The beginning of each semester is always very fun - mapping out a semester's worth of knowledge on syllabi, meeting new students and learning ways to encourage, educate and inspire them, mastering material to put into lectures. . . It's like the history dork's Christmas in September and January. One of my favorite images to show my students, neatly encapsulating my teaching philosophy, as only Calvin and Hobbes can do, is a great way to start a new semester:
I love this job until I get things to grade - it is the only part of teaching that actually feels like "work" to me. It's important, being fair and evaluating student performances consistently, but it's also tedious at times. There are only so many essay questions on the origins of the French Revolution that you can read until they all seem to say the same thing.
But I am teaching some very fun classes this semester. In addition to my two surveys of US and Modern European history, I'm doing a few focused classes on modern American history that I am really looking forward to. And with my dissertation's first draft completed and defended, I find myself with some extra time to read and learn even more! I have an awesome awesome job.
