My central mantra for what I do is that I should be able to take pride in my work. That is something I find quite difficult in these blogs alone, which do not have an instructional push to engage with the text, and sometimes it is difficult to see how it might engage with the text we are assigned (not so for this one). Time constraints and discipline (which I prefer to say instead of motivation) also make putting forth my best effort a challenge.

The desire to take pride in work is something I try to encourage in all my students—when I see a dancer rushing through a step, I remind them that every point of motion needs to be appreciated, and there ought to be some genuine joy taken in the expression of each part of the step. Likewise, I would hope in teaching composition, I would hope that the students could find a joy in each part of the writing process, but the way schools are structured seems to make this impossible—Bartholomae is right that we are not in a utopia, no matter what kind of forced free writes Elbow does.

One area that I believe could be easily improved, is if there is a focus on asking for what one needs, rather than pointing toward what one sees wrong. Elbow’s response to Bartholomae, while ostensibly focusing on where they agreed, uses a ton of negative language “my only reservation” “isn’t feasible” “nothing I’ve said” “we mustn’t pretend” “I am not,” and squeezed in there he points out that Bartholomae’s “arguments are mostly negative” (87-88). All of that is in his very first paragraph, where Elbow’s focus is, again, on the points he and his colleague are in agreement. What would help is a statement of direct requests (or as direct as possible) to help the reader and students understand what the instructor expects. When someone says “I don’t want you to chew your food loudly!” they leave themselves open to all sorts of other loud annoyances that could be handled by a direct statement of “I’m feeling frazzled by loud noises now, would you mind being quiet while I’m in the room today?” Of course, that level of communication takes time to build in our culture where telling someone no is often easier than explaining a need, which can result in a level of vulnerability.

In Heather’s class yesterday, I was extremely stressed, not because of the class, but because of a multitude of issues regarding housing appointments, teaching dance, my writing groups, and being worried about getting my RAB and group presentation. At the start of the class, I was open and told them I was having a bad day, but was glad to be with them since teaching is something I love, and that I would do be my best for them. Many times during that class I asked people to please focus and help me with my day, and they listened right away. This gave me the feeling that my vulnerabilities and needs were being listened to, and I believe it gave the students a positive sense of power in that they could improve my quality of life through class participation.

Overall, my main focuses in teaching are direct communication, and encouraging people to be proud of what they can accomplish. The clarification I would offer to my fear of Elbow saying “Aha! But Bartholomae would say your students cannot produce their own work!” is that I believe Bartholomae merely suggests we are aware of the context in which we learn, which does not negate the effort students put into even the most structured of assignments.