I really didn't feel like teaching this morning. In some ways I felt really well prepared for the day, but I almost wonder if I didn't over prepare. I had a big worksheet that was an expanded version of the worksheets I'd given them for their last paper but as I thought about using that worksheet the more I thought of it as daunting and less as helpful. I want them to think of those steps as they write their papers, and especially as they do their prewriting but I kept looking at it and thinking, "how helpful is this really?"
And I had a song all ready to go with notes of what I'd noticed and observed and my thoughts, but I wasn't really sure what was the best way to pass that knowledge to my students. If I really had my druthers I would have made them colored copies of what I did, but that wasn't really an option.
And it didn't help my mood when only a few of my students participated today, and when another student sat in the back and appeared smug, as though he was glad that no one participated because it was some sort of vindication that he is right that the things that I have them do are stupid.
I think part of my problem is that by and large writing comes easily to me. I don't really struggle with it, though some papers put up more of a fight than others, and I don't really have a process or anything. And I do a lot of mental prewriting in which I work out a lot of the kinks in my writing, so I tend to be able to pick out the bits that fit together and the ones that don't and I can see it working out in my head but I don't know how to express that to my students.
But it's the weekend.
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