The winter quarter is almost done. I have final grades to do this weekend and then I will officially be on spring break. Very exciting. Several of my students will not be so excited, as they have failed the course and will need to repeat it. Luckily, it isn’t that I am an awful, hard grader, but they didn’t pass the department’s portfolio assessment.

I think there is a relationship between this and my attitude, though I think it is not what some may suspect. By my judgment, my attitude adjustment came after realizing how little some of the students cared about their education. Perhaps some people might want to think that my “caring less” directly affected those who failed. But, basically I can’t write the essays for them, I can’t think for them, and I can’t make them listen and take my insightful advice on their essays. Heck in one case I couldn’t force a student to show up for her one-on-one conference to discuss her essays. Students have a lot more control over their education than they think they do.

This quarter definitely left me burnt out on teaching. I wonder if next quarter will be any better…