“Schooooooool’s out for…”

May 6, 2012 at 11:19 pm (Uncategorized)
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School is officially done for the summer. I’ve turned in my portfolio and my three papers, I’ve graded all of the Rhetorical Analysis and Critique papers, and I’ve even looked over and graded the papers that students turned in for a better grade. ALL of the final grades are posted two days before deadline.

I really enjoyed every one of the papers that I read and graded. I really enjoyed grading them, even, because of that. My students did really well over all, most of them with A’s and B’s, even without a curve. The students who really needed help improved immensely over the course of the semester, and the ones that failed did so because they simply didn’t come to class and didn’t do the work. I’m proud of my students, and happy with the work that we finished together this term. I am done.

Except that I’m not, of course. Now is the time I should start working on my class for next year. I have a novel to read to decide if I want to use it in my course, a handbook that I need to look through so I know what’s in it, a syllabus to put together (probably based on the chapters of the handbook), and papers to plan and write assignment sheets for.

But that’s what this summer is for. If I can get 211B together over the summer, then I can adapt the syllabus and etc. for 211D over Christmas break in time for semester to start in the Winter. That’s my plan, anyway.

Of course there’s the wedding to plan. And the house to clean before the wedding. And my dress to finish, his shirt to sew, flowers to be planted, flowers to be ordered and made into bouquets… There’s a lot left to do. Luckily, the wedding is a month away, and will be over with early in the summer, leaving me plenty of time left to work on school.

Right now, though, I’m looking forward to relaxing a little. Subbing, sure, and working on the wedding, but I’m just not going to let myself be stressed by that stuff. There’s no percentage in it.

And a quote from my EN504 teacher: “If you are a teacher, and not just someone who wants to be paid as a professor, then you need to learn to care about younger people on thier way to maturity.” – Gabriel Brahm

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Thank you!

April 3, 2012 at 12:14 am (Uncategorized)
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I had my student conferences this week, and I’d just like to say I am the luckiest new TA in the history of TAing.

A little background. I am teaching 24 students Freshmen Composition, one of two requited English courses that everyone has to take.   I’ll be teaching the other one in two different sections next year. But at least the second one has sections. This one, everyone has to take the exact same class with the same number of papers and written words and covering the same ground. Ground that many of them covered in high school.

Granted, every teacher is different, and many of us have chosen some ideas that aren’t quite the norm. Some of us have presentations in our classes and some decided that the students will get enough of that in other classes. Some chose an argument paper, and some didn’t. Some have daily journals, and some don’t.

That said, this is pretty much exactly the class that you’d expect everyone to take their freshman year of college. The biggest focus is making sure that everyone learns MLA/APA/Chicago/something about in-text citations so that they don’t get accused of plagiarism later in their college careers. Other than that, it’s refresher for those of us who didn’t go straight from high school into college.

I have the best students. They weren’t sure about me at first, but once they realized that I want to have as much fun with this as possible, they really opened up to some possibilities. They’re creative, they’re intelligent, and they have great things to say. Their writing quality was already good before they ever set pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) in room 229. I. Am. Blessed.

That’s not to say that I haven’t had my struggles. They are a VERY quiet class. Today might have been the first semblance of a real discussion, and that was because I had a student at the front of the class. But besides being in the afternoon nap time, I have really enjoyed teaching these people.

*raises a glass* So here’s to EN 111, Section 23! And here’s hoping that I get as many classes this awesome as I can!

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Woah.

March 24, 2012 at 4:41 pm (Uncategorized)
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Three papers, thirty-five days, and who knows how many miles down. We’re just starting the biggest paper of the semester, and we’re only five weeks from finals. Right about now I’m feeling…

..Calm. Remarkably in control. Like I’ve got this.

I know, it’s stupid to feel this way. And it might just be a calm before the storm, but I don’t really see a storm coming. A lot of the rest of the semester is in-class research days and conferences. Sure, there’ll be a lot of reading on my part, but most of what we’ll be doing is action, not lecture, not something hard to prepare for. Oh, yeah, I’ll have work to do, and that list is only the class I’m teaching, not anything for the classes I’m taking or my own educational requirements.

Maybe it’s simply optimism. I have always been an optimist because it’s more pleasant than the alternative. There’s a light at the end of this semester, and I can see it on the horizon.

