Day Four - Don't Let Your Failures Obscure Your Successes

By: Deanna Babcock on 11:38 PM

Sometimes, as I've already mentioned, it's hard to explain something to a student. I had trouble with a student today who was struggling to understand what I was trying to say about her topic sentence being inconsistent with the rest of the paragraph. I came home feeling a bit bummed, thinking that I'd failed with that student. It was my failure, I thought, to get my point across - and maybe it was. I'm not sure how else I could have explained it: I said it at least three different ways, gave specific examples, and tried rephrasing it for her, but by the time I had to walk away to help another student, we were both somewhat frustrated with the encounter.

While telling a friend about how the class went overall, she reminded me that while this particular moment was unsuccessful, there were also many that were successful. I was focusing so much on what had had gone wrong with one student that I forgot to be excited about all the times that went right. 

Today was the first time I got to actually read students' work and directly help them. I was nervous at first, moving slowly toward one group of students, but still hanging off to the side, as the professor moved from one group to the next on the other side of the room. I waited for someone who looked like they needed help, but nothing came. The professor was already almost to my side of the room when I finally approached a group who seemed to be doing fine - and they all looked so relieved to see me and immediately began asking questions. It gave me the confidence to walk up to other groups and do the same, and I was met with the same reaction every time. It was really fun, and I excelled at answering the questions and clarifying points for the students (apart from the previously mentioned incident). 

My favorite thing about the day was after answering a question, or telling a student they were doing it right even though they thought they weren't. I'd seen the look they gave me many times over the years from other students in my classes, and I'm sure I've made the same face several times: the look of understanding, of relief that you finally get it, that you're doing it right. It was great to see that look being aimed at me so many times. Though I haven't done much actual teaching yet, in those moments I felt, finally, like a teacher.

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Day Three - Explaining What You Know

By: Deanna Babcock on 10:56 PM

This post is related to the previous post, in which I discussed the revelation I had that students have to start somewhere, and therefore do not always have the same skills as a more advanced student. I noted that the students were asked to list 10 facts from their chosen articles, which would be used to write summaries.

Today they were asked to write a brief paragraph summarizing their articles, utilizing their lists of facts (though the professor never explicitly made this connection for them). As soon as everyone began writing, the professor stepped into the next room to take care of something for an individual student, leaving me alone with the class. After a brief moment of panic, I realized it was no big deal. If anyone needed help, I knew how to write a summary, so I could handle it.

I stood in front of the class for a bit, waiting for a raised hand or confused face, and it didn't take long before the first student looked up at me, waiting for me to come to her aid. Her question was fairly simple: "Can we use the list of facts we wrote?" I not only answered with a simple "yes," but also demonstrated ways in which she could use the most important of those facts. She seemed far less confused, and I walked back to the front of the room feeling confident in my ability to help these students.

This continued for a while, with one student occasionally raising a hand or looking at me with a baffled expression until I came to them. The questions were all basically easy for me to answer: "What if my article doesn't have an author?" "She told us to include ____, but I didn't write it in my list. Do I still write it in the summary?" "What are we supposed to be doing again?"

While I knew the answers to each question, I was sometimes unsure whether I was communicating them well. I asked one student at least twice if what I was saying made sense, but he said it did, so I stopped worrying so much. I stumbled a bit at first with each student, hoping that what I was saying wasn't over their heads, but I soon found my footing and realized that I needed to explain it in ways they could understand. I mostly did this by keeping it conversational, by not panicking about being wrong or not making sense. I did exactly what I told some of them to do with their summaries: explain it as if a friend asked. The worry about doing something wrong seemed to ease - both for them and for me. I knew the answers to every question I was asked, without any doubt that I was wrong; my concern was how to answer the questions. But once I relaxed, I excelled, and the students seemed more confident in completing their assignments.

My favorite part of the day was when the professor came back into the room, but the students still defaulted to me for most of their questions (unless they were about the course in general). The professor is very nice and approachable, and it's clear she wants to help her students, so it wasn't intentional avoidance of her in favor of someone nicer or more helpful. It gave me a huge boost of confidence that they trusted me to answer their questions, plus it was fun, so I really hope they continue asking me for help throughout the semester!

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