Homework

When I was student, I never thought about work my teachers did, not even of the work my really good teachers did, like Jan Sawls Mims or Margaret Gage or Lloyd Stow or Milly S. Barranger or Ljubica Popovich or Gerald Chapman. I guess I just thought they taught on the basis of divine inspiration.

Hah!

It's hard to teach well. I should know. I've been doing it for more than 25 years, and while the classroom part has become easier, the preparation hasn't.

The keys to good teaching are two: planning and writing down the planning. That's what I'm doing now before school starts Monday. I've been here at my desk since 9 this morning. And I'll be here tomorrow afternoon and Sunday as well. I thought quietly all summer, and now I have finally started spitting it all out -- bit by carefully considered bit.

It's exciting and exhausting both.