How about a little enthusiasm

I have a question for all of my fellow UNK students out there. Did anyone else notice how many freshmen there were on campus this year??? Not that that's a bad thing, but it was like invasion of the 18-year-olds! This last fall I was a Student Peer Leader with the First Year Program which is basically a program that takes certain freshman-level classes (mine for example was English 101, there were also Healthful Living classes, Personal Money Management, etc) and includes an upperclassman (Junior or Senior) to serve as kind of a Teacher's Aid. Our job is to answer their questions, teach them about college life and campus, basically smooth the transition from high school and home to college and living on their own in as many ways as possible.

Anyway, this year's freshman class was HUGE! I've been searching the UNK website for some exact numbers, but I haven't been able to find any. I think, and I could be wrong here--especially since my research is failing me--that this year's incoming freshman class was one of the biggest UNK has had. Of course, more freshmen means more 100-level classes. There were 36 different sections of ENG 101 courses, four of which were strictly for Honors students, and three of which were First Year Experience classes. I don't know about other departments, but I know many of the professors in the English Department don't necessarily enjoy teaching these 100-level composition classes. In the case of my class, it was pretty obvious to me and the students that the professor I was working with had no desire to be there. If students are expected to get excited about something like English (which I've found to be a love-it-or-hate-it kind of subject), especially basic English comp, I think the professor needs to put in a little extra effort to make it worth everyone's time. Most of the time, I believe the Graduate Assistants take the majority of these classes, but with an incoming class this size, almost everyone had to teach at least one section.

I know that professors don't like having to teach the basic stuff (this is a thesis statement, this is how you do research, this is how you format a paper, etc) when they're used to teaching upper-division classes or classes they themselves love, but I really think that if the professor I worked with would have been just a little more energetic about coming to class and been more open and responsive to students questions, my freshmen would have gotten so much more out of the class than they did. Several said they hated it, it was such a waste of time, it was pointless, they didn't learn a thing except that the professors will embarrass them for asking questions, and others said they didn't learn anything because it was dumbed-down too much and too repetitive. I know there's no way to please everyone, but I feel like a little more effort could have been made in this particular case.

I realize I might be treading on thin ice here considering I'm posting this for a class (and therefore, a professor), but I really believe that all students (especially new ones) would benefit much more from classes where the professors actually make it seem like they want to be there, even if they don't. Students pick up on and feed off the vibe(s) their professors send out, and if they don't want to be there, you can bet the students will pick up on that too.