1. I think teaching is about 90% keeping the classroom an enjoyable place to work. We all know our subject matter. Students learn that subject matter better when the morale in the classroom is high. My WR 121 classes met for the last time as a group today. I meet each student individually next week in conferences. I enjoyed telling these two sections how much I enjoyed working with them, enjoyed the laughs, the hard work, the good spirit in the classroom. It sure makes things easier when the students don't resist and play along. It opens up their receptiveness, my kindness, and makes the whole undertaking so much more enjoyable.
2. I read "On Needing Richard Hugo" to the Working Class Literature class today and the class was attentive and asked some good questions afterward. Most gratifying: MB was pleased.
3. It was a particularly enjoyable time for me at Billy Mac's this evening. I hadn't known Anne worked as a cook in a ritzy nursing home outside of London and this was just one of the wildly far-ranging topics that buzzed around the table. Wow. Now I'm remembering that talk of Buffalo (where Anne earned her PhD) took us on a detour into an O.J. Simpson discussion. I hadn't been in a convo about the Juice for quite a while.
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