There have been word(s) circling around the GTA office regarding the disappointment in the students on their second essays. Complaints containing questions, such as: why haven’t they gotten better? don’t they listen to my lectures? am I not teaching them correctly?
Now, I don’t know whether I am grading easier/lazier, or it has been my luck of the student draw pool, or I am the composition teaching messiah, or some other type of Florida magic spilling over onto me from the Magikal Kingdom––but, almost all of my student’s papers have gotten better by half a letter grade, if not a whole.
A part of me expected this to happen, and the other part is confused, because here is the thing: I don’t feel like I actually teach, and definitely don’t lecture. So what do I do? My classes fall into two usual categories: we’re either discussing, or we are doing some form of writing/reading. In both instances I try my best not to tell, but instead to ask. Me and my students end up having a conversation. No hand raising. Just shout it out when you know it!
So I wonder if we were to stop teach and were to start mediating: would we see better results? To be further determined.