Blog Post 6-Jennifer Schrauth

Like Dana, I'm very comfortable with my role as a student. I've been a student consecutively for the greater part of my life after all. I like to read, I like to discuss, I like to attend classes and hear teachers talking about what they know best; I like to learn. I like to learn a lot. And I like to learn knowing that the person teaching me or guiding me or instructing me is passionate about the subject. However, like Kevin, I'm also very excited about assuming the role of instructor. Teaching has always been something I've been interested in--both because my mother was a teacher and because I've had so many wonderful teachers throughout the years--and when I was in college, several of my courses incorporated pedagogy readings and ideas. While at times I feel anxious about my ability to perform this role well--perhaps more anxious than I ever am about my ability to be a student, though my final thesis is a source of stress--it is compatible with my love of learning, education, and my background with rhetoric and composition. I don't really think of myself as a researcher in terms of a label hat I would give myself, though I obviously read a lot to keep up with the fields of rhetoric and composition and creative writing. I consider this less "research" and more informally as "keeping up" with everything that's going on in the world.

I definitely feel that my identity as a student and instructor are very much interlinked. If I did not enjoy being a student, I can't imagine that I would enjoy teaching. The joy of teaching, for me, is the idea of helping others to enjoy learning and being a student, and encouraging students to learn and think in new and different ways. That being said, in some ways you are forced to present yourself differently when you're in front of a classroom than when you're a student in the classroom, and in that way you are assuming a slightly different personality, and certainly a different role.