December 17, 2009
And in the end…
Hey, my first semester of teaching is over as of 2 PM today.
Yay for me?
Seriously, though, I think this semester went almost shockingly well. My class did not necessarily do great. I gave out, what, at least five F’s? But those were mostly to people who decided it was not in their best interest to show up and turn in papers, so I have little remorse for them. I managed to avoid completely falling apart or getting behind. I even forced myself to become a morning person, and worked every morning on all my shit.
What’s better, my final was pretty good for my ego. I swear it wasn’t actually my intent when I assigned it. I had to give some sort of final, and it just seemed easiest to assign a little no-stress essay. “How have I changed as a writer this semester?” was the topic. And yet, a vast majority of the essays ended up being about what the class did well and what it did badly. I had a few people who were kind of down on it. One in particular said the whole class was confusing and that they’re just going to go back to “writing like they did in high school.” But the vast majority cited various activities that I thought had fallen completely and utterly flat as being extremely useful. Apparently my whole class is just too shy to talk in class, but at least they’re getting a little out of it. Or at least they know how to flatter me really well, not that it affected their grades any.
Anyway, yeah, I am just really happy with how the semester went. Happy with all this teaching stuff. I feel legit and important, and I feel like I have my life together. Well, sort of, anyway. That’s a good feeling. Possibly even worth all the running myself ragged I was doing, hm?
Let me tell you, though, I am very much looking forward to the ability to sleep in and not have to do any of that stuff for awhile. I’m sure Christmas break won’t feel like near enough. I’ll try though, dammit. I’ll try.