Grammar Lesson?

In my rhetoric/literature class that I teach at a community college, I have a number of students for whom Engilsh is not their first language. Yesterday, as class was breaking up, one of them asked me the difference between “a” and “an”.

Despite the fact that I feel somewhat overwhelmed already (i’m not really, but it just feels that way), I find myself tempted to offer a short, after-class study session for my students. Nobody uses our room after us, so any students who wanted to, could stay after for a session.

If I did do that, I suppose I would have to offer to meet with any students who want to say, but are unable to do so as students need to all be given the same treatment (morally and legally) On the other hand, it is an extra thing and I suppose it would be covered under “office hours” since I haven’t got an office.

Another thing I could do would be to spend the last ten or fifteen minutes of each class going over more fundamental material. This way, everybody who comes to class could benefit. We have a one hour and fifteen minute session so I can probably make time for it.

hmmmmmm.

Will Work for Hoodies

So far, the most disappointing thing about being an adjunct teacher is the fact that I don’t have any money.

At my last “job” as a T.A. I actually got paid fairly well for the small amount of work that I did. Plus I had a sweet student loan shoring up my finances.

Now days, not so much. Times are getting hard already and it’s only the first week. I can’t even afford to buy a new round of hoodie sweatshirts for the fall. Normally I do this every year.

The ability to comfortably wear hoodies from September to May is one of the greatest advantages to living in the Midwest. So comfortable and relaxing…and a new hoodie is the most comfortable of all. *sigh*

First Class at Community College

Yesterday was my first class at Triton. I showed up several hours early to just kind of get the feel of the place. I had been there a few times over the summer, but you don’t really get the feel of a college until you spend some time there when students are present.

First impressions:

The campus wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be. The main campus is pretty small and I thought that would translate to steady streams of students walking from one place to another. But I was really surprised at the small size of the crowds of students and the leisurely atmosphere of the outside area. In the student center, I was able to find an open table even during peak lunchtime hours. It could be that the place is a little more crowded in the evening.

My students were extremely quiet at first, more so than I am used to. My best guess on this is that they were probably a little nervous. Triton has open enrollment which means that alot of the students probably haven’t taken AP classes in high-school. To me that has no reflection on their ability, but they were probably more “out of their element” than my university students.

As I was told, there is a lot of variety in the racial and economic backgrounds of the students. There were a lot more students of Eastern European background than I had thought there would be.

So it goes.

grrrrrrrr

I hate learning my way around new places.

Martini Time

So I’m sitting at my desk at home, enjoying a fine martini and I had a great idea.

According to a book I bought called Grammar Alive: A Guide for Teachers, Students will more effectively learn the grammar of Standard Written English if they can be shown the need for what the book calls “code switching.”

What the book suggests is that you have them look at various types of writing and come up with a descriptive grammar for each. For example you could take an advertisement for a car and a technical service bulletin for the same car and have them come up with a grammar for each. I have a lesson plan for this. But I just came up with a related idea that I really like.

I’m going to have them take the lyrics to Mamma Said Knock You Out, by LL Cool J (the greatest song ever written) and have them re-write it using conventional grammar (complete sentences and no slang). So far, pretty vanilla right?

then I’m going to bring in my Boss DR-202 and some speakers and read the re-written lyrics over a rap beat. It will sound really funny and be kind of entertaining while, at the same time, it will reinforce the fact that different grammars are necessary for different discourse communities.

P.S.

I just checked my iCal, which I set up a month ago, and it says 8:00 -9:05. Looks like I just screwed up on the syllabus. I suppose to make it official, I’ll have to tell my students to change it on the syllabus.

Finally Starting Again

Teaching as an adjunct at the school where I got my B.A. is a strange experience. On the one hand, I can’t help feeling like I have returned from the outside world with great knowledge to impart. You know, kind of like a hero’s journey thing. This has a boosting effect on my confidence. 

