Today was my last day of classroom teaching for the fall semester at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. Sixteen weeks ago, I walked into my two classrooms ready to teach Introduction to College Writing to freshmen.
This is the first year Saint Mary’s has a football team. Sprint football, to be exact. This change in adding male sports, like sprint football and soccer, meant the college has a different make up of first-year students. All this is to say that half of my students are football players.
These kids truly love their sport. They light up when they talk about playing football. And for some of them, playing college football is their dream come true.
So many of them came into their first few weeks of class terrified of writing, thinking they can’t write and never really been taught that their words matter. One student wrote, “Just don’t be mean to me if I mess up my writing.” 😭 I realized quickly that the goal was less about completing papers and more about building confidence. Because I believe if they have confidence, they will put forth the effort and realize they’re capable of writing.
One of my football players said he never thought he could write until this class and now he may want to write a book one day. Another student, the one who asked I not be mean, turned in a beautiful essay that brought tears to my eyes. After getting a “B” on an essay, one student said he’s going for an “A” with the next one. And when I gave another student his “A” paper, he said “Wow! I’m gonna show this to my mom.”
Of course not every student felt motivated … but I’m so proud of what these kids achieved in their writing, and how much they improved! But even more than that, many of them now believe in themselves in a different way.
I had no idea how much this experience would come to mean to me, how much I needed this too. … I’m truly going to miss my first group of college writing students.