Wrap It Up #punintended #sorryforbeinginappropriate

Here is my final grad school meme for the blog.  Overall I'd say this blog was very helpful in relieving stress, sharing ideas, listening to my colleagues stories, and also getting to know y'all better.  Gross warning: I am appreciative of all the time and effort y'all have given and I really value the posts and comments. Now let's talk about this past semester... This one has been a hard one.  I was told that last semester (Spring 2016) was supposed to be my hardest semester because I took the three most extensive classes.  That was a funny joke because thus far, this semester has been my hardest.  Between being on campus 7 days a week, adjusting to being a 3010 TA, and having an existential crisis about my fem crit paper (and life), I have definitely had the semester from hell.  I am thankful for the experiences however I am SO GLAD this semester is over.

In my first blog, I discussed the student from hell.  I shared my story about my student who was acting weird in class and eventually was banned from campus.  In retrospect this is something that will stick with me for a long time.  I did not think it would, however to this day (the last day of 1010 classes for me) I was still afraid and unsure if the student would show up again.  Overall, I am thankful for the safety of my students and myself, however I hope that an incident like that never happens again.  I tied in Palmer (2007) and his teachings to my experience which even applied in the final paper that's due in t-minus 14 minutes.

In my second blog, I focused my topic on fear within the classroom.  Again, my student from hell experience tied into what I was talking about but I also realize that I overcame my fear.  I talked about my fear of losing the safe space within my classroom because of my student from hell.  I am proud to say I overcame that.  I went into my final lectures (performance and language, culture, and power) with some anxiety about how the classroom dynamic would be.  My students put my fears to rest as we talked about some social issues and charged conversations with no interruptions, no hesitation, and best of all no fear of safety.

In my third blog, I talked about motivation.  Honestly this wrap-up post keeps getting more and more funny as I reflect on what I wrote and how I feel right now.  It's the end of the semester and my motivation is gone.  At this point I am getting my final grades and final paper stuff turned in and then crawling to the next thing that is due.  I talked about our trip to NCA and how refreshing it was.  When I look back at the semester I realize (just like last semester) that I needed to manage my time better.  I'll try again next semester.

In my fourth blog, I talked about my experience within my two 1010 classes when one class was on top of their group presentations and did an amazing job, and the other class did not "understand" the directions.  Overall the point of my blog that week was to highlight the differences within my classes and to remind myself (and others) that each class has different personalities so even though you might give both classes the same information, it is going to get interpreted differently.

In my fifth and final blog, I discussed race.  I focused on this topic because of the language, culture, and power lecture that was coming up.  Overall I am really happy with the way things went this semester compared to last semester.  I structured my performance lecture differently which ended up situating the conversation to flow into the language, culture, and power lesson.  I am definitely making mental notes of how I will carry these positive teaching moments into the next semester.

All in all, even though it took me a few weeks to get started on this blog, I am happy that this was an assignment.  It was a fun, creative way to synthesize the readings as we went along and then compare them to our own experiences.  It was also super beneficial to me to read what my peers wrote and learn from their experiences as well. WE ARE DONE:) (besides Eastside coming up on Tuesday)


#youdoyou