(Confession: I feel a little weird writing this, but I’m using it as a self-reflection, not a critique of my classmates.) After visiting Nicole’s class and critiquing other TA’s assignments in class, I feel much more comfortable about my own teaching. This is not to say that I think I’m a better teacher than anyone [...]

Having finished the Bizzell article in this week’s reading, I felt compelled to commit to paper some of the thoughts I’ve had while reading several of our last readings. I find myself in opposition to some of what I’ve read, from the standpoint of its usefulness for my students. First, I want to respond to [...]

Upon further reflection, I’ve decided that the way I feel about my teaching is that it’s “basic.” I’m not going above and beyond what’s in the book, because I don’t feel equipped yet to do so, nor do I feel like I have the time. However, in light of the Reader’s Digest debacle, it’s clear [...]

Well, I’ve learned an important lesson about my students: it’s not enough to walk them through the book, pointing out what’s going to be important; I need, instead, to break down how they should be thinking about and approaching an assignment and give them the techniques that will help them succeed on it. I suppose [...]

I have decided that I officially hate Allyn and Bacon’s “problematic and significant” question and Brief Writing Project #1 from our book. There are several problems with them. One is the definition of “problematic and significant,” which I’m not sure I fully understand from having read Chapter 1 multiple times. I’ve tried to put it [...]

Following on our class discussion about incorporating the theory that we’ve read: I do feel like the bar has just been set much higher. I want to do a good job of teaching, and I had thought that just getting through this first semester with a cohesive strategy (co-opted entirely from the AB Guide) would [...]