Okay. So I started a co-op this week – me and my two homeschool children. I have to admit I had a great deal of anxiety going into this new endeavor. All of the contact I had had with the board members of the co-op leading up to this first week of classes led me to feel overwhelmed, unprepared, unqualified, and just plain anxious. I knew that being a part of this co-op was what God wanted me and my kids to do – never doubted it. But what a huge life change for us! My kids had no idea about due dates, doing things in a certain order, keeping pretty notebooks, and lots of other things that seem to be so very important to so many in the co-op.
I was signed up to teach 2 high school writing classes. Now, I have written since – well, ever since I can remember. But I’ve never actually taught a writing class per se. I’ve taught writing as a part of an English class that included literature and grammar, but never just writing. Oh, and I was informed that I would have to pick a text, write a course description and have a syllabus ready over the summer. A couple of weeks before co-op officially started, my kids began getting assignments emailed for them to have completed before the official first day of class. Yikes! I didn’t even really have a clue what I was going to teach and here were other teachers who not only knew what they were going to teach, but they knew exactly what day it would be – and quite possibly before classes even started.
I rolled up my sleeves and composed a letter to send to parents and future students that I thought might get me off the hook a little. I started it with the idea that writing just isn’t like math and science, and so my class would be by it’s very nature a little looser. And because I didn’t know anything about my students’ writing skills, we would deal with problems as they arose. Not to mention the fact that I had 9th through 12th graders in class together. . .
Well, I thought that might appease everyone involved. Basically, what I was saying was that I didn’t know what I was doing and I might not know what I was doing several months down the road. I was able to include a list of some different things we would be attempting to write (which was quite substantial, I might add). No, we’re not planning to write a novel – but just about everything else.
I elicited advice from my newly graduated son (who’s headed to college next week). Should I do the fun, fiction writing first and leave the possibly boring essays and research paper for later in the year or get the blah stuff out of the way first and end on a lighter note? He suggested doing the nonfiction first and leaving the fun stuff for later in the year. Actually, I’m hoping that all of it can be fun.
Oh well, I can truly say that I had a great time with my first 2 writing classes, and I hope my students did too. My goal for this first year is to encourage my students to view writing as something that can be an enjoyable way to express themselves; and that they will feel confident with their writing skills no matter what situation they find themselves – whether it be in college, a career, or in another high school class.
I’m just waiting for the mom to come to me and ask exactly when we will be composing a Shakespearean sonnet and how many outside sources her child will need to cite for the research paper. I may have to answer her in all honesty that I have doubled up on my anti-anxiety medication and that maybe she should think about doing the same. Do you think I might not get invited back to the co-op next year? I really do hope that they do ask me to come back, because I truly do like teaching kids to write. I just think it needs to be fun.