Thank You

Dear Professor Anderson-Lain, Amber, Angelica, Cheri, Ciel, Felicity, Gabby, Jen, Madie, Payton, and the second year TAs who won’t see this, 

            I was going to write a letter to all of the scholars that we read throughout the course of the semester, thanking them for all they taught me, but in all honesty I didn’t really want to. Yes they all taught me a lot of things but I think about my experiences in the classroom that I have had all semester and I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have been able to do it without all of you. Even all of the things that we learned in our readings this semester wouldn’t have been able to make any sort of sense had I not broken it down with all of you during class and in the space. Thank you all for teaching me so much and making this a semester a time that I won’t ever forget.

            I’ve spent some time looking at all my other blog posts trying to figure out how I could best wrap it all up. This has been the semester of self-reflection, a time where I have realized that in order to be the best that I can be I have to constantly be reflective over the choices I make in the position I possess. For that, I do have to give a big shout out to Frierre, hooks, and Fasstt & Warren, for helping to really clarify the importance of self-reflection. But with every act of self-reflection that I did engage in, I almost always had questions. Things that I wasn’t sure about, things I thought I may have done wrong, and concerns if I was even thinking about the right things. I think it was Palmer who talked about how vulnerable of a job being a teacher is and boy is he right, it is scary as shit being up there. I had all of these fears and all of these questions, and I couldn’t ask any of these scholars what they thought, but I could always turn to all of you. No matter what concern I had, no matter what stupid question I could think of, you were all always there for me. I learned so much from all of you individually and I’ll never be able to express how grateful I am for that. 

            I guess I’ll also take a minute to say thank you to all my students, because I have to give them credit as well. In my journey to learn what the hell teaching is, how to create a positive classroom environment, and to navigate the world of communication pedagogy they were right there with me. I hope I was able to teach them even a fraction of what they taught me. I think the drive to make them co-teachers in the classroom truly worked, as I never stopped learning from them, and I hope for as long as I teach that I will always learn as much from my students as I did in this one semester. I would also like to give the biggest stand alone thank you to Professor Anderson-Lain, for being an amazing teacher and role model. There was never a moment where I felt like I couldn’t come to you or that you didn’t have my back. I don’t think there's anyone in the department that feels like they can’t come to you, and that’s quite wonderful. Thank you for guiding us this semester and for making us feel like we are exactly where we are supposed to be. 

            So this may not be the correct way to write this blog post and I don’t apologize for that. Using this post to thank you all for everything that you have done for me only seems fitting. I feel like I have gained a family through this semester of teaching and it’s a family that I’ll never forget. I am so proud of us for getting through this but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that we wouldn’t. I know that I learned so much from all the readings that we did this semester but I will always know that I learned the most from all of you. I look forward to what the next three semesters have to bring, and to all the new things that we will teach each other along the way. So here’s to us, the teachers that Professor always knew we were. Thank you all, and HAPPY TEACHING.

Lots of Love,

Jonathon Tolj