I am very excited about this semester - actually, both fall and spring. I have a goal, an idea, a purpose for the class. It's not going to be simply about helping the freshmen write better papers (though that is, of course, part of the purpose), but my own purpose is to use them and their work for my portfolio paper! Whereas before I've felt kind of random in the sequence of material I've presented, this time will be definitely purposeful and I'll be getting lots of feedback for my own work. Is that wrong? I certainly don't want them to feel like their own learning doesn't matter or that I've got ulterior motives for the class; I really feel like it will work together and help the students as much as it's helping me, because of the deliberate way the class will be run. We'll be doing lots of trying to figure out how to write with their own personal interests in mind. Their papers will really be focused on something they like and are invested in because we'll spend some time honing in on what that is, exactly, for each of them.