Last week in my writing class, my students were lamenting my request that they make their essays a little longer than a page or page and a half. I remarked that the more you write, the more you tend to write. For me as well as for a lot other writers, I’m sure this is true.

I started out scratching my head after a paragraph, wracking my brains for something more to fill up the page. Now, I have trouble keeping the length of my articles short. I’m often surprised at how much I’ve written in just a few minutes of pounding the keys. OK, time to get rid of some needless words…

I admit that I was anxious about this at first. I was told to be prepared to lecture on a topic for half an hour and then assign my students a task that they could work on while she and I spoke about my teaching. I really wasn’t sure what to expect. My first impression of this department was that it was fairly formalized and rigorous. I assumed I would be expected to stick to the provided syllabus to a tee.

This was hard for me to do. I had problems with it from day one as the syllabus, though well-written and put together for the most part, just didn’t suit my teaching style very well. Also, I felt that, at this level, the language and structure of the syllabus and curriculum as designed, were a little too technical for the typical student taking this course. Keep in mind, this is a developmental course designed to prepare students for college level composition, that is, comp 101.

So, I decided to lecture for a bit on a grammar topic. I’m expected to inject a little grammar into each lesson without beating students over the head with it. I try to keep it brief and interactive and then go right back into writing so that they can apply whatever principle they’ve just learned or had refreshed.

The department head arrived early as I was having my students workshop their papers with each other and I was going around the room and assisting. I then warned her that my style was pretty casual and that I usually didn’t spend a whole lot of time on grammar. She said that was fine and that I could do whatever I usually did.

With that said, I went into a relatively short discussion of point of view. We talked about the importance of consistency and how it could be okay to switch point of view, but it had to be done consciously and with a purpose. During this time, I kept up my usual way of engaging with the class: I called on them by name and teased them a little when necessary to get them to take part in the discussion.

When I was finished, I let the students take a short break while my department head and I spoke about my teaching. I was prepared to be critiqued, but was surprised to find that she actually liked my style. She said my students liked me and that the class was involved. I was also relieved to hear that it was ok for me to change the syllabus and drop some of the busy work.

It’s funny that she asked me if I was going to teach next term and I responded with some reluctance. I had been thinking that I might take some time off from teaching in order to take a breather and also spend some time on other things. Her reaction was that I definitely should teach next term and keep teaching in the future.

After this, I found it hard to say no and it looks like I’ll be teaching this class again next term. Teaching is a lot of work and takes a great deal of effort. In a way, it’s easy for me, but it’s still takes time and energy that I sometimes wish I could devote to other things (like writing). All in all, I have to say that the experience of teaching college students over the last couple of years has been a good one for me and very valuable to my own development, as a person and as a writer. I’m glad I’ve done it and I will most likely continue teaching for a while.

Every time I teach a new class, I try to start out by using the materials that are provided by the department. I first attempt to follow whatever curriculum they’ve outlined so that I make sure I cover everything that was intended to be taught. The problem with this, though, is that I’ve found that most curriculums as set up aren’t very compatible with my teaching style.

First, let me say that I tend to be a pretty laid back instructor. I like my classes to be sort of an open, casual dialogue with very little lecturing. I usually place the most emphasis on class discussions and exercises that reinforce the topic of the class. This has worked well for me in the past and continues to work well now.

For this writing class, I spent the first few weeks sweating over trying to follow the syllabus. Then I gave in to my instincts. I stopped doing the things that I didn’t feel supported the goal of the class. If it didn’t contribute to the development of better writing skills, it was dropped. I feel this approach is the best for a couple of reasons. One, it allows both instructor and students to focus on the main goal of the class and two, it tends to lower the overall workload for everyone involved.

I’m amazed at how much busy work I’ve had to trim off the classes I’ve taught. There was a class in information technology fundamentals, a very basic introductory course, that included a major project using the MS Access database. The first time around I had the students do this project and found that they had a great deal of difficulty. After some thought, I decided that it really had no place in this course and was only put in there as an afterthought to make the course more challenging.

The problem with that was that the course didn’t need to be more challenging. It needed to be more focused on its goals. If the students needed to learn about Access, then they should take a database class. Returning the focus to just the basics allowed me to teach the students better and make much more efficient use of the time available.

When I sit down to plan a lesson now, the first thing I do is to ask myself what’s the goal of this class? Every course should have a goal, usually listed as course objectives in the college catalog. Each class meeting within that course, then, should contribute in some way to that overall goal. Teaching has become much easier for me with this in mind.

One of these is English Punctuation: Commas, Semicolons, and Colons from Learningnerd. I found this article to be a great refresher as I’m currently teaching a developmental writing course to college students. My students have varying levels of competence in writing, but I’ve been very pleased with their progress so far. One of the difficulties that I’m having, though, is explaining some of the grammar rules.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the feeling of just knowing a word, phrase, or sentence is incorrect. Something about it will just cry out to you that it’s wrong. The question is what’s wrong with it exactly and how do you explain that to someone else?

Since it’s been many years since I’ve had a real grammar lesson, it’s long past time for me to revisit the basics. Learningnerd’s post is a good start for this without having to resort to reading through a style manual. There are also many authoritative links included in the article for more information. Check it out for a good review of some of the basics of good writing.

I found out recently that I’ll be teaching a developmental writing course this fall at the college where I work. I’ll be putting that English degree to some use right away, it seems. I’m excited about the opportunity and I think it could lead to more and better things.

I’m continuing to run three days a week and it’s gotten much easier than the first couple of weeks. There’s no more soreness in my legs and only a little minor burning sensation above my knee. I’m hoping that goes away eventually, but I’m taking it pretty easy before I increase my mileage much.