Ups and Downs

With my Wednesday morning class, and the first essays, fresh in my mind, I have to say that I get most frustrated with my students when 1) they act apathetic and start falling asleep (although I must admit there's a bit of entertainment value when the girl in the center starts dropping off with her head tilted back, or when the kid in front suddenly sits up with drool running down his chin...), and 2) when they don't follow instructions on assignments. I think these things frustrate me because they both make me feel inadequate as a teacher: if they are falling asleep or not caring about the subject matter, it's because I'm not challenging them to think enough or I'm not giving them interesting enough things to do (although I keep telling myself it's because the class is at 8 in the morning). If they haven't followed instructions, I feel like it's because I didn't explain things well enough.

But my teaching experience hasn't been entirely about frustration. I do get amazed from time to time as well, like when someone makes a really insightful and lucid comment in class, or when they start taking the conversation in a direction that I hadn't even considered and I can just let it go. I was also amazed on Friday when I read their in-class responses, and most of them didn't just repeat back to me the comments I had made--they generally came up with ideas that weren't even brought up in the discussion. I was so excited and learned a lot from reading those responses.

I was also amazed and excited by a couple of the essays I graded, and was glad (and grateful) to give two of them very solid As. It was my reward for all the work I had done on the others to be able to sit back, read, and enjoy--they weren't perfect, of course, but it was a nice break for my orange pen :)