Notes from Professor Pete

As we head toward the finish line of the Fall 2020 semester, one we’ll never forget, we have now officially pivoted to remote learning for the final two weeks – this week is the final week of classes, next week are final exams … again, all remote learning. One of my course offerings that I’ve had the honor to teach for the past four years is Public Presentations, COMM101 – basically, Public Speaking. The “public” part of this class takes on a far different dimension on Zoom. It’s an entirely unique vibe talking into a screen versus standing up in front of a class. Hey, we have no choice. We have to adapt.

This class was taught in the “flexible hybrid” model. There are 20 students in the class, and half of them met in person on Monday with the other half meeting in person on Thursday. The rest of the class was “remote” and involved out-of-class assignments of varying nature. The “in-person” portion of the class has been on Zoom for the past few weeks due to our multiple pauses followed by the fact that most students departed campus for home during the pause(s). Today, the Monday cohort (fancy academic word!) did their final talks of the semester, and it went really well! Sitting in my closet office at home, flannel shirt on and coffee tumbler never far from my grasp, I scribbled notes furiously on a small notepad. My pencil filled up about 5 pages of notes! That’s how excited I was about their talks; I wanted to share some of my notes from the talks, because I feel we can all glean some great stuff from them.

About half the class chose to talk about the Covid-19 pandemic: How it affected their lives, how they have mentally processed it and how they will view it from the lens of the future. I was so impressed at how these young men and women took positive spins at what has been, in many ways, a dreadful year. One of our overarching themes for this class was practicing gratitude and it seems these young students took that to heart. Here are some of the thoughts and comments I was able to write down quickly as they talked: “I formed new habits and practiced gratitude.” … “I’ve learned to live in the moment more and that we need to take gratitude with you.” … “It changed my life for the better and made me more mature. I learned to let go of the negative mindset.” … “It was a huge blessing for me” (this is amazing!) … “I've become more adaptable” …  and my personal favorite, “In a time of darkness, it's up to us to bring the light” … Wow! There’s hope for the future, people!