Some of my students are actually good writers. I'm seeing more of this especially with the second essay assignment that they are working on. I started off the semester with a "writing about technology" lesson plan (as brand-new TAs, we're asked to pick a prefab semester outline), but they did not take to it. So I've been forced to find new assignments. The first assignment was for them to discuss their on-line persona. This resulted in many bland statements about how cool the Internet was. The current assignment is to write a personal narrative - quite hard to mess up that one.

The department requires us to have two conferences with each student per semester. We get to cancel classes, so the students love it. It's hard work for me, but I get to know them a bit better. They're pretty interesting, even the guy who frequently has his head down on the desk in class. I enjoy chatting with them, not just about the assignment, but about more everyday topics. One student graduated from the same high school that I did. Of course, she was born two years before my senior year. Eeep!

I've been noticing more descriptive work creeping into this essay. I complimented one of the girls on a particularly interesting passage, and she said, "I put this in after the writing exercise we did in class Monday." Wow - I actually taught somebody something. How 'bout that?