Playing to strengths

I like to run my classes with lots of discussion and student participation. To that end, I always have a somewhat substantial grade for participation in my classes, whether they're lit or writing. So far at Heartland U (my new pseudonym for my school), I have been having to drag responses out of my students. I'm not sure if it's because a majority of my students are first years and are unsure of what's expected at college or if it's because a lot of students are just used to being lectured to. But I'm trying all sorts of things. Group work was the first. Today, I had the lit kids write for 15 minutes at the beginning of class so they'd have something to contribute. The latter worked better than the former. Some people respond well to group work and some don't. Seems like these kids are better off if they have something in front of them to read off of. Fine. I can deal with that as long as they participate.

I also decided that I was going to rearrange my schedule in my lit class. It seemed like everyone, yours truly included, was struggling with Alice in Wonderland. It wasn't because I didn't like it. I did. It was because I am less familiar with it than I'd like to be, and that made for some insecurity on my part. Added to the fact that students simply weren't responding to my attempts at discussion, I felt like we were going to have some significant problems. Up next was The Hobbit -- another book I've never taught, and frankly, have never read until now. In talking to a colleague today, I decided that it would be better for all of us if I rearranged the schedule in order to teach The Hunger Games series before The Hobbit. I don't like doing that. It mucks up the schedule in a lot of ways and makes life more difficult, but I also feel like I need to play to my strengths if all of us are going to get more engaged in the class. And really, who can resist those books? In fact, one of my students told me after class that she started reading The Hunger Games (book 1) and couldn't put it down -- finished it in a day and a half. Now that's the kind of passion I like to hear about. I'm hoping the rest of the class will follow suit.

So I'm trying to be flexible. It only makes sense to me to do things that will make me (and the students) less crazy.

Tomorrow, I get my first mini-portfolios in from my Intro students, and I'm curious to see what they've come up with. I'll have a bunch of grading coming in over the next couple of days. 101 papers come on Tuesday. I'll have plenty to do. I also have to create a sample syllabus for a new Renaissance class I'm proposing and get it to my chair by Monday, so we can discuss it in our department meeting on Tuesday. I'm particularly excited about this class, so it's a pleasure to dig in. Gosh - it just feels so good to be able to create something for the department and have my opinion respected -- have it count, officially. It's such a change from being an adjunct. I can't really say how happy it makes me.

I asked hubby yesterday if he could tell that I was happier now since school started. His eyes got wide and his voice dropped an octave. "YES," he said. It's true. I've never been more professionally happy in my whole life. Sure, there's stress right now, but man. What a good problem to have. And I'm only six days away from my first big-girl paycheck. I can't wait.

All this feels fantastic. Perhaps the bloggosphere will tire of my shit-eating grin; it feels permanently attached right now. Huzzah!