So, this is the end of yet another semester. One of these days I will have to change jobs because it is just too hard to let these students go and think that I will never see them enter my classroom and look at me like I know what I'm doing. I have to say that I am probably the luckiest teacher on earth and that I am now having the best time of my life teaching those 106i classes! I don't know of anyone else who told me that they had such wonderful students and loved to teach as much as I do.
This last week has been quiet and easy, for me, at least, since my students were starting to panic about their last paper and the coming finals in their other classes. I tried to give them as much help and time and encouragements as I could and not to make this final paper a nightmare for them. On Monday and Tuesday, I talked to each student individually about his or her paper and tried to give some useful feedback. I have been wondering whether those conferences are useful, though. I spend about 20 minutes to each student and that's enough to go over a draft and make a few comments and answer a few questions, but at the same time, I feel like I am repeating the same things over and over, and in the end, I am mostly giving encouragements for 15 minutes. This time, fortunately, enough papers were still not good enough that I felt that I was not wasting everyone's time and the final draft did show major improvements. I guess individual help is what matters the most, because I could say certain things five times in class, some students will still not have understood what I meant or what they had to do. I got upset with one student in particular, who, the day before the final paper was due, instant messaged me to ask me about a very easy APA question. I told him that we had discussed that about ten times in class, that I had written examples of that on the board, that other students had asked the same questions, and that he had to have the APA manual and was supposed to have learned how to use it. To that student's "Yes but I am so confused sometimes!" answer, I replied that it was no longer the time to ask for help and that he should have asked me or one of his classmates earlier if he was confused about something. Ensued a long conversation about the importance of asking for help at the time when you need it and not to wait until the last minute or let problems and questions accumulate. This is a student that I have tried to help very carefully since the beginning of the semester and who has rarely paid attention in class or during conferences, who has accepted my extra help but probably never realized that it was
extra, and waits until the end of the semester to tell me that he has not learned much in my class because he was
sometimes confused. I think that student learned a little, still, but that situation always starts my inner conflict of how can I reach EVERYONE and not let them figure things out by themselves and give them all the support their need so that I don't "forget" a few students here and there, vs. I am only their teacher and not their mother, it is their responsibility to listen to the instructions in class, do their homework, and ask if they need help.
On Wednesday, we had a last peer review session. I had told the students to bring an "almost final" draft and they did. They exchanged papers and were instructed to look for difference in organization, format, grammar, and ideas between their own paper and the ones they were reading and to discuss these differences and verify who was right or wrong. Again, this is a time when that student I was writing about above should have seen that references looked different on other people's papers and could have asked for classmates' opinions on how to do things, but didn't. The other students did, however, and consequently avoided several small mistakes that would have cost them much. Of all the peer review sessions, that one worked the best, I think. While they were doing that, I was very quickly reading one of their copies and making a few last comments here and there. The final drafts were initially due on Wednesday, but I gave them an extra day and they needed it!
On Thursday, everyone turned in his or her paper. They gave me only their final draft and nothing else, because I wanted to grade everything quickly and didn't want to look at previous drafts and the sources they used, or anything else, since I had already worked a lot on their previous drafts. I also told the students that I would simply give them a final grade on the paper and no feedback, unlike what I did on the previous papers, but that if they wanted some feedback from me, they were welcome to come to my office and grade their paper together with me after class. This had worked very well with my students from previous semester but I had asked them to make an appointment with me. This semester, however, I simply told them that they were free to drop by at any time in my office that afternoon between 3:30 and 5:30. The result was that nine students came (out of fourteen!) and some waiting up to an hour or maybe even more for their turn! This just shows me how sincerely interested in their learning those students were and I feel very honored by their attention and dedication. So I spent the whole afternoon grading papers together with students and loved it, although I had almost lost my voice by the end of the afternoon, which was just when we were supposed to have the last movie night!
