Tuesday, I took advantage of an opportunity to teach my students a small Blackboard trick that they would be able to use throughout their academic career. Then, one of my students stopped me as I was leaving the lab. She wanted to talk about a post on this blog that she had read (more on how she got that link coming on Monday). She had read the post on pikiwiki and student presentations and wanted to know if there was a chance that I could be convinced to use it this semester. I told her to argue for it in a comment (which she did effectively–it’s on the post. You should read it). Another one of my students even went so far as to create her own pikiwiki. Check it out here

Then came Wednesday. I’ve been talking all year about needing a mentoring program for our first year instructors. I threw myself on the sword last year and again this year and took on three new teachers who needed some help. Overall, it wasn’t a lot on my part. I just answered questions and gave advice when needed. Since my career plan is to take on a job as a WPA (Writing Program Administrator), this will essentially help me with this endeavor. I know that when I take over as a WPA at a university, I want to make sure that the program I am in charge of has a good mentoring program. So I spent Wednesday (my normal lazy-off campus day) sitting in the office, reading over portions of teaching portfolios and suggesting changes for specific documents. I was really feeling like I had a purpose and was making a difference.

Then came Thursday. I thought to teach my students to use a new technology. Then, I had an awesome discussion with them involving their papers. I have to say that these students are coming up with some rather unique topics and I think this is because of the method that I used to have them brainstorm. So, I’m giving myself a big pat on the back there. And as I stood there helping them start thinking about the points they want to make in their essays, I had a student who just announced in class that it was a “great way” to put the argument together. But they amaze me on their own. I’ve got them thinking critically about their essays and what to include and they came up with great questions during class today. These are not normal questions that my students ask, so take a look at these:

• Can I use a survey in my essay? Do I need to find one or can I do my own?
• Can I use song lyrics in my essay?
• I’m not arguing specifically for my topic. How do I add parameters to my thesis statement?

Honestly, I don’t get these questions on a regular basis. I think I’ve grown as a teacher, but I also think that this speaks to the abilities students have when they’re given adequate preparation.
I also had a chance to meet with one of our potential graduate students this week and had the presence of mind to give her one of the packets I designed for potential and new students. I’ve been talking about them in the office all year, but this was the first chance (outside of a conference our university hosted earlier this year) I had to give out one of these packets. I was suddenly glad that I had created them.

But this post was not intended to sound like chest thumping. I’ll admit that I’m amazed at all that I’ve done this week. But more than that, I’m also feeling extremely motivated to keep putting these ideas into action. We’ll see how well things go from here on out. Look for more coffee breaks in the future. There’s a lot more bragging about my students in my pedagogy post for Monday. I would normally put it here, but I don’t want to be too repetitive.

More to come!

So yesterday I sat down with the prof that has, essentially, gotten me where I am today. Well, in addition to verbally approving my degree plan (with a few minor changes) we got to have a nice chat about my dissertation topic. Unfortunately, at this point, it’s rather broad. “I want to do something with First Year Composition and New Media” is not exactly a focused topic. But he’s all over the idea to the extent that he’s agreed (verbally) to be on my committee and made some recommendations for other committee members. Now, we think along the same lines, but he’s also given me several other rather good recommendations. He’s even agreed to help me get our department chair to approve a tenure track prof as my chair since our ideas align so well. (WOW!)

And as though that isn’t enough, my face to face students this semester seem right on target already (though I’m not holding my breath). I have a much smaller class (technically about 16 on the roster and only 8 showing up), so I have the opportunity to do a lot more class discussion and a lot less lecturing (which I love).

The classes I’m taking this semester are already seeming like hurdles. I know that Advanced Grammar is going to make me a better writer, but the Bakhtin/Dostoevsky class is going to be the one that monopolizes my reading time. Ah, but it feels like it’s going to be one interesting class.

Then there are the THREE conferences this semester. The local Federation Rhetoric Symposium is hosted at my university this semester, so it’s not too much long term preparation. We got our panel accepted to the Conference of College Teachers of English, so I need to put that together. Yet, the biggest bragging right so far is that Maggie and I were accepted to the National Pop Culture Conference in the Rhetoric and Pop Culture section. (YEAH!) I’ll keep you posted.