Teaching 150 has been an enriching and enlightening learning experience so far. My initial apprehension of meeting the expectations of students who hope to get a superlative academic education from our prestigious university, vanquished after reading positive reviews from some of my students. I am immensely grateful to my mentor Dr. Michelle Tremmel in helping me elevate my confidence level and designing a scaffolding for me to help build a “community of learners” in my classroom. Dr. Tremmel’s insights and her observations in the first week of September when my students were doing peer conferences, help me reflect and change some of my strategies.

One of her recommendations to collect students’ drafts before they engage in peer-responses helped my students take this process seriously. When asked to submit drafts before the peer-responses, students put in more efforts in their drafts and are more engaged in the activity. During peer-responses for Assignment 3, they were all prepared and brought meaningful drafts to class to review with their peers. Students engaged in the process mutually benefited from critiquing and learning from other’s work. Skimming through their essays, I was able to make a list of common errors and close the class with some helpful tips and suggestions.

Besides providing pointers, allowing students to reflect on the recommendations provided by their peers before they moved on to another round of peer-responses helped them debrief and assimilate some new perceptions. The process of reflecting on the previous review allowed them to take a brief break before they immersed in gaining insights and new perspectives from other student writers. Along with presenting drafts to me, strategically assigning positions to students made them make meaningful conversations with their peers while they reviewed their writings.

Positioning students made a ginormous difference in how they interacted with peers. Comparing their initial interactions with other writers in the peer-conferences of Assignment 2, these interactions seemed far more bustling with energetic responses. When students faced their peers instead, the medium of communication was not written but verbal and non-verbal communication paved the way to make some connections and build trust and help form a “community” that Dr. Tremmel enthusiastically talks about. Deciding where students should be positioned allowed me to freely move around the classroom and be attentive to all my students instead of focussing on just a particular set of students.

After introducing these changes, the dynamics of my classroom changed significantly. Students seem to be friendlier now and open to discussions in classrooms as compared to the first few class sessions. Their connection to the classroom community is apparent when they joke and laugh in a classroom and want to eagerly participate in group discussions. I see that they are more helpful to each other, assisting and lending materials to each other now and not afraid of offering helpful suggestions or recommendations in class.

Besides some guidelines to change a few teaching techniques, Dr. Tremmel encouraged quite a few methods that were working well for me. Arriving to class early enough worked well for me to set up adequately for my lesson and to interact informally with my students. Being professionally dressed reflected my demeanor and I think that established a respectful relationship with my students. Strong vocal projection and clear direction giving were some other comments that were immensely helpful for me to understand that I am heading in the right direction. Attentively listening to my students and closing the class with a clear direction for homework assignments were some other positives I will continue to work on.

Continuing on my positive strategies and tweaking my techniques certainly brought a gleam of hope and made me feel belong to this community in my classroom. The sense of belonging not only to the physical space but the community of engaged learners brings immense satisfaction and makes me strive harder to bring success, and cater to the needs of my students. I feel more valued and satisfied when I can see they believe that they are learning and are making great strides towards their long-term goals.