But anyway, going back to that Thursday class. After everyone had turned in his or her paper, we had a long discussion about the semester. I had brought little chocolates wrapped in papers of different colors and had everyone take one. Then I said that the students with the silver paper had to start making comments, because I didn't want the class to remain silent or the usual speakers to be the ones to talk, for once but everyone to have a chance to participate in the discussion. At first, the designated students just made a few kind comments, but after a while, the discussion was rolling and we talked about several interesting things. I especially wanted to know what they had liked or not, and what they would think I should change next time I teach that class. Here are some of the comments that were made (one student or several who also agreed):
- They learned about writing but also about the English language;
- they would have liked to learn more about the research techniques, especially when they had to do the interview (which is something I have indeed done better in the past and will do better in the future);
- they would have liked to spend more time learning about persuasive writing;
- they needed more help with APA throughout the whole semester and not just toward the end;
- they liked to be able to say that they were writing a "research paper;"
- they didn't want me to grade some of their drafts (and indeed, I only did that twice, to motivate the students who were doing a very poor job, but quickly noticed that it didn't change a thing, the good students kept doing well and the less good students kept doing poorly);
- they liked the movie nights but wanted more "educational" movies (that surprised me, because I thought the movies I had chosen were too educational!) and also more flexible times (which is not really practical since I have to reserve the room once and for all on a certain day and time every week at the beginning of the semester);
- they liked to learn about one another cultures;
- they thought that writing about one topic only was fine and not too boring because they could see how they became better experts in one area;
- they would have liked a little more grammar in class.
Overall, they all seemed quite happy with the way the semester has gone, and I must say again that things went so well for me that I don't have one complaint to make! On Friday, after I returned the papers of those who hadn't come to my office, I shortly talked to my students about a few things, but I wasn't too happy with the way it went, because we were interrupted by the teacher who was going to give the teacher evaluations to my class. I was still able to say to my students that they should keep writing and reading, that they needed to ask for help whenever they needed help and that their teachers were usually happy to help, that I would always be available for them, that they should keep in touch, and that they should work twice as hard as American students and then go back to their countries which needed them. I wanted to tell them how much I had enjoyed teaching them... but didn't get a chance to do that. I then left class, and came back later, after the evaluations were done, to take many pictures of the students who had not already left. I will put all the pictures online for all to see. As for grades, I am quite happy, it looks exactly like last semester, about half-half, and I noticed that 6 out of fourteen students had never missed a single day of class or had never been late more than twice, so I gave those students a few points of extra credit.
The only negative points of that end of semester is that I realize I could have spent a little more time and energy being "a mom" to some students who were struggling with their final exams, not sleeping and eating enough, and panicking. I have talked to a few students, and that has been good, but I wish I had had the time and energy to do more. Three students said that they were happy I had been there for them because it was the time they needed their mom the most, to tell them to sleep, eat, breathe, study, take breaks, etc. I used to do that a lot more with everyone when I was teaching the TOEFL class, and I'll try to do this a little better in the future. Something else that happened and really messed up my perfect end of semester is that the one student who had appeared in the middle of the semester and then had disappeared after a week wrote me an email saying that he would be in my summer 106i class to "complete the incomplete." I was ready to give him an F since he had attended class 10 days only and I had never heard from him since, so several not so nice conversations took place and I still don't know what is going to happen, but one thing is sure: I will not take him in my summer section! Tony, as usual, backed up my decision, and said that it would be impossible for me to give a student an Incomplete and say, in the "requirements to complete the class and get a full grade," that he needed to "retake the whole class" without the Dean of Students' permission. Given the fact that I must turn in my grades on Monday, I wonder if that will be possible. That student is scaring me and has disappointed me and angered me so much that I really hope he finally disappears from my life. Other than that, I am already working on the pages for our class website for this summer, since it is now official that I will teach (12 students registered so far), and at the same time, I already have meetings next week for next fall's 106r class, so it's a lot of planning! I still need to think about what I want to change or add from this semester's syllabus, but one thing seems to be sure already: I will keep the feedback blog but will add the "comment" function so that I can ask specific questions to my students even when I don't have access to the blog, for student privacy reasons. As for the schedule, it will change a lot too, since we'll only have seven weeks instead of 15 and two hours of class every day! Wow, I am already excited about this next class!
