Guglietta 1

Talia Guglietta

IND333

Sarah Gracombe, Jennifer Gaudette, and Hannah Parker

Teaching Methodology

My why for teaching the course at the start of this entire process last April/May was:

Why not. My why now is entirely different: why not learn about something you are interested in

and learn about your leadership skills. When Brenna first approached me to teach a class, I was

in a mode of being very over-tired and confused; I blindly agreed to be a potential co-facilitator.

However, once I began to receive e-mails from Sarah, Hannah, and Jen it began to feel real. I had

no idea how I was going to teach a class, but I thought that I could be okay if it were to happen.

As the summer progressed, Surveilling Stonehill made the mark. I had no idea how because

Brenna and I drafted our idea in a night in her dorm, but it did. I was so excited to see what this

opportunity would entail. Teaching is: learning from students, adapting to the different

challenges that occur, and knowing it is worth it in the end.

I spoke with one of my supervisors for my summer job since he was a teacher for over 40

years, and he told me it would be one of the hardest yet most valuable experiences of my life. I

thought he was overdramatic, but of course, he was right. Throughout my experience as a co-

facilitator my why has changed from why not, to do this for the value in it. Not only the one

credit value for my students, or the three I receive from this seminar, but for the value and

knowledge I gain on a topic of interest and extreme relevance. Being able to examine and

question the authority figures around us makes me a better learner. This topic has come up in at

least three out of my five classes at some point in the semester. Many people in those classes

have no prior knowledge on the legality of the things that occur or care enough to contribute.
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There is so much I learned to value through this experience. I found out how much it

takes to prepare for one single session of a class, and the entire year of the course. Now, I

appreciate what my professors do much more than I had before IDEAS. I now can contribute

activities and teaching methods to my professors when I feel uncomfortable with the duration of

the Stonehill Stare. I have become more transparent with people and know that there is much

more going on in my own life let alone in the lives of my professors. Throughout this experience,

it has been valuable to be flexible, but not to the point where you are being walked all over.

I have learned to deal with the Stonehill Stare. The first class I channeled a bit of Professor Ball.

I walked in and said, “I am comfortable with silence. I do not care if you stare at me, but at some

point, I would appreciate a response of some sort. Even if it is I don’t understand.” I know

Brenna may not have been as comfortable initially with silence, but I hope me being up front and

addressing it made her feel better.

One cannot just teach through lecturing; it gets incredibly dull not only for students but I

have found it accurate for professors as well. They want to hear their students' voices, not solely

their own. Brenna and I found an excellent exercise to be the debate that we had our students do.

We created pairs of students who would represent different perspectives of the debate. The topic

was: bias incidents on campus. They enjoyed doing the debate. Everyone participated, and

students were very responsive to this activity.

Also, you cannot please everyone. That is something that has taken me almost all

semester to learn. Some people may like how Brenna and I run class; some students may not. In

our mid-semester feedback survey, some students said they like our discussions others said they

were too long. Some students felt like the class is too much work, but Brenna and I try to assign

quick articles or shows to watch on Netflix mostly. The lengthier assignments were due to
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Brenna and I missing class and having to cancel for an entire week. Brenna and I are both aware

of the amount of work (time wise) that we are required to assign and usually try to stick to that

amount (unless there is an exception like not having class). So when we received a comment that

one student felt it our class was too much, Brenna and I had to pull out the definition of a one-

credit course. Reading the description in front of the class was one of the most awkward

experiences, but sometimes these things are necessary to do. In the end, some things occurred

due to the expectations of the IDEAS Program itself for Brenna and me as facilitators. When

students asked us for more projects, we did not know what they meant. However, in the end,

their final projects were creative and showed me they learned in the class.

One of my professors this semester had us break into groups halfway through the

semester and teach a week of our class. This news initially freaked out many students. However,

Brenna and I were excited to implement some Democratic Education techniques into our lessons.

Brenna and I brought up the promising results of talking to a partner before cold-calling or

asking for students to answer discussion questions. I felt it made me as a student feel comfortable

speaking in front of a class where I felt was a bit more critical and judgmental than my other

classes. The students that vocalized their opinions were few; I felt uncomfortable sharing mine

due to the feeling I could be wrong. Watching the students in my class talk with others and then

willingly raise their hands in this class was reassuring.

With everything I learned from this class, I have opened a door into cybersecurity and

privacy security, as a citizen, I am more aware of the lack of privacy in our world. We may think

it is there, but we are foolish to believe we have any left. Many people in this country seem to be

okay with it, or if they are not, they do not act against it. I still use social media; I still use

Google. Being able to learn about how companies use my data made me more aware when
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talking with friends, family, and other students. I found out that my summer job is installing

cameras at work, immediately my head filled with about a thousand questions. My boss had to

slow me down and ask where all of the questions came from, and I explained to him my newly

acquired knowledge.