teaching again

so what's it been like teaching again? well, i don't remember it being so much work (especially all the grading!).... and i had forgotten how much energy is involved in standing in front of a classroom.

it has taken me some time to adjust to teaching again. first, i had to get over the nasty cold that clouded my head the first couple of days. and then there was time needed just to get settled. and last weekend i gave up all of my work so that i could go visit my family (which was lovely). and what has generally suffered is grading - which, much to my annoyance, i'm significantly behind on (of course, it does not help that i don't find grading the most enjoyable task :))

but besides the grading issue, i feel like with each day that i teach i become more aware again of my love for teaching. there is a kind of wonder and excitement involved in standing in front of a classroom encouraging people to share what they're thinking and learn more at the same time. and there's also wonder and excitement involved in trying to take all of what's going on in class - what the students are thinking and saying plus the stuff that they've been reading plus the extra information in my head - and put it all together to be something that students want to know more about and participate in. it's enjoyable to watch the changes that happen in the classroom - from the awkward-ness between all of us at the beginning to the freedom to ask more difficult questions and to see each of them become involved in sharing with their small group and (at least slightly) more comfortable sharing with the whole class. and when we spent some time talking about the messy topic of prostitution, there was a sense that they understood that prostitution wasn't quite as simple (or so easily dismissed as being evil/sinful) as they might have thought - and those involved in prostitution became less objects and more people. and today a couple of students expressed their appreciation of the class to me specifically, which always makes me feel honoured.

and i am honoured that i have been given the privilege of being able to share who i am with them and what i know with them. and i have hope that they have been learning more, even as i struggle to help them understand better what we're talking about. and i hope that in the class periods we have left that the students not only learn more information but are willing and able to be inspired to think about ways they can reach out to the broken places and be more fully the person who God has created them to be and is shaping them to be.

but in order for those hopes to become more reality, i need to get back to grading...