Monday, January 25, 2010

Dianna -- Meet Frustration! Frustration -- Meet Dianna!

A bit of aggravation. Like the MWF class, I was a bit nervous tonight, mostly because there was so much information to cover since we had the MLK Jr holiday last week and there was no class. So I am trying to cover everything the MWF class was trying to do AND come across as confident and “together”! I noticed right away that this class seemed a bit more hostile to the course theme and this was making me ever more nervous! (some folks had their eyes on the ground or just had that “bored” look on their faces). Somehow I stumbled through the class while keeping my enthusiasm up …. We went through a ton of material about the class culminating with a quick diagnostic essay response so that I could get an idea of what each student’s writing is like (I will give them some feedback and return it next week so they have a sense of what I am like as a writing teacher).

Because the grant provides each student with a Flash Drive, I asked them to save their work on their brand new Flash Drives after making a hard copy for me to read over the next few days. Many of the students had never used a Flash Drive before so I spent some time at the end of class working individually with the students who needed help with this. And all of a sudden it was 6:50, the end of the class. By 6:55 I was still working with students when the English instructor for the 7 PM class walked into the room. I didn’t notice her at first because I was trying to get my students out the door. I guess the English lab assistant must be enrolled in her class because she asked if she could erase the Whiteboard (where our class had earlier did some brainstorming). First, you have to know that I am not crazy about this student lab assistant. There’s a whole story there that I won’t get into but I was taken by surprise that she popped in (seemingly out of the blue!) and made this request – and then I noticed the next English teacher (an adjunct I have never met) standing there with her arms crossed. I apologized for running late and she didn’t say a word to me. Nada. Just stood there with her arms crossed. I got the last 2-3 students out of there as soon as I could but I hate feeling rushed like that, especially when someone is staring at me and seemingly thinking evil thoughts about yours truly.

So I am not sure this class was very successful. I couldn’t get a good sense of how the students felt. I hate that this class meets only once a week – but there’s always next week, eh?

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