Almost Done!

The semester is almost over, and I've been getting some funny compliments in my students' end-of-the-semester reflections. One student said she learned a lot and that the class even made her a better text message writer. Ha, definitely a concern of mine.

Another wrote this: "Thank you for all your hard work, you rock. I hope you are enjoying my dream truck-- you're so lucky." He was the one who saw me parking one day, and when I got out and waived, he didn't respond. When we got to class, he apologized and said he didn't realize it was me at first. He said he was shocked that I was driving such a nice truck and that he was even more shocked when he saw me parallel park it so well.

I know making students write a reflection on how they've progressed this semester and what they still need to work on is pretty much just fishing for compliments, but these nice comments really help my morale on days when I've had to repeat some random announcement eighty times or when I feel like nothing is sinking in. This is one thing I need to work on, getting a thicker skin. In my interview, they asked me what my strongest traits were, and I said one of them was that I was really sensitive. And when they asked what my weakness was, I said that I was really sensitive. But this wasn't one of those cliche interview tricks to indicate that my weakness was a strength; it was an honest admission that sometimes students have far too much of an effect on me than they should.

Anyway, just some end-of-the-semester reflecting. This weekend I finish grading and Tuesday will be my last trip to Coeur d'Alene for a few weeks. I'm excited to start fresh with some new ideas, but I always hate having to say goodbye to the old students (well, usually). This semester, I really lucked out and had students who very nice and not too cool to participate and have fun in class. I hope that trend continues.


And here's a picture of our moon yesterday.