Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Semester Is Winding Down, But While It Remains, Tuesdays are Worse Than Mondays

The morning begins with a phone conference on campus at 9 a.m. on international refugee work. The evening ends with a return from teaching at around 10:15 p.m. where I will be running my pointer finger over my lips and making babble noises.

Okay. I have truth, in between. I am going to sneak away for lunch: to walk the dog, hit the gym (although Tuesdays are my day off), and to get organized for the evening classes.

The calendar is doing what it always does at this time of year. The final projects of my courses are coming nearer and the baton is handed over from where my instruction and modeling, the course readings, and the teaching experiences, must come together with fruition so that the students can say, "I got this." They always freak out at this point of year, just like I did as a student, too. The panic mode sets in with, "When am I ever going to get this work done?"

Lucky for them, I push the panic back a few weeks so I can say,
"Get it out of the way. The next few weeks are to guide your success. I want you to be the best teachers you can be, and I raise the bar early so I can coach you to get over it. You have time. I front-loaded a lot of the work so that you have the foundation for the projects ahead. AND this is all real-world work. This isn't a paper for only me to grade (and to be filed in a land of nothingness). It is work you can replicate and reuse when you get your own classroom."

They still will complain, but I will try to ease their mind, as tonight's activities encourage conversation, fish bowls, assessments, and student engagement. It should be fun.

Still, I can't help but think I'm living Groundhog's Day. Feels like it's the same thing over and over and over again. I love it, but I never am quite sure if I've delivered the best practices that I preach. I only know when the final work comes in.

Happy Tuesday, Everyone. I need to get to campus to start this marathon. 

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