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ENGL388V

Prof. Katherine Joshi

RUTA Synthesis Essay: 9 Months Ago, To Forever In The Future

As I come to a close on my second semester as an undergraduate teaching assistant, I

can't help but think back to a single term: growth. Yes, growth. Growth of knowledge, growth of

relationships, growth of skills and traits, like confidence and public speaking. Growth as a

person. Some of the growth is mine. Some of it my classmates’, and another portion my

students’. And, hopefully, some may be my instructors’.

I am an Information Science major, so it's a little surprising to some people (including my

friends within the major) when they hear that I TA for an English class (ENGL398A: Writing For

the Arts). Doubly surprising when they find out that it’s unpaid. I myself had many passing

thoughts and worries about my “fit” or “capability” as a TA for an Arts based English class,

when most of my higher learning had been centered around things like numbers, graphs, data,

and coding. I thought my writing skills were at least average, and I did always find myself

helping people in academic settings, so I had a thin stretch of hope to walk across. And in the

end, I had an instructor that trusted and took a chance on me, and I was going to have a class that

would hopefully prepare me enough—and that it did.

Approaching my Fall 2023 semester (my first semester as a UTA), I viewed 388V as a bit

of a burden, but one that I likely needed. The class was fairly long, and there were actually

assignments and projects to complete. But as that me from 9 months ago went through the

semester and became the me from 8, 7, and 6 months ago, he would find that the class was not a
burden, but rather an experience and fertile land for his own growth. Every class meeting was

exciting, and full of learning chances immediately. We open up discussing what we have “going

on” in our classes currently, and this is usually accompanied by great insight from peers, or from

the speaker themselves. The class was engaging, littered with activities that keep us using our

minds or moving around. It was welcoming, with an emphasis on accommodations and being

accepting of all identities. And encapsulating it all was how fun the class was, with personalities

that you’d want to spend the whole day with, and an instructional team that makes you sad to say

goodbye to. Truly speaking, it was perhaps the best opportunity for me to expand my capabilities

as an English UTA, while maintaining my joy and sanity as a person.

Within these wonderful times there was also, of course, some wonderful growth. Being in

such an interaction-heavy class really served to prepare me for interacting with students and

addressing my class as a whole (I was particularly nervous/unsure when engaging with

individual students early on). A welcome improvement to be sure, but just the tip of the iceberg.

Observing everyone's different teaching styles, and understanding everyone’s different learning

styles, really helped to build a more complete vision of classroom-student interactions. I felt

myself no longer trapped with my own prior experiences and understanding. And even beyond

the particulars that my peers shared with me, I was just so much more aware of the differences

every student may have, and the different ways to find them and build with them in mind.

How do we find and build around these differences? Well, there’s a resource for that (the

two particular sources I was thinking of were [CAST, 2018] and [Saunders & Kardia, 1997]).

And actually…there’s a resource for a lot of things. ENGL388V had an expansive collection of

wonderful resources for us to look at throughout the semester. I commend those who took the

time to collect, read, approve and sort all of the several dozen (who am I kidding, hundred)
sources that we used as growing educators. They are detailed, multimedia, and cover so many

different aspects of pedagogy that there's likely one for almost every situation or problem one

may face as an educator. I only go as far as “almost” because, with much credit to 388V, I have

learned that there’s always something new to discover in every semester, and in every student.

A lot of what I’ve been discussing has been framed by my experiences in my first

semester in 388V, but much of it transfers strongly to my second semester as well. My peers still

taught me something new and engaged with my questions and class climate every week (though

this was now only carried out in an online format). The resource library (though different in

collection content and organization) was still available. My professor was still an active force in

the class, and would attempt to answer our questions a few days after they were posted to

discussion posts. We were challenged to do more in our classrooms—such as drafting and

delivering lesson plans—across both semesters. In the second semester we also took a

mentorship role for the 1st time UTAs, which was a very interesting role to play as a sort of

“meta UTA,” but a very valuable and welcome role. There was something to be missed about the

format across the semesters (in person vs virtual), but there was little to complain about the

content and value.

I don’t see myself becoming a writer or engaging with the subject of English as part of

my future career endeavors, but I hope I was able to teach and help someone who is. I quietly

like reading and writing quietly, but now I can say that I have a real and palpable love for it. And

as for my identity as an educator, I don't think that’s going away, no matter what context it will

exist in. Thank you for this, profs. Wilkins, Hilliard, and Joshi. Thank you to my classmates and

students. Thank you, 388V.

 Works Cited

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from

http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Saunders, Shari and Diana Kardia. “Creating Inclusive College Classrooms” CRTL University Of

Michigan, crlt.umich.edu/gsis/p3_1.