of professionalism is silly.
It is necessary.
We experience a unique and tragic historical time period together.
In that context, talk of professionalism is silly.
Pasting a few more personal notes below to make a fuller thread. These ones I wrote in response to Miguel's comments to the above tweet. Please read those, too!
These changed conditions--and the way they made for me closer interactions--have highlighted for me how my burnout of the last two years had impacted relations with students. And how I felt slightly hunted by focus on SEoT numbers through the process of tenure and promotion.
How to keep up a professional level of interaction when your brain isn't all there? How to stave off panic when you don't remember the details of the assignments you set? How to project confidence in students' work when their names and project ideas don't stick in your head?
Scripts for professional interaction have been my friends in these situations. My relations to students became more detached as a result, and I didn't like that, but it also remained possible to maintain relations rather feel like they were falling apart.
Paradoxically, and a bit contrary to the experience of others, I've been better in these relationships under our current pandemic conditions. Because I can more easily accept the limits of what I and they can expect of ourselves. Without there being stigma or a sense of failure.
And I can focus more clearly on the central values of my teaching, what it is important for students to do, what my strengths are in helping them do it--without worrying how that will translate into the numbers of student evaluations or the promotional talk of annual reports.
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