Another Semester Ends

Because my dog's feeling a bit under the weather, I've been making him meals of boiled ground beef and rice. Let me tell you, the smell of boiling ground beef is repulsive, particularly for someone who's not eaten or cooked meat in years. Yuck. Fargo, on the other hand, seems to love it.

On another note, today was the last day of classes and so I'm now done with my class of "American Psychos." It made me a bit sad, actually. Though I always enjoy teaching, this semester has been particularly rewarding. They were such an enthusiastic, intelligent, and respectful group. In fact, their level of engagement made teaching the class a total pleasure. They seemed to genuinely enjoy the material and the discussions that material inspired. I even had the Assistant Director tell me that one of my student's friends, who he's worked with in the past, followed along with our course content, watching the films and talking about them informally with my student. Apparently she wanted to take the class but couldn't get off the wait list. Normally, teaching the composition classes can be a bit difficult as I invariably end up with a few students who are resistant, angry, or bitter about having to take the required writing class. Some are convinced they already know everything they need to knnow about writing and dig their heels in at every step along the way. This can make managing class discussion difficult and lead to students questioning my authority or acting in less-than impressive ways. Those issues never materialized with this group. In fact, I found it just as rewarding as teaching my women's studies class last semester, which I found remarkably easy and exciting--in large part because of the students' willingness to participate in class discussion. Overall, it's been a wonderful teaching year. Now I just have to make some more substantial progress on my own writing. Now that teaching is done for the year, time to hunker down and write, write, write.