I Survived My First Quarter of Teaching College!
At one point, survival felt literal
After not finding much luck in my job search after receiving a B.A. in English, I couldn’t justify getting a master’s degree in creative writing unless if I didn’t have to pay tuition. Then my dream come true: I did it! I was offered a graduate teaching assistantship!
…Which meant I was going to have to teach my very own class for 4 quarters despite not having experience teaching, despite being a somewhat shy and socially anxious person.
It’d be fine. Right? I’d be prepared when I got there.
However, the Director of Composition is on sabbatical this year and couldn’t train our year in the way students before us had been. I didn’t have a defined idea of what the class should look like, wasn’t even sure of the questions to ask. And I could have prepared more over winter break, but come on, my monthly paychecks are less than my rent. Could I please just have Christmas to myself? Plus, it was difficult to truly know how to prepare until it was real, until all of my students’ eyes were on me on the first day.
I was terrified to teach, and my students could tell. Feeling inadequate, I stressed over lesson planning, and usually put it off after all my other responsibilities, which, surprise, sacrificed the…
