It seems missed posting to this discussion for last Friday again, in all this excitement… Last Friday we did not break out into breakout sessions since the lead peer leader was not present. Professor asked me to watch the chat instead. No one was initiating anything in the chat but I was able to initial some interaction.
When a student asked a question and Professor was answering it specifically, I took to the chat to verify with the student if I understood what she was asking. This lead to her speaking up and telling the professor exactly what she was having trouble with. Professor was better able to help that student work out the problem and the chat proved to be successful.
There was also a moment while working on solving the quadratic by completing the square, that the Professor mentioned using a calculator that can work out fractions. I added the name of the calculator to the chat, and when a student mentioned that she did not know how to use it, I added some instruction to the chat.
It was suggested to Professor by another Professor that the chat was working for them so my Professor now feels that it is better than break out sessions and feels that it is a way to solve the attendance issue. Therefore, he told both the lead peer leader and myself that he prefers not to do breakout sessions any longer.
I’m not sure how I feel about it. I guess I’m happy that I can still help students through the chat but sad that breakout sessions did not work.
