10/29 How can we learn from what we do/ teach? How can we continue to better ourselves as teachers? What are some ways in which we can become “reflec

It is important to have an ideal of teacher model in one’s heart in order to become better teachers. However, the ideal is often a combination of the good teachers we have had ourselves. Looking back and reflecting, the most important skill to be a good teacher should be the ability to reach out to his/her students. The students should feel comfortable in the classroom for a good learning experience to take place. Taking into account different learning styles and molding one’s syllabus and teaching techniques accordingly help us improve as teachers.
Writing reflectively on one’s teaching also help see patterns of strategies that work and that do not and identify ones prominent teaching style. It is also important to learn from what has not worked and try to mould it to work. Understanding the students as audience is also helpful for developing as a teacher. Above all, a teacher should be able to learn from the students and grow with the students.

10/22: What should a FYC teacher come to class knowing? What should a FYC student come to class knowing? How can we prepare for “Plan B” when they don

I believe that both the teacher and the student should wear their formal identity in a classroom situation. This helps for both the parties to express expectations, and also maintain discipline. For teachers, it is important to know that they are mentors and will have to work along with the students throughout the course. The students in-turn should understand the utility of the course and study to succeed not only in achieving high grades, but also actually learning along the way.
Teachers should come prepared for the lesson and have a lesson plan in hand. Students should come having read the assigned reading and having done the required assignments. This happens at an ideal level. In reality, teachers sometimes do not have a steady lesson plan and have to make a mental plan , and the student do not read the material and are unresponsive in class.
Thus every teacher should have a Plan B in hand. A teacher should be able to judge the responsiveness of the class and steer the discussion and the activities accordingly. A successful teacher should always be able to make last minute changes to the lesson plan to match with the flow of the class. Yet it is not ideal to change the teaching strategy completely o suit one student or a group of students. This would confuse the other students and the teacher will never be able to develop a style of his/ her own. Thus a teacher should understand when to stop making adjustments and be firm.
Thus, a blend of strategies and techniques to suit the multiple intelligences of the students and recognizing learning patterns in students are crucial for a successful teacher.

10/15: Why I grade the way I grade?

I grade very leniently. Often, I have been told that my grading shows ESL traits, and is not fit for mainstream First Year Composition. My personal comments on my grading style are that I try to see the student’s effort in the writing. Sometimes it is evident that the student is just writing to fulfill the assignment requirements and the quality of work reflects the lack of interest on the student’s part. Writings produced by such students are usually full of mechanical errors, and lack in critical thinking and response to the topic at hand. Due to the arider writer system here, graders are not in touch with the students, and this judgment becomes difficult. Students also display the above traits when they don’t understand the assignment, or are at a writer’s block and need help wit writing. Teaching writing should be an individual activity instead of a classroom situation. However, due to lack resources and time, and the huge number of FYC students this system cannot become a reality.
Coming back to grading, I have adjusted my grading style to suit the impersonal nature of the Raider Writer system. I usually look for coherence and connectivity in the student’s writing. I try to identify patterns of grammatical errors and let the student know. Unless, it is a final draft, I do not count off points for grammatical and mechanical errors. I also tell students to rephrase a few sentences to add clarity to the writing. But I am careful about doing this as I do not want to influence the student’s writing style. Unless I see a clear lack of writing ability or technique, I try to guide my students to develop their own style in the operating framework.

10/6: Technology and Literacy

Selfe’s main argument is that inequality if education in the United States supports and is supported by the Capitalist class system. Introduction of computers and encouraging computer literacy has created a further divide between the rich and the poor societies of the country. Selfe’s article remind me of a book I read called “ Savage Inequalities”. The book records vividly the distinctions between the rich and the poor school district of the country. It is almost a viscous circle that richer districts get more funding from the taxes whereas the poorer districts lack in technology and other necessities due to low funding by low Taxpayers. Thus rich schools get richer and the poor schools remain poorer. The unequal distribution of funding creates generations of school dropouts and unsuccessful academic careers due to unavailability of teachers, teaching materials, and of course, technology that has become a part of everyday life for most students. Selfe asks the reader to pay attention to this inequality and try to remove them by introducing technology available to the richer schools. However, these children belonging to the poorer classes have a long way to go to bridge the gap. More attention need to be given to their everyday needs, their home environment and care in school so that they feel safe and grow to like education. After this is achieved, introducing modern technology will definitely help improve their academic life and strategies such as critical thinking can be developed. But first comes, the basic needs!

9/29: Response to Take Twenty Video

Surprisingly, the teachers have remained interested in teaching writing for many years. Usually, teachers like to teach or experiment with new topics related to their area of expertise. One has to really be dedicated to teaching to like teaching the same kind of courses over this long a period.
What is more interesting is that the teachers do not complain about their students. If the students are not doing well, they turn to their own teaching methods to see what is missing. I am greatly inspired by this. It is very easy to blame your students for not performing and not even thinking once about your own teaching technique. This is a common phenomenon, yet the video showed how wrong this is. I have learned to keep a teaching journal and I regularly post my thoughts in it. Sometimes I show frustration on the students for failed activity.I have always come back to the realization that if I could have planned my class in some other ways the students would have learned better. Like writing, I feel that teaching too is a work in progress. We learn everyday and from every student. This should be the motto of every teacher who intends to take teaching as their profession.

9/22: Writing Process

Much like our authors, I can describe my writing as recursive and overlapping. I find it hard to figure out an algorithm for my piece of writing. An essay might have its own structure relative to its genre, but the content and its organization would be difficult to fit into an algorithm like a machine. For me writing is spontaneous, thus, my mind cannot focus on a fixed structure.
During my school days, we were taught that good writers are born naturally. One needs to have talent to succeed in writing. I think evaluation of creative writing was also somewhat arbitrary. Like many other, I also grew up believing that writing is not my niche.
My first teaching assistantship as a tutor at the Writing Center at my previous university, taught me to see writing in a whole new light. I learned that a person can become a good writer through learning some strategies and implementing them successfully. Of course, practice is a big part of it. Also, to acknowledge a piece of writing to being a work in progress helped me to develop as a writer. I now write more freely and confidently. I now recognize my writing style, and can work on developing one consciously.