On the other hand, I think that a part of me keeps waiting for someone to notice I’m here and shout “hey stop him, he’s not a teacher, he’s just an undergrad with a button shirt!” 

The first class went about as well as I expected. I managed to get a class register just in time to hightail it to the classroom, quite out of breath. Half of my students were directed by their schedules to look for my class in some other room. I forgot my dry erase markers at home. None of these are big problems though. We worked it out.

I would have sworn that my class was supposed to be from 8:00 am to 8:50. But, after I let them go at ten to nine, I noticed on my roster that it’s scheduled from 8:00 – 9:05. I wonder if this was changed at the last minute or did I screw it up. Well, it’ll be nice to have the extra time.

So far so good.

Semester Eve

tomorrow I start my first semester as a non-TA. I am somewhat nervous, but not unreasonably so. I’m sure I have forgotten something important that I won’t remember until it’s too late. But whatever it is, I know I can teach my 8:00 class and then go work it out. I’m not an expert teacher, but I have a little experience and I have never been intimitated by facing a roomfull of students.

I really thought I would be intimitated. Before my first semester as a Teaching Assistant, I just avoided thinking about it until I got to my first class, then I realized right away that I was going to enjoy teaching them.

The only thing that really makes me unhappy is the fact that I have to teach at two schools. This is because I have learned that I always feel closely tied to a location. When I have to go to more than one location, I feel fragmented. Oh well.

So it goes.

Random Syllabus Thought

Last week I attended a workshop for adjuncts. It was fairly useful. One thing that I found to be intersting was the template syllabus that we all were given. There is a nice rubirc-looking section that breaks down the course outcomes in terms of “outcome,” “Connection to General Education Goals,” and “assignments.”

The point of this, I believe, is for students to be aware of the connection between the daily work they are doing and the overall goals of the Gen Ed. program.

I’m thinking of putting this in the final version of my own syllabus. However, I am hesitant. The reason is this: I have taken a class with the teacher from whom they got the sample, and that teachers classes are not very effective. I personally felt that it failed to meet the Gen. Ed. outcomes.

I may be overly cynical, but I felt that this teacher was one of those types of teachers who masks his/her lazyness by having the students constantly, and ineffectively,  “present” on the weekly readings.

The whole “course outcomes rubric” makes me wonder about the difference between talking about connecting one’s course with the school’s outcomes, and simply doing it. I suppose one could both talk about doing it and actually do it. But there seems to some kind of disconnect between people who talk about it and people who just do it. It is as if those who are incapable of teaching a class properly feel more inclined to talk about how they are going to teach the class.

I’m probably just being cynical, but at 36 years of age, I should probably come to terms with the fact that I am cynical about most things and try to use my cynicism to some advantage.

Semester Start Up

Well. I had to decide whether or not to continue posting on the fycomp blog. It occurred to me that it could be difficult to keep a truthful blog that reflects on my teaching while working professionally as opposed to being a TA.

There is always the risk that l may make mistakes or do things that might incriminate me (not in a legal sense, but in a “getting rehired” sense) not because I am a poor teacher, but because I am still inexperienced and there is always the possibility that an employer will read the blog. In fact I put it in my resume, so it’s more than just a chance.

I thought about it. Then I decided that the value of keeping up a reflective blog about my teaching is higher than the risk of getting fired.

I feel that this first semester as a “pro” is going to be extremely formative, so having a method of self-reflection is going to maximize the degree to which I improve. Also, for reasons that I am not quite sure of yet, the blog just works extremely well for this purpose.

I think the reason is probably this: the audience for a blog is nameless and faceless enough for me to be fairly open with my thoughts. Yet, there is still the FACT of an audience (however theoretical it may be)

There is the potential that somebody will read what I am writing here. This forces me to organize my thoughts in a slightly different way than if I were writing in a journal, for my own eyes only. Also, the fact of an audience creates an impetus to write at times when I might become bored of writing in a journal.

So anyone who reads this thing, can look forward to more posts in the near future as the semester starts in about a week and a half.

MF