Firsts
Not going to write much, since I’m quite tired and I still have to wake up early for badminton.
First day of ATDP, first time in many years where I was only teaching one section. Felt really weird breaking for lunch and not feeling the pressure to be back by 1:00pm. First time eating at the Brazil Cafe.
First time giving a placement test to students, first time working with two co-instructors, one from a freaking ‘nother state who has been working as hard as, if not more than, me at getting everything to come together.
First time since the first TIC that the Evlan server had a total meltdown when we were instructing students to sign up for accounts. Not the first time ever, but I was stressed when the problem turned out to be more severe and more cryptic than anyone was able to figure out. We managed to “fix” the problem by restoring to an earlier state, but it’s kind of skirting the issue.
Did I mention, we’re not doing points or grades for TIC this year? Inspired as I was by all the talk of games improving student motivation, we decided to try a leveling system for this year’s TIC. They get XP for doing assignments (quests) instead of grades.
Definitely was a first hearing the reaction from the students when we revealed this little tidbit to them; I’d like to think it was excited. :x I’m definitely surprised by how many of them have already done the next couple of quests without prompting for the second time, because their first submissions were ruined by the IoCM server crash.
More on the whole system later… I wish I could find a good way to document this upcoming insanity…
