This year I have been teaching for the first time. I am teaching first year undergraduates Old English. And it’s great! Except, you know, when it’s a pain. In this post I decided to write my thoughts about the best- and worst- things about teaching undergraduates.
The Best
- Those moments when your students get excited about something. Your talking about something fairly mundane- like editing Old English poetry- and all of a sudden something clicks. They’re into it. You can tell. They have questions and are tackling the big questions themselves—and they have opinions about it. Those moments are my favourite, it is those days when you walk out of your classroom feeling good.
The Worst
- On the flip side- those times when you are really excited about something, and they’re just …. not. You could be talking about something SUPER cool like Saint Cuthbert and they just don’t seem to engage. Maybe it’s too hot. Maybe they are thinking about lunch. Maybe you are just a boring person with boring interests. It’s hard to tell, but its always a bit insulting to find that the topics you are deeply interested in are lame.
The Best
- those kids that work so hard. Now, I guess most teachers probably have a soft spot for a teacher’s pet, but I have to admit: it feels good to read an essay a student took some time to write; it feels good to tell a student something and actually see them implement it! Even if a kid isn’t unusually bright but they work hard, they can normally do well.
The Worst
- That kid. You know the one I mean. The one that turns up late, or sometimes doesn’t even turn up at all. It seems like you always have one of those, right? In my case, let’s call him Mark. Mark is one of those guys who is smart and knows it—and somehow thinks that this is an excuse for never doing any work. It can be so infuriating to see students who have so much potential but just have a bad attitude. Really, Mark deserves his own post.
These are just a few of the things I could list. Any other teachers out there? Tell me: what do you love? What drives you nuts?!