An Exhausting But Rewarding Day

I had two activities today that were on opposite ends of the educational pipeline. First, I administered our first survey to a group of middle schoolers, 6th graders to be exact. Some of the students were absolutely sweet. Others left a little to be desired. But in the end I found most of the students totally endearing, even my two trouble-making boys.

A few of the students asked if they would see me again, and seemed happy that I would be back in the spring, so apparently I'm nice. And I got to practice my classroom management skills (what classroom management skills?) with my trouble-makers, and I think I did well. These two boys would not stop talking, but instead of separating them I said to one, "Would you be able to concentrate better if you moved to another table?" I put it all on him and he rose to the challenge. That felt really good.

My other activity was the dissertation "support" group that I lead once a month. There are three students from my program that regularly meet with me (it's open to everyone) to talk about their progress, problems, questions, triumphs, etc. It's a nice way to stay connected to the program and to students. Plus it helps keep my research skills sharp especially to think through topics that I would never dream up on my own.

Today at the end of the meeting one of the women asked me what I was going to do, meaning what sort of job am I looking for. When I told her I was applying for faculty jobs she said, "I was hoping you would say that because these meetings are so helpful and exactly what I wished we would have had in the program. You will be a great faculty member."

How great do I feel? AWESOME! Because I realized that I can do this stuff, and I really like it.

Then little j and I went out to dinner and she told me that she really likes to go out to dinner with me AND she asked me to read tonight, and she never wants me to read. I hit the trifecta of good stuff today.