Planning Week

Going into Brown Hall the first day of our planning week, I couldn't believe I was actually going to be teaching college and I hoped that I was dressed appropriately and prepared, yet I knew that I was working for JB so I really didn't have to freak out.

When I got into our classroom, it was so refreshing and exciting to be reunited with my peers and fellow teachers. I knew right away that this would be the best teaching environment ever because I knew I would have a support team with me at all times.

As we got down to business, I still felt overwhelmed. I had a million things going on and now I had this to add on. However, the more we worked together, I realized yet again that I would always have the general plan given to me and I was free to do with it what I wanted.

On Friday, our last day of planning, we took time to reflect on the week and made goals for the semester. Here is my vision for the semester:

Already I’m overwhelmed. So much planning to do in the midst of preparing for my own semester of classes and trying to enjoy just a taste of Michigan summer (most of my summer was spent in Spain). Yet even in this overwhelming situation, I have joy and excitement. I have a great challenge ahead of me and I want to conquer it, bear through it, excel in it. I look forward to spending time with my laptop, some good music and a time of intense planning and prepping.

I see the freshmen in the plaza and I want to be ready to face them – not because I’m afraid of them, but because I want to get them excited for the journey ahead of them. I never thought I would like WMU so much, and I want them to go through the same experience of falling in love, not with a place, with a time of life – a time of newness, change, challenge.

I want to get them excited for life after college, too. I always wanted to grow up but dreaded the fact that I’d probably have to get a job and work hard, especially as I did get a job and then another – jobs I didn’t love and didn’t want to go to. However, being at Western has changed that for me. I have been preparing for a job I knew I wanted since I was little. A job that wove together all of the things I like to do and even a few I didn’t – but I’ve never been one to push away a challenge.

I want them to learn new things about themselves – things like their work ethic, their capabilities, the things they enjoy. For me, I learned that I could pursue learning Spanish, so much so that I would journey to another country and live there for a while. I learned that I could write, not just fix grammar – no, really write stuff that others would read and value, stuff that someday may work for change. I learned that I could understand more than I thought I could when I read – whether Spanish or English. Finally, I learned that I could balance school, life, friends, jobs, and not go crazy. Is it easy? Of course not! It’s hard and sometimes I want to scream, but it’s possible.

And I guess that’s what I’m trying to tell/remind myself of right now. Even in all of this craziness, I can succeed. I will need determination, focus, and to put in some hard work, but I can be a good, maybe even great, teacher to my students this fall, and I can do well in my own classes, while at the same time maintain my social life and have a little fun. Perfectionism may creep in, but I can shove it away because there is no such thing, only good work that is the result of hard work that comes from giving my best in a reasonable amount of time.

And what is that kind of work as far as English 1000 is considered? It is giving of myself and my time so that my students can grow and be challenged. It is taking time to listen to them talk and really read what they wrote. It is identifying struggles, offering solutions, and supporting them through the process. It is building trust that leads to friendship and community. It is reminding each student that he or she is valuable and capable. It is me being vulnerable with them so they can understand that none of us knows everything, can do everything, never messes up.

It is as the article, “Your Own Voice: Teaching Composition in an Age of Dissent” by Don Murray said, “The writer fails all the time, but he fails to succeed. He learns to shape the failure of his drafts into the successes of his final copy.”

This is my vision for this coming semester. Will it all happen? No. But can I strive for it? Yes. I must say I’m excited for the journey ahead; I only hope it doesn’t pass by too quickly.