Second 8-Week English Classes

The start of my second 8-week English classes has been busy for me to say the least. I am now teaching four sections of English 111 (Think:  English 101) for two different community colleges and in three different locations, serving very different populations. Two are standard courses, with students coming to class regularly, and two are hybrid, where more work is required online.

Each class is at different points in the course, and each school wishes the class to be taught slightly different. So, although I am teaching the same course, they all feel fairly different. Still, I am learning a lot about the craft of teaching, as I scurry around to each place, trying to meet the demands of my students and my superiors. 

Here are a few of my observations:

• One English class meets everyday, so I never have to worry about leaving out something, because I know I can always get to it the next day. 
• One class meets three days a week for two hours at a time. This is a great chunk of time to work with. I try not to lecture for too long, as students can't just sit idly by for two hours. I try to break things up with group activities/discussion. Because this class is two hours long each day, we usually have plenty of time to consider the ideas we are going over through discussion time. 
• My hybrid classes meet for a shorter period each week, so the discussion must continue outside of the classroom, through online components/assignments. Keeping the discussion going online is not easy to do, and students desire to stay in the discussion varies quite a bit from student to student, even on graded material. 
• The struggle over all of these classes is to make sure that roughly the same amount of material is covered, even when the different formats and time allotted makes this difficult. 

It is said that teaching is a craft and a calling. Now that I have a few years experience under my belt, I can see this is especially true. A big part of teaching is coming up with a great plan, gathering good materials to go along with that plan, but also having the sponteneity to change the plan and go with the flow at times. Maybe this is where teaching becomes less like a craft and more like an art? There have been times in class where students get into a discussion or concept I did not plan on them enjoying so much. That is not the time to speed up, and rush to the next thing - to follow the plan. Instead, that is the time to slow down and let the students steer the discussion. I do not know specifically how that fire gets lit, but when it does, I feel good about stoking it, and making it last a bit longer.