If you are a college instructor, what do you think incoming freshmen should alre
If you are a college instructor, what do you think incoming freshmen should already know?
As an English teacher, I would like to know what my students need in college. Is it grammar skills? Research skills? Critical reading skills? When I have discussed what I would like to teach with administrators, they tell me that not all students are going to be English teachers. What would you say is needed most? Thanks!Your feelings don't have rights. My discussions on history, math or science are not to be silenced because you claim you are offended. Others have the right to have contrary opinions, and you do not have the right to demand the silence or obsequiousness of others because they are different.
Words are not assault, and someone expressing their views is not a justification to threaten harm or commit harm. That is assault. Organized mob violence destroying property or reputations of a target are mob violence and fascism. That is true regardless of the labels you apply to your action like "love" and "tolerance".
Learn this in college or else you will be unemployable as an adult and risk jail time.Critical thinking skills...communication skills written and verbal...a basic understanding of our Constitution and Bill of Rights and the inherent responsibilities associated with those freedoms...Unfortunately. most will not be prepared for college and will be more interested in social activities rather than academic discipline...
Many will seek easy majors like Women's Studies, Urban Studies, and African Dance 1 and 2, with Masters and PhD degrees in Gender Studies and Social Media...I taught in a community college for a couple of years, and also at a university. These are the things I told my incoming students:
You are responsible for your own education. You are paying to be here, or the state is paying, by giving you a scholarship. It's up to you whether you get the bare minimum, or the maximum, for those dollars.
Nobody cares if you come to class but you. If you can't wake up and get here on time, I don't care. I've already earned my college degrees, and I get paid the same whether you show up or not. The only person you are shortchanging by sleeping in is yourself.
If you miss class, it's on you to find out from another student what you missed, and make your own copies of whatever was handed out that day. Nobody is going to catch you up on missed classes but you.
Grammar counts. Spelling counts. Knowing how to write a paper counts. If you don't know how to do those things, your grades in all your classes will reflect your lack of skills. Don't whine to your teacher. Go get some help at the remedial skills lab, which exists to help students like you. Get someone with good spelling and grammar skills to check your papers. Use spell check. Don't pretend these things don't exist, and then squawk when your first paper comes back dripping in red ink, with a big D on it.
And last, the best bit of advice I got when I was in college, which has served me well my whole life: if something sounds interesting, even if it's not remotely related to your major, or what you think you want to do with your life, learn about it. Take a class in it. Audit a class in it. Sit in on some lectures, or stay up late reading about it online. You will never again in your life have two, or four, or six years devoted solely to learning. Take advantage of it now, so you'll know how to learn quickly and efficiently later. And all those seemingly useless things you learn now will eventually turn you into a well-rounded human being, who knows things outside what they do for a living. They also might save your life, or your job, or your sanity, or be answers on Jeopardy some day.
I'm sure you were looking for practical, English teacher things, but honestly, the biggest problem my kids had their first year was not knowing how to function without a mother to get them up, get them out the door on time, and ask them if they've done their homework. They all had to learn how to live as independent humans, and some of them flunked out because they just couldn't do it.
