I have questions for those of you teaching these days. And for those of you not teaching, I have a need for you to chime in on your experience at TSU. I'm back again, teaching four sections of 1320. I prefer 1320, so this is good for me.
I've been noticing some things, though, lately, about my students. I think I've had kind of a personal problem with TSU since I got here. As many of you know, this is the school where my parents met, where my grandfather got his masters in education, where two of my aunts went, and, most importantly, where all the average and/or sub-par kids from my high school ended up. Only two of my graduating class went to UT. A few ended up at ATM, the valedictorian went to the Naval Academy, and EVERYBODY else went to TSU. I swore I'd never end up here, or end up a (god forbid) teacher like my parents, and everyone else in my entire family.
And here I am, happy for the first time in my life, pretty much, teaching at TSU. The irony is not lost on me. I once sincerely thanked god I didn't have to deal with "a gay thing," too, and look at me now. I think I called TSU "third rate university" way too much. I think I was a jerk about that, and now I'm sorry.
So anyway, I'm finding that I truly love my students. I did last year, and I do again this year. And, in hearing about some other classes that are being taught across the state (St. Ed's, Southwestern), I've really been considering how to meet the differing needs of my students - those of whom I have come to respect as first generation college students, speakers of different languages, immigrants, nontrads, emerging stars (who told me they were "the dumb kids who didn't REALLY get into TSU)...instead of thinking of them as the kids who ostracized me through all four years of Seguin High School. Maybe this is because of the relatively few Greek kids I have in class. Or maybe it's because Julian is a kindergartner whose teachers don't really get him and are having trouble even trying. Whatever the reason, the students look new to me this time.
And I guess I'm wondering how the rest of you are faring in different schools - who your students are and how you find yourself relating to them. Are you discovering you need to change your pedagogy, your standards, your very tone of class? Are the goals of the students different? And are yours?
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I've been grading my students' diagnostics over the weekend. The prompt was something like: talk about about your high school experience in reading and writing and what your needs are in this course" . . . something like that. I didn't pick it; it is a program-mandated prompt (weird, right?). Anyways, since this is developmental, the students know they are struggling in the reading and writing department. And, I'm not kidding you, about 75% of them wrote about how bad bad bad their teachers were in high school, which is why they're all in my class. I kept reading things like: the teacher hated me, the teacher was boring, the teacher picked shitty things to read, the teacher was lazy, the teacher wore blue clothes and I hate the color blue, the teacher the teacher the teacher.
Damn! I know they're at that age where blame shifting is rampant, but seriously! So here's a new part of my curriculum (to answer your question Jack): learning what it means to take some damn responsibility.
Out of the four, one class scared me; I graded their diagnostics and couldn't do my usual where I don't give A's on the first paper. 6 or 7 were A's, and there were many B's, as well. I felt unprepared for that level of writing for Comp I. But my 2 other sections of Comp I were on par with that typical level of writing.
My Comp II has racially segregated themselves, black on one side, white on the other, and it bugs me. Unlike Texas, approximately 50% of students here are African American. I forgot how racially different the student population is here. This is the class where I know I have to change my teaching pedagogy. I'm hoping to remedy this separation by making this section do more group or team work. Will forcing them to work together help? I don't know, but I'm going to try it.
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