I Love Teaching Freshman Comp!

My colleagues used to think I was crazy when I requested as many first-year writing classes as I could get. Many semesters, that was the only course I taught, and certainly I have taught more semester hours of that than any of the other courses I've taught. It's challenging because students enter college at different levels of writing; this makes it difficult to maintain the interest of those at higher levels while not completely by-passing those at the lower levels. (Teaching introductory literature has its own unique challenges, ones that I prefer to avoid.) For the most part, the students are humble and perhaps even a little frightened. This class, more than any other, is a prerequisite for most other courses, so students come to me "fresh" -- not having taken other college classes -- and with that comes a lot of responsibility for me. I play a big role in determining whether they stay in college, and I take that role seriously.

But it isn't all somber study in my classes. I like to joke around with my students, and once they've figured out that I have a sense of humor, they lighten up a bit too. This doesn't mean we don't take the work seriously; we definitely do. But if we can have fun at the same time, what's wrong with that? I love ushering my students from a high-school mentality into critical thinking and writing. I swear, sometimes I can see the moment the switch flips. It's amazing. Of course, that the ideal. It doesn't always happen. For the most part, though, I have the chance to see them transform from surface readers to critical analyzers (I'm not sure that's a word, but "analysts" doesn't seem to be what I'm going for either.) My students know I care about their success, and that makes them try harder and gain confidence in what they're doing.

I knew when I resigned my full-time college teaching position a few years ago that I wouldn't be able to stay away long. This might sound trite, but I believe it's what I was born to do. Teaching part-time allows me to avoid a lot of (but not all) the crap with administration that drove me out before. It will always be there; however, I am only there for two classes, and one is on a Saturday when no one is on campus. It's a pretty good gig.