Student of Distinction Banquet

Kassie is the Student of Distinction for English for 2011/2012 School Year!

Kassie is a bright light in my basic writing class, and this evening I had the pleasure of introducing her to everyone who attended the Student of Distinction Banquet.

About a month ago when the Student of Distinction Awards were announced on college email and nominations were invited, I was feeling a little sassy and definitely spunky. I knew it was far-fetched to think that I could nominate a student who was in a "pre-transfer" class and that there was even a chance that my colleagues would allow that to happen, so I emailed the Chair of the English Dept and mentioned that I sure would like to nominate my student. She responded, "Do it!" So I did.

This evening it was a great pleasure and delight to attend the banquet with Mr. Fun and with Kassie and her mom. I had not been told that I would be introducing Kassie and presenting her the award, so I was a little more than panicked as I listened to one faculty person after another give a litany of accomplishments about the student he or she was introducing; I had not prepared a speech.

When it was my turn to hold the microphone, I told the backstory of taking my "whim" to nominate a pre-transfer student all the way to the Finish Line!

After I nominated Kassie, the Chairperson of my department decided that if one of my colleagues wanted to nominate an English student from one of their transfer classes then we'd create two categories for English: pre-transfer and transfer. But none of the other English faculty nominated a student.

So Kassie is The STUDENT of DISTINCTION for ENGLISH and that pleases me immensely!

Kassie brings to my classroom a positive attitude everyday and the belief that she is learning to write well enough to pass the class and move into Freshman Composition and do quite well. She is earning an A in the class.

At the beginning of every semester I face a hostile group of students who are more than a little ticked-off that they did not qualify for Freshman Composition. They can hardly believe that they have to endure a semester in a "do-nothing" "go-nowhere" class, especially after many of them have spent their entire four years of high school in Honors or AP English. When they realize I'm not going to waste their time, but they are going to learn to make a point, support the point with specific details, organize their thoughts, and write with few punctuation and grammar errors, they are stunned, and then complain that the class is too hard, takes too much time, and so on and so on.

Attitude becomes the central factor for passing the class . . . those who are "can do" people and those who "aren't going to anything." The end of the semester arrives and students like Kassie are writing the exit essay giving analysis of what they have learned and why.

It's really about "investment" and "dividend." Of course it is always thrilling to read the essays of those who really "get it" -- I mean they "get" that they've "gotten" it. They have not only learned how to write and punctuate, but they've learned that as a student if they exit the semester empty handed, they lose! The goal of being a student ought to be to get all that can be gotten.

At the beginning of the semester I have entirely too many people sitting in my classroom masquerading as students -- they don't care about getting anything (except a degree) and they don't want to do anything. The task of the teacher then becomes two-fold: to not only teach writing, but to also teach them what a student is and honestly, that is the most difficult of the two tasks!

Too many students do not realize that the ability to write well is a powerful tool and it is a tool that can be transported with them wherever they go and utilized at a moment's notice . . . and that's powerful.

Honoring Kassie this evening was immensely meaningful; she is a student and she is a writer.

Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol