It's amazing how something that starts out bad can suddenly turn completely around.
Yesterday was the best day I've had in a long, long time. It started out awful (as I related in the last post). It started to turn around a little when the offended student came by my office to talk and we were able to iron out some misunderstandings. It still wasn't great, though, because that evening I was sitting in my office with nothing to look forward to but a lonely evening at home.
Then a couple of my former students dropped by my office to ask for help with their papers. That certainly didn't excite me. (I had a huge stack of papers to grade as it was, and I don't like to help students with their papers -- either for my class or another professor's.) But then they invited me to the local coffee house, where they were dragging their laptops to work on their papers, so I accepted. As I expected, very little actual work got done, but there was a lot of laughing, cutting up, and having fun.
And I'm always happy to help students have fun.
Yesterday was the best day I've had in a long, long time. It started out awful (as I related in the last post). It started to turn around a little when the offended student came by my office to talk and we were able to iron out some misunderstandings. It still wasn't great, though, because that evening I was sitting in my office with nothing to look forward to but a lonely evening at home.
Then a couple of my former students dropped by my office to ask for help with their papers. That certainly didn't excite me. (I had a huge stack of papers to grade as it was, and I don't like to help students with their papers -- either for my class or another professor's.) But then they invited me to the local coffee house, where they were dragging their laptops to work on their papers, so I accepted. As I expected, very little actual work got done, but there was a lot of laughing, cutting up, and having fun.
And I'm always happy to help students have fun.
posted by Mark at 9/24/2005 02:16:00 PM
2 Comments:
Very noble of you to be willing to help students have fun--I thought teachers were hired to torture! On the theme of a bad start to a day that ends well, your grandfather Murphree used to quote a poem that ended with: And the day that comes with the cloudiest dawn, in a golden glory at last may wane. Cheers.
I just read your Friday post and I was so sad--until I read this one. I'm glad things turned around that day.
Funny about that quote, Wallace--I've noticed the same thing about moving somewhere new. If I love it right away, I will usually learn to hate the place. If I begin by feeling homesick and displaced, I'll come to think of it as home.
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