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Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Oh Captain, My Captain! - Personal Comp Tale 9
Now that I have finished teaching the unit in my mentor's class, I'm off to grading! But I think it's important to note that I really have enjoyed my time teaching. That's a good sign, right? I wasn't sure how I would respond to teaching comp (or something other than creative writing in general), but I found that I genuinely had a great time working with students and "molding young minds." And it was helpful that students told me they think I really found my place in teaching. One student said, "Yeah, before you started teaching, you just sat there quietly, but once you got in front of the class you had confidence and rocked it!" (He said this after his group came to my office hours). And as I've mentioned before, students have said that they thought I did great and that class was fun. So, fun is good, but I hope they actually learned something. We shall see if they did as I grade their papers. Muahaha. No, but seriously, it felt good to get that validation in this area of academia that I'm new to. And having a good observation (thanks N) helped as well. So, I guess what I'm getting at is, I like teaching and I seem to be decent at it, which is good news.
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You bring up a good point about how getting positive feedback from students doesn't always mean they will do well on their papers or have learned. I am finding that now while grading my students' papers. They seemed engaged during the classes and said they liked my creative classes, but their papers are not really reflecting some of the main points we discussed in class. I am not really taking it personally since my class has always struggled with writing and caring about assignments this semester. But, I am also concerned with the gap between what they reported to liking in the unit and their product for the assignment.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about "just sitting there quietly." The first week I started teaching, a student emailed me with a question and addressed me as "Justin." Which is fine. I've been called worse. But it just shows that they didn't really know me very well. I hear some people talking about they're super integrated into their mentor's class, but I really haven't been. I just sat and observed. Then I taught for a few weeks. And now I'm back to sitting and watching. Kind of strange.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm glad you enjoyed teaching. I just finished grading my set of papers. Noticing common weaknesses in their work makes me question my teaching methods, but I also have to think about what I could have done differently -- and in some cases, not much. For example, only one of my students addressed audience at all in their papers -- and we spent two class periods and part of another talking specifically about audience. There isn't much more I could do to make the concept clearer. So if you notice things like that, don't beat yourself up too much. Look more broadly -- do they seem to understand the overall concept of what you taught? If so, then you're pretty successful, I think.
Yay for positive student feedback. Nice job!
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