New Semester

It starts up again in one week. And I'm teaching a production course. I feel so not ready for it. Though I have gone from feeling terrified to just a general sense of impending doom, so I have that going for me. It's not that I'm not smart and can't figure out how to use all the equipment. I need to figure out the equipment and then teach it to them before they need to use it to complete their projects. And since I don't have a production studio in my office (or in my office building since there aren't currently any available in the Comm Building) I can't really work on it too much during my office hours.

I'll get through it, somehow. Mainly because I always do. I'm mostly worried that the lack of confidence will leak into my demeanor during class. I'm sarcastic/caustic enough in the class room.

Actually it appears that I'm so sarcastic that some of my students from last semester hated one of my classes. I got some of the lowest evaluations I've gotten in years. I got good ones in two classes, average in a third and then the bad ones. The two lower ones were different sections of the same class. And I agree with some of the comments about how to improve the class. It needs an overhaul during the summer. Not that it does much for the students who will be taking it next semester.

But one student even went so far as to say they'll never take another class with me and recommend all their friends avoid me. Someone else in that same class said they loved my teaching. Go figure. I'll give you three guess which comment will stick with me over the next few days. Funny thing, if the person who said they hated me was the student I think it is, they might have gotten a B in the class.

Something else for those of you who read this and have finished your own college experience, you would not believe how often students whine and moan if you don't create study guides. Like it's my job to tell you what is going to be on the test. What next, complaining because I don't take it for them?