The First-Time Teacher

My name is Elizabeth and I’m an associate editor for The Truth About the Fact. I look forward to blogging with you this year.

The fall of 2008 marks the start of two professional firsts for me: serving as an associate editor at Michael Datcher’s eloquent journal, and teaching freshman composition here at LMU. In addition to these jobs, I’m also a fulltime graduate student.

My ulterior motive for coming to graduate school in the first place was to avoid the grind. I was a little artist, a creative writing major as an undergrad, and I was just looking for ways to avoid a cubicle. I saw a professorship as a way to achieve the artist lifestyle without starving.

I won’t go as far as to say that I love teaching. It’s now week four and I’m still getting over my jitters of handling a roomful of eighteen-year-olds while at the same time the routine of class is becoming a tad—dare I say it?—monotonous. The constant repetition of assignments, the blur of papers that all begin to sound the same, the same reminders scribbled at the bottom of pages.

But there’s also something fantastic and promising about it. After earning my B.A., I entered the workforce and I immediately wanted to escape and hide in graduate school. Teaching is hard—really hard—but I don’t see myself wanting to run away like I have in the past. I see myself falling in love with teaching, with this forced relationship and dialogue between myself and a room of eager college students.

I’ve only known my classes for four weeks, but when I look at them I am completely blind to the drone of grading papers and trudging to a classroom in a trailer. Instead, all I feel is curiosity, willingness, and the interest to enter a previously unknown discourse. It’s one of the most fantastic sensations I’ve ever experienced.