Class Photos

First: You should never try to take pictures while laughing - focusing just won't happen.

Second: You should make clear to certain male students that this is not a "Men of 101" calendar.

Third: You should file class photos in a folder on the computer desktop labeled: You Laughed. The reason you should do this, you might ask, is because even though it's blurry, and even though that blur might be a metaphor for your teaching some days, you all still laughed - a lot. As a class you laughed through difficult, frustrating talks about the implications of claims, the importance of signposting and explicit frickin' language. You laughed when the forwarding of concepts seemed impossible, and again when it was so obvious that everyone in the classroom was smacking their heads like a bad cartoon. You laughed in the frigid, freakish wind when mobs of other students walked by, watching you all huddled together like grade school - digital memories of bunny ears and peace signs being made (those symbols obviously never get old).

Fourth, and finally: You should visit this folder often, and you should remember that the best and worst of teaching is the laughing - them at you, you at them, all of you together - and if you get it right, there's enough going around that one type balances the other, that everyone is the part of the punchline at some point. And when you aren't even looking, you might notice you've learned more than you thought you could, about writing, and people, and life.