Everyone's been asking the same two questions: What are you doing next year, and what was the best thing you did at Tufts? I don't have an answer to the first one; the second has too many potential answers. But what was the most unique and rewarding thing I was able to do at Tufts? That's an easier question. I co-designed and taught a class on one of my favorite hobbies: board games.
You might raise an eyebrow. What do I know about games that is scholarly and deep enough to teach for an entire semester? But using my seemingly pointless major, sociology, we were able to frame the course as exciting and find a wide range of relevant materials. The course benefited me in so many ways and was a very important part of continuing the Tufts tradition of learning outside the box.
Senior Anna Drapkin and I taught Living on Boardwalk: The Sociology of Board Games as part of the Explorations program at the Experimental College. This program places up to 14 incoming freshmen in a course designed and taught by two students (juniors or seniors) who double as peer advisors. In the weekly seminar-style classes, students engage in intimate discussions, learn skills like debating and analyzing articles, question new topics and ideas, develop camaraderie and a rooting in the Tufts community, and are assigned homework to strengthen writing and delve deeper into materials.
In order to run these classes, Anna and I spent hours each week developing lesson plans, creating handouts, reviewing resources and refining our teaching style. We learned many of these skills in our training, weekly teaching seminars, and of course from our own peers who were teaching as well. However, so much of it resulted in our own reflection, on classes we have loved at Tufts, as well as classes that we haven't loved so much. It was our chance to create what we envisioned as the "perfect" class.
I'm sure the students in our class could find flaws in it; we can, too. Yet overall, we were able to experiment with all styles of learning in a subject area that was engaging.
I wish I could say that all of the hard work pays off in the classroom, but it doesn't. We've thrown out activities, had to make up our own audio to part of Clue, re-lectured about basic citation style multiple times, and have read more interesting resources than would have been reasonable to assign.
There also weren't many precedents for a class on the sociology of board games, so most of our materials were pulled from a variety of sources and were creatively applied. But by so doing, I went out of my comfort zone both intellectually - through the synthesizing of many materials from different subject matters to converge on games - and interactively through the conversations with game designers and students on a frequent basis. I learned invaluable soft and hard skills related to learning and teaching styles as well as actual information about the subject.
I also learned a lot on a personal level. After questioning my level of interest in my major, I reaffirmed that it was right for me and was able to tie together all of the random information from my classes. Things that hadn't made sense or felt boring in Sociology Theory or in Media and Society suddenly clicked and were exciting. Discussions with our course advisor, Matt Gregory, enriched my own understanding and challenged me to think in new ways about applying material to a subject that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Furthermore, participation in the Explorations program itself was rewarding. Teaching a course that you enjoy makes it likely that others will be interested as well. Incoming freshmen generally have no idea what they want to do, and they're so excited to take something new. Explorations classes allow them to do this while not missing out on achieving a solid level of writing and analysis that will be necessary to use in any course at Tufts.
In fact, an Explorations class can help a student learn these skills even better because student-teachers can create expectations and give advice based on very personal and recent experiences in their own classes. This advising role was very rewarding because it was obvious that students were growing both personally and academically as a direct result of some conversations and course activities.
So why write to tell you about why I loved teaching? The big reason is that at Tufts, we talk a lot about active citizenship and participating in our community, but we don't always relate this directly to our own community. Making the leap into college is one of the newest experiences for a teenager, and we have the skills and experiences to ease that transition while rounding off our own Tufts experience. Plenty of faculty members and friends are more than excited to pitch in and help to design a course, and it is the best feeling to know that the many hours one spends in the program contribute to aiding freshmen who will carry on the Jumbo name.
Classes have been taught quite successfully on everything ranging from pirates to Muslim identity to interpreting the media. Take your interest and apply for a teaching position in a freshman seminar today. Applications are due on March 12. Visit excollege.tufts.edu for more information on teaching Explorations or Perspectives.
Jen Bokoff is a senior majoring in sociology.
