College learning found lacking

College learning found lacking (click here to read the story)

This news makes me feel so much better about being such a hardass in my classes with regard to students' analytical thinking and writing.

The new semester started Monday with a vengeance, and while the MLK Days of Dialogue events that I have coordinated now for three years in a row went well, attendance was much lower than in previous years, which was disappointing. (I just found out that all the e-mail announcements I sent to students were returned to my Spam folder!) We are trying to persuade the faculty and administration to find a way to make the day a college-wide event of dialogue, reflection and service.

Between Monday and Tuesday, I taught my three classes and seem to have good groups in my senior seminar and my first-year seminar. My 200-level class seems like it will be more challenging, which may be the nature of the beast (both in terms of theme and nature of the group) and the fact that it is an afternoon class. Still, my senior seminar is in the afternoons and most of those students seem to be on fire, so to speak, even when the class is all Hawthorne, all the time. We'll see how it goes tomorrow when I meet the two lower-level seminars for the second time.

I am excited to be back in the classroom and teaching, and that is a good thing since this is the profession that I have chosen. Best of all, this is the first semester in my time working at my small college on the hill that I'm teaching three classes that I have already taught at least once before. That, I realize now, is a huge advantage. Often, I've had at least one (if not two!) new preparations and that's simply ridiculous, as I have learned the hard way.

I've also managed to go to the gym, to make bread and two pies (one rhubarb, one cherry) for my husband, and to give myself personal R&R time so, maybe, just maybe, I'm finally learning to balance my vocation with my life.