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.