Heading home
Walking out of the building at 5 pm after class it was impossible to feel anything but elation.
The sky was spectacularly blue, the clouds unbelievably white, the grass green, the air warm...Spring!
The end of the semester is a bit more than a week away, and the pace has picked up. Final projects are due soon, and I've been grading previous work every night trying to get caught up in all my classes.
I've also begun waking up in the wee small hours of the morning thinking about those few students who are really doing badly, who may fail the class or get disappointingly low grades. Part of me knows that this is 95% their doing. Actually, not-doing. Most students do poorly because they don't do the work at all, don't do it on time, or do it in a half-assed way. I've rarely seen a student who works hard who doesn't get a passing grade.
On the other hand, I always think that if only I were a better teacher, if I'd have talked with them sooner or said something different it could have made the difference. I can't avoid feeling some responsibility for their performance. Thus the 5 a.m. thoughts.
But not this afternoon. It was glorious.
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