epic fail.

[areleejensen]

Of all the professions in the world, teaching seems to be one that is the most perpetually crushing.

In the past two days I have spent about 10 hours carefully grading and giving feedback to students on their papers. I'm not a grammar pen, I actually write out paragraph responses to the papers I receive. I am an excellent grader - I give impeccable

Comments

[miettemonster]

You know, I don't think it is you. Writing/English classes can be hard to follow for some people mostly because it is filled with abstract ideas. If the negative feedback (being spacey, hard time following) was less than a third of the class, I would assume those are students who may have ADD or are more concrete thinkers.
And as for the questions about assignments and the answers can be found on the syllabus, well I chalk it up to stupid people. That used to happen in my nursing classes all the time! Drove me nuts! People not reading or following the discussion and asking questions that the teacher just answered! Believe me it's frustrating for the other students as well.
Hang in there. You'll find your groove.

[alphabetsoop]

Chin up, love. I agree with the above comment wholeheartedly. Teaching is tricky stuff, but it sounds like you are doing all the right things. The hardest part of teaching for me is learning to accept that I can't be everyone's favorite (or most-effective) teacher. I wish that I could--I definitely strive to be--and it stings every time I realize that I'm not clicking with a kid. Next time you give an eval (fantastic move, by the way), make sure that you tell your students that like grading papers, criticism is not helpful unless it is specific, and is rarely helpful unless suggestions for improvement are mentioned. HOW can you help them? What specifically are they not getting from you? Maybe these students simply prefer a more structured lecture class where prof talks, students listen, prof feeds test answers to students via lecture, etc. There isn't any real way of knowing, so try not to let it get you down too much. That said, coming from an education major, the way you're feeling is perfectly normal.

[areleejensen]

Thanks, that's top-drawer advice. Though it's pretty much impossible, I hate not being a life-changing teacher for every student that I have. I've had such excellent teachers and I do everything I can to model what works in their classes, but I'm also not them - I don't have their personalities, I have my own. I hope I'm at least opening some doors and giving some expert advice. But I've also discovered that some students like feeling smart and important more than actually learning - and I'm not going to waste my time with those little poops any more.

But heck you can be my favorite teacher.

[elle_cosette]

This paragraph:
"Like any teacher I spend hours coming up with useful assignments, specific and detailed assignment sheets, solid readings, and insightful lesson plans. I stay up at nights worrying about how my students are doing, what I can do to help them better, how I can get my expectations across, whether I'm being too hard on them, not hard enough, etc."

But hunny, that isn't "like any teacher." That's like only a few fantastic teachers--like you.

[shauna6pack]

Here's my two cents, from one English teacher to another...

Teaching isn't easy and it takes a while to settle into a teaching style. Having said that, I KNOW you are not the disaster you think they are thinking you are (that sentence sounded better in my head than how it came out). I think it is extremely probable you have a bunch of "young" students who don't know how to think critically and are taking their short-comings out on you. It is most likely you are requiring them to reach and stretch and they don't like it. You may be the first teacher who has required them to work.

Lastly, are you focusing on the negative comments and not letting the positive comments sink in? I am that way. I can have 10 positive comments and one negative comment and feel like a failure.

teaching

[scotland_37]

This is the best thing that i can tell you from my adolescence development class--(college students are still considered adolescents) You have to tell them something 7 times before they hear it, let alone register the comment. That should help you about all the homework questions. As a teacher, I posted due dates on the board, I refered to them everyday, emailed them out, and gave at least a weeks notice and I STILL had people look at me stupidly and say, "That's due today

Another thing...

[scotland_37]

one thing I started doing my second and third year teaching was I asked individual students, one on one, what I could do better or things that were going well. I asked nearly every student, (Except for the sleepers, and the kids I was repeatidly asking to get out of the garbage cans (yes, I did have those students)) and the advice/feedback I got back was two things: 1. polite, and 2. useful. It's harder to get into a bash the teacher session when the teacher is talking to you.