The Joy of Teaching

As a community college teacher that teaches several developmental and one particular college level course, it is quite rare to have students more than two times.  The students also come from all colleges and all majors and since many of my courses are developmental I have a wide range of abilities, ages, and backgrounds.   Many of the students want to just get through the courses to get to “real’ courses or at least get to something they really need or peaks their interest.
 
This past school year I experienced a high point in my teaching.  I had a small group and they took three courses together from me over the last two semesters.  Two developmental courses and then the college level non-algebra based mathematics course required for their majors.  This small group developed a learning community that inspired me as a teacher.  This small group of students through the leadership of one particular student developed a true “community of learners”.  They met on a daily basis for an hour before class and helped each other with stuff from the previous day or tried to guess what I would assign later that day and get ahead.  When a student skipped a class, they would give them a hard time and “shame” them into attending.  If a student had an emergency and missed, the others would pitch in get them caught up.  This was a special group and I doubt they realize the special things they accomplished.  I will never forget this group.  

This entry was posted on Monday, June 19th, 2006 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.