One Down

My first semester teaching as an assistant professor is (basically) over. I've finished teaching my classes. I have about 8 more essays from one class to read and one other section to read; I should be able to finish that tomorrow. Monday I'll need to go in and work on my course packet for next semester. I'd love to get that done Monday, but it might take until Tuesday. Either way, I should have final grades in this weekend. Monday at the latest. I'm pretty excited about that. 

And I'm pretty excited about parts of this semester. I mean, we'll have to see how the evaluations turned out, but there were enough students asking what else I was teaching that they could take, students who had been told for years that they were terrible writers but who succeeded in my class and had a newfound confidence and students who shook my hand and thanked me that I left feeling pretty darn good. Of course, not everything was a success, but I feel more confident and comfortable. So do many of my students. This, in itself, is cause for celebration.