It’s been a lot of movement as of late. Last week I was all over God’s green earth lecturing: Tuesday was Cornell, Wednesday I spoke at a conference here at RIT, Friday brought me to the suburbs of Cleveland. Yesterday, I had a late night drive to Buffalo to pick Dre up from the airport after her flight to Rochester was cancelled (she had been visiting a friend in the DC area).
All that hustle and bustle has left me a little burned out. Getting back into doing all the real important teaching tasks (lesson prep, grading) was giving me some problems. But a brief exchange with a student just changed all that.
Walking out of Java Wally’s, our on campus coffee shop, I ran into a student whose taking my Principles of Printing course this quarter. She had just gotten back from a weekend, out of town, job interview. Just before she left, I recommended some “tactical readings” to help prep her for questioning.
Not only did the interview go really well, the readings, and my class in general really helped her prepare for it. She went out of her way to thank me for helping her prepare and told me about how she was able use what she had learned in class discussions to ask good questions.
I don’t think students appreciate how important those moments are for us (teachers). I left Java’s completely recharged and ready to tackle the pile of grading waiting for me in my office.
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