Since I am teaching for ENG 249: Introduction to Technical Communication for the first time this semester, I want a few of my blog posts this semester to be about my experience teaching the class. Day One was a bit of a disaster, what with faulty technology and the like, but after talking to my adviser, I realized I was catastrophizing the first day. Things are actually going really great so far.
I have taught intermediate-level classes before in the form of writing electives and literature sequences, but had not yet been afforded the opportunity to teach Technical Communication, so this is a big deal to me! I was a bit nervous, and still am. The student demographics are not so nerve-racking, but teaching a course with content new-to-you is always makes me a bit nervous. One thing I have noticed, though, is that student interactions with me are more substantial in content and purpose, but not necessarily frequency. Now, instead of students coming up to me and asking me about due dates and preparing me for upcoming absences they are asking me to share course content-related articles and resources; they want to talk about privacy and ethics and identity and they want to do so not because they have to take an FYC course or because some obscure writing elective is required for their major, but because they want to learn more about those things and technical communication. They share my interests. Some, I dare say, even share my passion. So, I want to relay two quick stories which might double as anecdotes that happened to me in my first two weeks teaching tech comm.
So, I hope you enjoyed those two tidbits from my experience teaching tech comm so far. I’ll check in in a few weeks with another tech comm focused blog post. If you would like a PDF of the Tech Time Assignment sheet, reach out to me via email [email protected].
1 Comment
8/30/2019 08:56:52 am
I love to see positive reflection. The fact that you took the time to think and blog about your teaching really shows how invested you are. Keep up the good work and you'll have plenty of readers.
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Charles WoodsPhD student focusing on Rhetoric, Composition, and Technical Communication at Illinois State University. Archives
October 2019
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