But as long as I don’t let myself worry too much, as long as I actually accomplish a lot over the weekends, and as long as I continue to talk to my fellow teachers and students, I know I can get to the end in triumph! I’ve got great students behind me, and I’m excited to see what they have to say. They don’t hate me that I know of. I suppose I should check “Rate my Prof.” before I say that, though.

Add to that the fact that I’ve got a fellow grad student interested in looking at my book and giving me feedback. Add to that the fact that I’ll be able to finish my degree without having to take out more loans. Add to that the fact that more people with literary educations are telling me I’m a good writer… Yeah, I’m in my happy place.

Off to read Rhetorical Analysis proposals!

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I am… a Teacher.

January 21, 2012 at 8:01 pm (Uncategorized)
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While I do have a set of arguments that I have used on occasion to argue that everyone with influence over another person can be considered a teacher, I have never really considered my self such in so many words. I have taught in classrooms, mostly with a team, for years without any feeling that I could call myself a teacher.

The type of teaching I’ve done previously has been ‘hit and run’ teaching. Most classrooms I would be in for one hour a year, working on a specific project, and specifically the song that went with that project. Sometimes we would be in the school doing “Theater Du Jour,” and extended project with a larger team that involved writing a script, doing scenery and costuming, and writing a theme song for the play. Usually we had an historical subject, but sometimes we had plays on the life cycle or even pre-written plays that the students would design around. The, after two days working on all of the above, the students would perform the play for any number of people, sometimes the whole school, sometimes just a group of parents.

This was a project that I got into because of my expertise as a song-writer, not because I had any experience or qualification to be a teacher. In fact, I would allow others to de-legitimize my standing by asking if I had any teaching certificates or degrees. As a result, I definitely did NOT consider myself a teacher.

Now, I have a class. It’s mine. I had one semester of “how we run EN111 here” and now I’m let loose into the wilds of NMU. I’m not sure if I have Freshmen sicked on me or vise versa, but either way, it’s happened and I have twenty-five reported adults listening to me for four hours a week. Now, it’s just been one week, so I don’t exactly have a handle on how it’s all going to go, but I have a syllabus, five papers, and many ideas.

It’s amazing the difference from last semester (I was going to school and had an office, but I was just a pretender) to this one. I know I was assured all last year that I WAS a teacher, even if I didn’t have a class. I even have those aforementioned arguments that everyone is a teacher in their own way. And still, suddenly, Wednesday night, I realized.

I. Am. A Teacher.

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We Wish You…

December 25, 2011 at 11:59 pm (Uncategorized)
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I do wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year, and Peace and Joy and all that other good stuff.

I also wish everyone productivity, enjoyment of what they have to do to make a living, and great luck in any new endeavors in 2012.

I have amazed myself by actually finishing all of the Christmas presents that I set out to make. I didn’t come up with a couple of them until it was too late to start them, but I finished the last gift yesterday (Christmas Eve) in time to wrap it and bring it with me to my folk’s place for my mom. I also finished two pies that no one had room to eat. I felt like super-woman! And that’s what counts, right?

I have found something I enjoy to do to make a living. I’ve been in classrooms for three months, now, and I have never enjoyed a job this much that was so stressful. I love the little darlings. I wish they would sit down and do what I asked them to do. I suppose that comes with being a sub for a while. Maybe. If I’m lucky.

I am looking forward to actually having my own class to teach. I don’t know how much subbing I’ll be able to do while I’m in front of my own classroom, but hopefully next Fall I’ll be a little more flexible and can sub a few days a week instead of just one day and maybe some mornings in a week. But I’ll certainly need the time to prepare to be a teacher, to prepare lessons, and to grade what I give them. English teachers have a LOT of reading to do.

Any minute now, I’ll have feedback on my novel, now finished for a year, but no beta-readers getting back to me. When I have that back, I can polish to a (hopefully) final draft, and shop it around. Probably shop myself to an agent first, but certainly shop the book around. Before the end of the year? Please?

So yes, I wish all of these things for myself, too, but I wish them just as much for you. I know how hard it can be if you DON’T have these things. So let’s keep these in mind and keep it positive for the New Year!

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