General Education Students

I think one of the big "culture shocks" for me as an expatriate wasn't selling all my furniture, packing all my clothes, photos & cds and leaving family and friends behind to move to another country. It wasn't even the depression that settled in as I realized we were spending all our hard-saved money and not making enough. It wasn't speaking a different language, since I was 100% fluent in it after all... and the culture wasn't that different from what I was used back home.

One of the big shocks was... surprisingly, teaching undergraduate students (another was health care, particularly pre-natal care and I blogged all about this here). I still have lots of difficulty really connecting to most Americans and I find it hard to blog about this because after all, my blog readers and blog friends are exactly those Americans I've best connected with! Now... maybe it'll be a bit easier to write that I find that connecting with undergraduate students, particularly "Gen Ed" undergrads here in the U.S. to be utterly impossible!

I TAed and then taught them for nearly six years, including several summers and winter sessions during graduate school and I just felt so inadequate, so "not a person." I thought that maybe it was because I was in grad school and that it would be way better when I was done. Well... of course I'm not a real "professor" yet, but most students don't really know that.

I must give this state credit where credit is due and maybe it's because we're already in the South here and people in the South are friendlier, warmer, a bit more caring, but I do like the students in VA "better" than those in MA. And I know that student populations vary greatly from school to school.

Another thing... I enjoyed working with language students last year, I think they're a little different, more interested. However, this semester I am teaching a "Gen Ed" class... Today was the first day and I already find the students challenging as I felt they'd be. I'm planning to make this class more learner-based, thus, with more discussion, group work, etc. and I don't know how well that's gonna go.

I think one of my biggest problems with American undergrads (and people in general) is that I haven't experienced schooling in this country and I have no idea how it is -- just from films or reading and now from some of your blogs when you write about your students.

Well, yeah. I don't know what else to say. This sounds very lame. It is exactly what I wanted to share today, after teaching my first GenEd class in 7 years. But I'm not blaming on the students per se (I have three students in the class that have taken my other classes and I know them, so that's nice) -- I'm blaming it on the "requirement" of having to take these GenEd classes that they aren't really interested in, but have to take. I hope they get to learn something from this class -- not "from me," but from the readings, the films, from our class activities -- I can only try to motivate them and be enthusiastic about the subject.

Teaching blog friends/readers of mine... do you think my problem is due to my expatriate status or do you find hard to connect to your students as well? (I know Jo(e) most certainly doesn't, but then, again, she's awesome and her students are too).

Another thing I worry about -- am I letting my own (perhaps pre-conceived) view of my students influence me too much? Should I try to be more open, caring, and accommodating and not so judgmental? Maybe ta change of attitude will help, right? Any thoughts you can share with me will be appreciated.

P.S. I have six students, it looks like I'll be fine with that class! Hey, I'm surprised that this has become (for right now) a teaching blog! Oh my! Who knew!