End of the Semester

Well, the first semester of my college teaching career is behind me. I survive! Well, I hope I survived- I didn't post my grades yet because I'm waiting for as many of my evaluations to come in. But once that's done, I've completed my first semester. It feels really good. I feel like I've learned a lot. I know what kind of things I want to continue for next semester but also things that I want to adjust. I want to change the schedule a little bit and get Dora, from the Centre for Experiential Learning into my classroom earlier so we can encourage them to start even as freshmen to look for internships, jobs, etc. I know what I need to do a better job with (Library Lessons, keeping up with the ASC requirements, etc.). I had the students reflect on the class and they for the most part seemed to like it. I actually got a really interesting reflection from one of my students and I kept it so I could write it here but of course, it's in Caldwell. I'll post it when I get back in January. Their finals were about the six strategies that they will use in their future education/career and they were really great to read. So many of them started with "I thought this class was going to be useless" and ended with "but wow, was I wrong and this class totally helped me out.... etc...." so that feels really good. I also had a student who totally blew the class off at the beginning of the semester, realized that she really needed the help the class was providing and worked so hard to turn herself around, especially since she wasn't going that well in any of her other classes. She ended up with a solid C in the class which was so cool- I was really proud of her.

Calculating the grades was a pain in the butt but I got them done. I did them all before the finals and posted their numeric total on post-its (see picture below) so all I had to do once I finished grading the massive pile of papers (also see below) of finals. Then all I had to do was input the last grade and do the final calculations. I had to proctor a final for Dori so I had three hours of uninterrupted grading which let me finish on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. I wish I had known that several months before because I totally could have flown out on Wednesday and made it to Mindy' PJ party on Thursday but such is life and I had a nice relaxing night in Boise with Bailie and Brooke before taking off for Florida.