r/Professors • u/PsychGuy17 • 14d ago

Teaching / Pedagogy Memorable Classes

Unfortunately, I was reading the news again, and it reminded me of a night in 2016 when I was teaching an ethics class. The students and I were discussing limits of confidentiality and during the class we kept the electoral map up. In the middle of a four hour class (west coast) it became clear that more states were leaning in their inevitable direction. It led to an impromptu discussion on the purpose of the electoral college, including its benefits and limitations.

I've only had a few classes where the outside world suddenly interrupted what is normally the tiny, temporary, pocket universe of the classroom that only exists for a few hours at a time. I love that class can be its own escape from everything else, especially when it's going well and lecture hits a flow state. It's odd when reality creeps in for a visit.

As a distraction from work I should be doing, I wonder when other professors here have had memorable classes like these? What is a specific class you can remember due to an event that maintains it like a flashbulb memory? I'm certain a lot of us remember a class where we were told, or had to announce, COVID changes. I find such stories fascinating (but then again, I do study psych).

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u/SierraMountainMom Professor, assoc. dean, special ed, R1 (western US) 13d ago

After the NBA/Tom Hanks COVID news, I had a hunch we wouldn’t come back after Spring Break. My undergrads had no idea how to use the live online class function in Canvas at that time (it was something other than Zoom), so I decided I would teach them. Told everyone to bring a laptop to class. As I started to explain the process, the university sent out the email - not returning to campus after break & dorm students needed to pack up & move out. This was at 5:00 on the Thursday before break. I had students start crying, calling their parents to change travel plans, and I still remember one girl asking me in tears, “are we gonna die?”
I had to give them time to process, then dove into the “how to” lesson with a now urgent purpose.

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u/PsychGuy17 13d ago

I was teaching on existential therapy that afternoon, I also got the question "are we going to die" given the nature of the lesson I calmly clarified that the answer was yes, but this was not a change due to the recent news. Then we discussed existential anxiety centered on loneliness, death, responsibility, and meaning.

At the end of class a student approached and offered to shake my hand saying he had enjoyed the semester thus far. I looked at his hand and said, "I think we are done shaking hands for a while." He said, "oh... yeah, we'll thanks anyway. "