Responding to student letters was a very large and very worthwhile task. At first I was only going to respond to a few students, but then I decided that the students were so kind and interesting that I owed them all a response. At about 15 minutes per student the task was overwhelming at first, however, I did learn a lot about the students.
One of the things I suspected about the students was that many would be multilingual. I did not realize that about half would be fluent in at least two languages. This is one of the reasons why CCNY is a very interesting campus. This linguistic diversity is both a huge asset and a challenge. I think this made me realize how much I need to consider learning more about working with ELL populations not as a way to supplement my teaching, but as something essential for my teaching.
I also was not surprised that over half of the students work. I think this is also an important characteristic of CCNY. Our students are busy, but they are also driven. This is where a thorough understanding of andragogy comes into play; learning must be self-directed and immediately applicable and relevant to the students' lives. They simply do not have the time to spend on tasks they do not think are very meaningful.
In addition to the challenge of finding the time to write a response letter to every student, I also found it challenging how to interpret the student data when so much information was embedded in the letters. I think I might consider doing a questionnaire for key information such as year in school, major, work, and languages spoken. I want to know the demographics of my students at a glance.
I decided that I am going to analyze both Professor Gleason's responses to letters and mine to create a comment guide for letters. This will include prompts for what to say when responding to student as well as resource lists for students based on their interests and advice based on their literacy challenges. This might be time consuming, but I anticipate I will use this guide every time I teach and will share it will others.
In general, I think that writing responses to these letters was extremely enjoyable. It made me develop an even deeper respect and appreciation for the students. It also built a stronger relationship between me and the students. Out of the 28 letters I wrote back, 6 students thanked me by email or in person for my thoughtful and honest response. That makes the hours worth it. One student even noted that my letter was her favorite commentary from a teacher she had gotten during her entire college career. These kind words exchanged between teacher and student are what sustains us in the strenuous world of teaching and learning. I would never begin a class without doing a letter of introduction exercise like this now that I have seen the powerful impact it has not only on the students, but on me as a teacher.
I am going to struggle a lot as a novice teacher and make a lot of mistakes. At least I know that I am good at building a rapport with students and that makes me feel like a strong, competent teacher even when my teaching performance might indicate otherwise.
My responses to all the students' letters are here.
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