The drive back home on Sunday morning was blissfully uneventful and actually took an hour less time than it took driving out. The sun was shining, flowers were blooming. It was nice to pull into the driveway at lunchtime and see AJ smiling and waving in the window. He got so excited that he took off outside in his bare feet (or, as he calls it, �just feet.�)

For some reason, being at the conference seemed to impart a certain amount of calm upon me that I have been sorely lacking in recent weeks. I took a later train this morning and didn�t obsess over class. I not only ate lunch, but I ate it with a friend in a nice place with a table as opposed to in my dark office. Naturally the class was better as a result. Actually, it was a great class. I had a lot of fun and I think they did too. I do a lot better when I�m not so nervous. Last week I felt like I was jumping around the classroom like a squirrel on speed. At the end I had to make some decisions regarding the waiting list and had to tell two students that I couldn�t get them in, but that the course would be offered again in the fall. �But are you teaching it in the fall?� one of them asked. I shook my head. �Or will you be teaching it another time?� chimed in the other.

I don�t tend to worry too much about whether my students like me or not, only that they feel comfortable enough with me to tell me if they�re having trouble. But just the same, it�s nice to know that the students are responding to what you�re trying to do.

The best thing about my day, though, was getting their first written assignments back. They did great. The first assignment of a class is always a bit scary, at least for fairly inexperienced teachers like me. You always worry if they understand what you�re getting at, if you�ve pitched the level of the assignment correctly, if you�ve written it clearly enough for them to all respond in a similar fashion. A good set of homework means I�m doing my job well. They�re understanding what I�m saying in class and figuring out how to apply it when I�m not there to walk them through the process. Hooray! But not too much celebrating yet. I still have to grade all these papers. To work!

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