A few thoughts from the end of the semester

So I was thinking last night as I read some of my students MGPs...

One of them was written by one of my students who typically turned in high quality writing with few grammar mistakes; unfortunately, the autobiography that he wrote for his MGP was full of run-on sentences, a lot of commas were missing, and his use of semi-colons didn't make sense.

It got me wondering if I had actually taught them anything...And this got me frustrated and a little down...

Yet today, after thinking about it all, I realized that I had taught my students something. I had taught them about different genres of writing. I had taught them how to focus on their content and not worry about their grammar. I had helped them identify their weaknesses so they could work on those. I had helped them see the value of revision and editing.

And they had told me a few things during all of this teaching...They told me they're lazy and that's why they don't complete assignments, complete the writing process, or implement what they're learning in their work.

Could I have done more? Oh yeah! But did I do a good job? Yeah. I created an atmosphere of support, of friendship, and challenge. I gave them advice and explained why we did things in class. I gave them a chance to give me feedback on the activities we did. I admitted my faults to them when I messed up or tried to do an activity with them that wasn't going well.

And in all of this, I realized that I can go into my internship with confidence because I know I can hold my own in a classroom, but also a lot of fear, because I know I still have a lot to learn about teaching.

12/3/08

Today was the last day of class. Last night I baked my students a cake to honor all of their hard work and, more importantly, because I had forgotten to remind them that we were going to have a potluck. I figured I would bring the potluck to them...

Today, I went in with only two things planned: Eat cake and present projects to class. Before class started, I had a few of the girls that were already there help me put the desks in a circle. I told them all to sit in the circle.

Then we just waited for everyone to arrive. I took attendance as they walked in and collected any late work that still had to be graded. I had a few students who still didn't have what they needed, but I took what they had and figured I'd just give them a grade on that.

Once a majority of the students arrived, I told them all to come up and get a piece of cake and then we'd start with presentations. Only about half of them actually took a piece, but some said they would come back for more.

After we all settled in, I had them each present their work. I told them to tell me the title, explain it if necessary, and then give a brief explanation of each of their genres and repetends. These little explanations could have been better, but overall, they were decent. I didn't want to expect too much out of them on the last class because many are stressed out and need to relax.

One thing I did notice that I am really glad about is that my students are almost all friends with each other. They stay after class to work with each other on stuff for my class or for other classes they have together. They call each other on the phone and communicate to one another all of the time. It really is exciting to see a class work so well together! I hope that I can continue to foster a classroom atmosphere like that in my classrooms...

12/1/08

I'm starting to get used to students walking in late. It seems a habit for my bunch that I have little control over....

I waited a few minutes to begin because of said lateness; I just handed out their journals from last class and other assignments that I had graded over break.

I started class with a quick reminder of the schedule of our class. We only have one more official meeting together in which they will present their MGPs and celebrate the end of the semester. I also informed them of the time that they can pick up their graded projects during exam week. I'm beginning to wonder how many people will actually come pick them up.

After this, I had them write their final journal for this project and told them about one other one that they needed to do to fill in the gaps for the final draft. They took a good amount of time to work on these. I was glad.

After this, I talked with them about some of the comments they left me from the survey I took last week. I answered the few that I could in class and then took a survey on the chalkboard activity from last week. They said they didn't like it, but thought that it was a good way for them to work on grammar points that they struggle with.

The final part of class was spent on peer review. I put them in groups of three and gave them a sheet with questions to help them think about what still needed work. A couple of them obviously blew this time off and rushed through it. I made them work with another person's work to emphasize to them the importance of revising their work.

I stayed for writing studio today because Ashley was gone. I worked with her group and talked to them about their projects. It concerns me that they are so confident about their work and don't really want to talk about it, especially because many of them haven't been on task for a majority of this project.

*One thing that really shocked me today was that none of my students had their homework ready for today...NOT A ONE OF THEM!!