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Aug. 30th, 2005 08:44 am
English 125B: First Impressions
Class Title: Writing and the Young Writer
Oi.
The teacher is every bit as scattered and hard to understand as the reports suggested. I can survive the class, but her weird "I don't know which of ten things I'm doing at this moment, so I'll spastically go between all of them" personality will grate on me quite a bit.
The class requires 10 hours of observation in a classroom environment. That's not really a problem, but I wish it had been listed in the course requirements when I signed up, because now I'm going to have to monkey with my work schedule to fit that in.
There were four familiar faces in the class, and none of them are in the "People I'd rather get shot than have to deal with again" category, so I think I can cope without wanting to kill anyone for at least the first few weeks. As a writing course, it's a small class (university policy limits all writing courses to 25 people), so the feel won't be as "Oh my god I'm lost in all these people!" as some courses I've taken.
The class isn't so much about learning how to teach writing as it is learning theories to enable me to make better choices as a teacher. The instructor's focus seems to be on creating for our students writing assignments that fulfill the stringent requirements of secondary education, but also foster and nurture the individuality of our students -- not, in other words, forcing them into little boxes. Which is good, as I think the cookie-cutter aproach is one of the problems with our schools, and the fact that -- as my recent research and studies have revealed -- most teachers and training programs are trying to quietly do away with that bullshit is a good thing.
Oi.
The teacher is every bit as scattered and hard to understand as the reports suggested. I can survive the class, but her weird "I don't know which of ten things I'm doing at this moment, so I'll spastically go between all of them" personality will grate on me quite a bit.
The class requires 10 hours of observation in a classroom environment. That's not really a problem, but I wish it had been listed in the course requirements when I signed up, because now I'm going to have to monkey with my work schedule to fit that in.
There were four familiar faces in the class, and none of them are in the "People I'd rather get shot than have to deal with again" category, so I think I can cope without wanting to kill anyone for at least the first few weeks. As a writing course, it's a small class (university policy limits all writing courses to 25 people), so the feel won't be as "Oh my god I'm lost in all these people!" as some courses I've taken.
The class isn't so much about learning how to teach writing as it is learning theories to enable me to make better choices as a teacher. The instructor's focus seems to be on creating for our students writing assignments that fulfill the stringent requirements of secondary education, but also foster and nurture the individuality of our students -- not, in other words, forcing them into little boxes. Which is good, as I think the cookie-cutter aproach is one of the problems with our schools, and the fact that -- as my recent research and studies have revealed -- most teachers and training programs are trying to quietly do away with that bullshit is a good thing.