Reflections on Teaching J Term

In a few days it will once again be time for J Term.  J Term is a one-month intensive course offered between the first and second semesters.

There was a time at our university when every course offered during J Term had to conform to a specific theme.  The courses had to be creative and approved.  No regularly offered courses were allowed.  Then, an exception was made for Capstone courses, creative classes taught by two or three faculty.  I remember and am proud of a course taught with Professors Sandra Looney and Peter Schotten called Light in the Darkness: Courage and Evil in the Twentieth Century.  We taught that course for over twenty years and it always seemed to go well.

As the core curriculum became larger, the Interim was opened to eventually allowing any course to be taught during J Term, some now online.

There was a time the Religion department would never have taught or allowed Religion 110 to be taught during January.  Religion 110, Exploring the Christian Faith, was and is a course which requires time to reflect and absorb all the information.  This January we are offering three sections of 110. 

The advantage of teaching in January is you have, in theory, the student’s complete attention on one course.  Such intensity allows for attention to be paid to the importance of the subject matter different from what happens during the normal semester. There, the student’s attention is divided between four or five courses.  When the January Interim was restricted to special theme or Capstone courses, such intensity was valuable and appreciated.

But when regular semester courses are taught during January, it means a professor is compelled to figure out how to communicate an entire semester’s worth of lectures and readings within one month.  For some courses, this proves impossible.  Part of teaching a course during a semester in increments is to give students a chance to think about what they are learning.  During the January Interim every day is a week, three hours of lecture and learning and students are compelled to digest all they hear.

For some students and professors, the January pace works well.  For others the academic push is too much.  For some professors J Term can be a grind.  Everyday you are meeting and moving or pushing students along.

 For me, the Interim is valuable and exhausting at the same time.  Having said all that, I am ready and excited to meet my Religion 110 students and begin again to think about these important questions.