Teaching - 12 weeks down!

Wow, how the time flew after those first few weeks! There were a few weeks there right in the middle where I thought I wasn't going to make it through the book and teach everything I need to teach, but we pushed hard and now the rest of the semester will be fairly smooth sailing. I had a total of 5 students drop the class and another 4 or 5 have stopped showing up, so I'm down to about 19 students. Unfortunately, of those 19, several are not going to pass this class and move on. I'm amazed at some of these students who actually think they will pass the class when they continually show up late, don't come to class, don't turn in work, and obviously don't read any of the chapters! Then I have the core group of students who are doing very well - and of course, they're the ones who worry about their grades, and they have absolutely nothing to worry about!

I do get frustrated with the students who think they can just slack off and do nothing. I gave my students grade updates, and I had a couple students who were failing. A couple of them dropped, but several stayed in the class, even showing up sporadically. I just don't get it. Either get to work or get out of the class! And the thing that really gets me is that although I am pretty strict, I do give a lot of extra credit and chances to improve your grade. I gave a quiz that was pretty tough for everyone - even my best students. So I gave everyone the chance to get full credit on the quiz by taking it home and completing it, and I gave them a week to do it. Surprising, not even half the class did it. Not surprising, my A and B students were the ones who did.

This is not to say that I don't enjoy teaching - I am still loving it, and I wish I could be doing this full time. It's so great that I get to help these students improve their English and writing skills. I put in my request for Fall 2010 - I can only request 2 classes because I'm part time, but I basically requested everything! The Department Chair did suggest that if I request 7am classes, I'll most likely get at least one class - no one wants 7am! I am so not a morning person, but I've gotten used to it, and I know my students wonder how I can be so awake that early! I wonder sometimes, myself. Still no word on whether there's a class for me in Spring - keeping my fingers crossed!