Denise,
Thanks for your kind words about my work and my commentary here and elsewhere. I appreciate it.
I'll just pick up briefly on a couple of the new things you mentioned. Forgive me if I go over things you already know.
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I have a problem already of getting too dark too soon with charcoal so a paper with more tooth is probably what I need. Even when I use a lighter charcoal pencil I have trouble with this.
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Except in places where I know I'm going to go quite dark, I tend to use a very highly sharpened piece of charcoal so that I lightly hatch and cross-hatch to get layer after layer of tone. Because of the sharp point, I can't press too hard on the paper because it will break the point if I do. So I guess I sneak up on the mid-tones, rather than go too dark and then erase afterwards. For working on finished drawings I also always have ready about 6 to 8 sharpened sticks of charcoal or of carbon pencil (as the case may be) of each hardness. (Mostly in the softer range, though. It is easier to make a light tone with a soft charcoal - by using a light hand - than it is to make a darker tone with a harder one.) This has the advantage of being able to set down one as it becomes dull and picking up a new, sharp one without breaking the continuity of what you are doing. I found that if I wasn't thus prepared, that I would keep working with dull points, or with the wrong one, simply because I didn't want to stop to re-sharpen it. Also, if it breaks, then I don't have to re-sharpen right away because I've got plenty of spares handy. This makes a surprisingly big difference.
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I have trouble knowing "when" to erase, usually starting out too soon. I also have trouble with applying white conte over darker conte or charcoal, never getting the effect I want. I think I am afraid of too many layers.
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The Fabriano papers I mentioned, except for some of the Roma, are white, so you wouldn't use the white conte. That might be a good idea anyway, while you are getting used to the paper. Some time ago, on another thread, someone posted a reproduction of a drawing in-progress by the 19th century French painter Pierre-Paul Prud'hon. He was a master of the toned-paper/black & white chalk drawing. Rebecca Alzofon, who is pretty darned good at such drawings herself, has researched Prud'hon extensively and has many great examples of his (and her) work on her website. You may wish to check it out. I believe she is at
http://art.net/~rebecca/
Anyway, one thing you'll notice in the unfinished example (I wish I could put my finger on the darned thing and re-post it) is that the white and black chalk families are kept quite separate. When they are blended, they may overlap somewhat at the shadow/light transition zone (bed-bug line) but generally it's tough to go over darker stuff with the white even if it's been erased. The white rarely covers completely and it looks very bluish when it is put over a dark, too.
Finally, as far as layers go, if you want to avoid excessive layering, then keeping the light and dark families separate makes even more sense. Depending on the value of the toned paper you use, the paper could be used for many of the mid-tones to even the half-tones. This will also help keep the white chalk away from the dark chalk.
Best of luck in the life drawing classes. I hope that they give you the chance at some point to have extended poses (9 to 20 hrs) so that you can produce a more highly-finished drawing, if that is your goal. Anyway, life drawing is fun no matter what.
All the best.
Juan