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Good Busyness

The first (partial) week of classes concludes today. This term I am teaching three classes with a small total number of students (a blessing for grading) but a lot of contact hours; two of the sections are Multivariable Calculus which has so much coherent content that it meets four times a week. 

My first grading will begin on Tuesday of next week and my first couple of weeks of lesson plans are already mapped out and yet I haven't had much disposable time this week. Students keep talking to me.

This feels weird and not just because of the summer months when it was quiet in my office building. In the Spring I was not successful in encouraging students to come by for assistance; attendance was also poor. The idea of physically being somewhere for academic reasons has become more difficult for the COVID generation, one of the ways the stress of the pandemic played out. (I have not done a research study but this seems to be the consensus of the faculty I have talked to, so I am willing to live with the opinion.)

Which is all the more reason to rejoice that I have many students stopping by. I do hope that this will make it easier for them to work with me as the semester progresses and our work together grows more difficult.

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