History has been made today!

Scene: 2:00 section of ENG101.

Most students present (though a few were tardy).

Careful explanation of several handouts ("This one is required: for all required readings, you must annotate, produce expanded notes, and write a discussion board post." "This one is extra credit. Do not do annotations or expanded notes. Simply write a discussion board post if you would like." And so on.)

Student information index cards filled out and collected.

Then, the professor asks the dreaded question, "Is there anyone here who does not have the articles with annotations and expanded notes for today's discussion?" A little clarification ensues: yes, I'm trying to determine whether everyone in the room does, in fact have the homework.

And--here's the historic moment--everyone did. Not a single student was in the room without the homework. In the entire history of my career, I don't think that has ever happened--especially not in a beginning comp class in the first full week of the term. I told them that they had just made history (and that the class would feature prominently in tonight's blog post). I was thrilled. Of course, the homework produced by some of the students will be problematic in various ways, but ... my god. Everyone had the homework. I was positively gob-smacked.

But wait: it gets better.

It happened again. Well, OK, in the 5:00 class, a few of the students had neglected the expanded notes part, or only had them for one of the two articles--but everyone had at least done the reading and came to class with annotations, ready to talk.

I don't want to get too cocky and think that this has anything to do with anything I actually did; I think it was just one of those miraculous alignments of heavenly bodies and feng shui and sheer, dazzling coincidence, but man, that felt good. And the best part was that their preparation showed. I put them in groups and the conversation took off--in both classes, even the 5:00 section. The students in the 5:00 class are still less likely to laugh at my jokes (so I am correspondingly less jocular with them), but they were every bit as animated and involved in discussion, and I was delighted that some students who seemed a bit on the reticent side were not only talking but leading the conversation. Of course, the military veteran--the Firefighter, I'll call him, as that's what he does and wants to do--led a lot of the conversation, with intelligence and verve and knowledge from Hard Knocks University, but the level of involvement was wonderful, in both sections.

I am a happy woman at the moment--and as I don't want to damage the moment, I'm actually going to leave very soon here, despite the fact that there are about 50 things I could probably profitably do before going that would facilitate tomorrow's experience. However, I'm going to trust that between my arrival in the morning and class, and then again after class until I can close up the main office at about 7, I will have time to work and organize and get myself situated well enough.

So, I will make my farewell for this evening, and leave with a trail of glory--and gratitude to the Educational Gods--drifting in my wake. Life, my friends, is good.