Mid-Term reflections went well. It was great to review the three essays all at once and see how each student has progressed. I guess the best part was really seeing that they had in fact progressed. Aside from improvements in format, pretty much everyone seems to be putting in some effort and coming up with more original theses, spending time thinking about the subject and even trying to put a new spin on their papers. I’m really happy overall.
In my colloquium section with Dr. Bradford, we’ve talked a lot about how what you discuss will be reflected in the papers, whereas the things you forget to mention will not magically appear. That certainly seems to be the case here. In the first essays I was really only looking for a thesis and some form of organization. That was the only thing I really got. After that I ramped it up a bit – asking for citation and quotation. They, for the most part, did it. I think that the third essays will be even better. I hope that everyone else is having a similarly positive experience.