I've already gone through four portfolios so far, and it is immensely gratifying to me to see the improvements in writing my students have made over the semester. Knowing that I've helped to open their minds to new ways of looking at, and functioning in, the world around them gives me a sense of satisfaction that has been sorely lacking in my life these past few months.

Still, this isn't to say that things went perfectly for me this semester. One of the things I asked my students to include in their portfolios was a brief "journal entry" about their experiences over the semester and how they felt about the course. I've certainly known of some mistakes I made throughout the term (pushing them into critical thinking too early and without the proper tools, not effectively introducing other new ideas to them later in the term), but as I read over these parts of the portfolios I'm also finding other areas I could improve on.

It's no secret to any of my long-time readers that I often struggle with criticism, but I'm having no problem with how my students are telling me certain parts of the course didn't work for them. If anything else, I'm just glad that I was able to foster an atmosphere of honesty where my students could be openly critical of me and know that I wouldn't knock their grades down for criticizing me. More than anything, though, I'm learning what mistakes to avoid when dealing with my students next semester. I'll probably wind up making all new mistakes with them, but if things turn out as well at the end of next semester as they did this semester, everything will be okay. This is a learning experience for me as much as it is for them, and as I've said long before I even became a teacher, the worst teachers are the ones who stop being learners.

Okay, back to that last paper ...