There is a screaming infant in the apartment next door. I kind of know how he feels. It isn't that the new semester has started--that's actually OK. It's more that I don't want summer to be over. I know that seems contradictory, but it's just the anticipation of the rapidly building insanity of keeping up with classes (and of course I'm always tinkering with them, trying to find the magic thing that will make everything suddenly work just right), keeping up with committee work, and this semester, putting together my application for promotion to associate. I already can't wait for next summer. I do love my career, truly--though I know I bitch about it constantly--but I am a championship noodler. I can noodle around endlessly and I have yet to get tired of it.
Strange start to this semester, too. I got back from family time in Montana on Wednesday, met with two (of four) classes Thursday, and then went into a long weekend. Today feels like it ought to be Sunday, tomorrow Monday. It's going to be strange the first few weeks that my week actually starts with my Monday classes, as I'm going to have it in my head that I start with the Tuesday/Thursday sections.
Things went pretty well, I think. I didn't overwhelm them with the syllabus and handouts yet (I wasn't sure how many students would actually show up, what with the holiday weekend and all--and was surprised that most of them were there). I talked to them a little about general navigation around campus (many are new to NCC, most new to college at all)--I don't even know what all. Did a little exercise with them in which they had to list things that they thought would lead to student success and another of things that would inhibit student success, then in groups, they organized the lists as they thought a professor would prioritize them. Interesting results. We'll see if they respond in a more sanguine fashion to the rules and regs as a result. Can't get a read on the classes yet--and as office mate William points out, the classes we start out thinking we're going to love often turn out to be the monsters by the end of the semester, and vice versa.
One good piece of news: a favorite student from Nature in Lit last semester is in Native American Lit this semester. He's also, apparently, in my Wednesday 101. All I can think is he's retaking the class for a better grade--and from me because he knows about the environmental theme. I'm thinking I'll talk to him about treating the class as an independent study instead: he's WAY too advanced for the work I give students in 101. But we'll see when I see him on Wednesday.
Anyway, I do have to get up early (for me) tomorrow so I can do some organizing in the office before I meet the Tuesday/Thursday crowds again, so off I go...
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Joy is a return student. It almost makes all past failures insconsequential. But it is not an instant recipe for repeat success. For though it proves that one was liked in the past, it doesn't prove that one was liked in the way one wanted to be liked.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but this returnee is incredibly bright, truly a terrific student, the kind we dream of. I don't even care if he likes me; he likes the challenge of a tough professor, and that's the delight. He'll do terrific work; he can't help it, he's just that smart. Oh, to have classes full of students like him!
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