As I am now in my second semester of my first year in the M.A. English Lit program, I have made my way to English 704 in hopes of further fostering my teaching abilities and building on the knowledge I already have. I am a believer that developing writing and analytical skills through academic and professional experience enables students to tackle situations outside of an English classroom and in many other arenas of life. At Cal, studying English and being asked to analyze literature inside the classroom better enabled me to excel in activities outside of the classroom by making me more readily able to apply constructive feedback and an analytical eye to everything I did. After graduating, my efforts as Deputy Communications Director in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Communications renewed my passion for writing and my desire to continue developing skills that have helped me confront challenging situations. Writing press releases, talking points and briefing notes for the Mayor honed my ability to convey messages as clearly as possible, and daily exposure to writing once again incited my desire to return to academia to pursue an M.A. in Literature at San Francisco State University.
I realized a newfound desire to share my excitement for writing with others through teaching. It is my hope that my studies today and the steps I am taking towards teaching can make me better suited to incite a passion similar to mine in future students who can more easily look at writing and the world with a strongly discerning and analytical eye, instilling skills that will benefit them in any endeavor they pursue. I think it will be extremely interesting and rewarding to pass on this enthusiasm for reading and writing to students, and I know it will be a useful tool towards their success.
I think you're spot on with your emphasis on providing students with the tools and skills. I know that not every student I will encounter will be an enthusiastic English major, so I think it's important to keep those translatable skills in mind.
ReplyDeleteI am coming from a similar background -- english major working in non-teaching environment for many years & now transitioning into teaching again. The "enthusiasm" and "excitement" you have will be motivating to your future students! The process of connecting to coursework is different for everyone, but I believe that students are very sensitive to their professor's level of engagement and interest in assisting them (perhaps vs. the content of the class, itself). Sounds like you're off to an exciting start!
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