The book, which began on a good and encouraging note, also ended with the same positive and uplifting outlook. As of right now, I don't know if I'm going to be a teacher/professor, and I see this job as a transition (but just because it's a transition, it doesn't mean that I'm going to be lackadaisical about it. I'm going to put effort, hard work and 300% energy and enthusiasm to it). Being a graduate instructor is a learning experience, and I might actually like it (who knows?). I'm going to do my best, besides I already bought the shoes for it (lol).
"Teaching composition may seem like a professional dead end, but as you do it, you learn a wide variety of skills that can prepare you for professions from librarian to corporate manager to, well, English professor" (162).
Skills
-Hone your writing skills by editing your students' papers and teaching writing concepts (writing coach, editors, ghost writers etc.)
-Pick up managing skills through planning and organizing classes and activities. "You may be young and feel that you're relatively untested, but how many people your age are responsible for twenty-five or fifty or a hundred college students? Taking on that responsibility is no mean feat" (165).
-Collaborative work/team work
-Reading and researching skills
-Personal people skills
-Computer skills and survival skills
Remember to connect, relate and integrate!
"For a writer, every experience offers potential material... To appreciate what we do, we must not feel that we're trapped in it; composition isn't a dead end but a path that can lead to a thousand places, including more composition" (171).
Always be professional!
I just caught up with your blog, Mike... great review of this teaching text (which I assume your new college sent you). Just wanted to waive hello and wish you all the best on your first day of teaching! And have a blast in graduate school; I know you're going to just love it.
Posted by: Mike Arnzen at August 7, 2007 10:16 PM