That’s best I can say for it. Summer quarter at any school is a quiet ordeal, but not usually completely dead. Most of my students decided not to show up for class, which means they get dropped from the program and have to go through a re-instatement hearing. It’s going to be hard to convince myself and my colleagues to allow them back in with the filmsy excuse of “Well, it was summer, and I forgot about class. I’m used to being off for two months.”
Those students who did show up aren’t firing on all cylinders. I don’t really blame them; most students are repeaters and therefore have to sit through virutally identical lectures to the ones last quarter. Of course, if they had passed the first time they could be rid of me and vice-versa. Ah, well, so it goes.
Mondays and Wednesdays are my good days, when I teach Reading 098 and English 098. The students tend to be slightly more intereted in the material. No one goes crazy for reading skills (myself included) but we get to read some interesting passages. We’re covering the basics of poetry in ENG 098, which I confess has gotten rather stale. I’ve taught some form of 9th grade English for going on ten years. That’s a lot of metaphors, Emily Dickinson, similes, and Langston Hughes. It’s hard to muster up a great deal of enthusiasm for the topic, but I’m trying.
This all leads me to realizing that while I still enjoy being in the classroom, I need a different subject. I don’t know what else I’d get certified in, unless it was in reading. I like learning about how people learn to read, though not as much as I used to. I confess to liking the idea my wife had recently: sell the house, pay off some debt, and let me stay home with Sam. And another kid, if things go as planned.
I read my friends’ status updates on Facebook, and many of them are taking vacations, going out and doing things, cooking out, trying different hobbies, etc. Some of them have children, and I just don’t understand how they have the time or energy to do anything except work, run a house, and raise a child. And then some of make crafts, and run five thousand miles a day, find cures for AIDS and cancer…and I just do my thing. Which is work, run a house, and raise Sam. It’s enough for me, and then some.
