I'm sitting here, watching the minutes tick by excruciatingly slowly as my 55 gen chem students take their final exam. A casual observer might notice the increase in number of people wearing sweats (at SPU, students usually dress up more than your average college student for whatever reason) and the intermittent yawns, neck stretches and blank stares at the page. I think it's a good test...though, if you've been following my blog these last 10 weeks, you'll know that I've thought all my tests were fair and awesome.
Nevertheless, this week marks the end of the quarter. I have (almost) made it. My other class gives their research presentations tomorrow, and I have a beast of a paper to write myself...for which I only have a few disconnected thoughts thus far. All this (and grading these 55 finals) needs to be done by Friday morning at 4am, when I hop a plane for 10 awesome days in Washington DC to catch up with a bunch of friends from SPU and try to get a chat with Obama in about his educational policies.
Maybe I'll reflect more on my professorhood these past months in the future when I am further removed from it. Right now, I am welcoming the break, though I will miss these students, their interested spirits and their smiling (usually) faces and hope they are leaving my class with largely positive outlooks. (I guess I'll see the course evaluations in a week and know for sure.) I've attempted this quarter to encourage and foster critical thinking about chemistry and not just giving steps and saying "that's just how it is, you'll have to believe me." Learning to truly THINK for myself has been the greatest gift my teachers and professors have given me, and I still challenge myself daily to do so more.
I'll leave you with one of my favorite moments from the last week (which has mostly been a blur). When grading some take home extra credit quizzes (I'm such a nice prof, right?):
Question: What would happen if you added some hydrobromic acid to the
final solution?
Student: "Probably something amazing. JK. But seriously I
have no clue"
Much laughter ensued. And, no, I didn't give him bonus points (though I considered it).
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