It’s happened again. Every semester, I await the first day of classes with nervous anticipation. My last post chronicles the insecurities that incessantly nag away at my subconscious (and prevent me from precious hours of sleep). But, without fail, when I enter the classroom, hear the introductions of students as they share a bit about themselves, […]
Month: January 2013
Will They Like Me? Will They Learn From Me?
A new semester starts tomorrow. It used to be that on of the eve of meeting students for the first time, each semester or school year, I couldn’t sleep, plagued by a singular thought, “Will they [my students] like me?” So, let me begin by saying that I understand that this probably should not have […]
Writing is Hard…
Among other things, I teach content area literacy courses. (For those of you reading this who might not be familiar with what content area literacy is, it’s VERY basically reading and writing in subject specific contexts–I’ll be posting more about the course itself once the semester starts, but that’s the simple definition for now since […]
Balancing the Personal and Professional: Ongoing Lessons in Doubt, Humility, and Self-Acceptance
Monday morning, 6am: My 6-year old is asleep. Even before I hear his plaintive cries against going back to “boring school,” I began to feel that nervous tension in the pit of my stomach that invariably signals internal conflict and insecurity. I try some deep breaths to clear my mind, which works for a few […]