A quiet post
I am still at school. It's hard to leave on Monday nights, after teaching for six hours. The office is always quiet and peaceful, and there's that tremendous sense of relief of having finished up with the one thing that simply cannot get put off for anything.
I spent much of the weekend grading my students' lab reports. It was an interesting exercise in attitude, and not nearly as tiresome as it could have been. Many of the students understand the things I've been trying to teach them, but some still struggle to communicate effectively, and it's hard to know what to do to encourage them when one is also faced with the assignment of assigning grades/evaluating. I've decided, most recently, to try to focus more on the humanistic side of teaching, by telling stories and making things personal. It's hard to balance out those needs when one is tasked to teach students about certain things, or about ways of thinking.
But both must be done, and all of the violence that happens on school grounds and in our society at large makes that clear (I firmly believe that the best counter-measure to such violence is the development of community).
The rollercoaster of the semester becomes frayed this time of year, there is so much demand and still only one me. I know this pattern all too well, and will persevere. Though I hope I can retain a sense of soul through it all.
I spent much of the weekend grading my students' lab reports. It was an interesting exercise in attitude, and not nearly as tiresome as it could have been. Many of the students understand the things I've been trying to teach them, but some still struggle to communicate effectively, and it's hard to know what to do to encourage them when one is also faced with the assignment of assigning grades/evaluating. I've decided, most recently, to try to focus more on the humanistic side of teaching, by telling stories and making things personal. It's hard to balance out those needs when one is tasked to teach students about certain things, or about ways of thinking.
But both must be done, and all of the violence that happens on school grounds and in our society at large makes that clear (I firmly believe that the best counter-measure to such violence is the development of community).
The rollercoaster of the semester becomes frayed this time of year, there is so much demand and still only one me. I know this pattern all too well, and will persevere. Though I hope I can retain a sense of soul through it all.