I'm baaaaaaaaaa-aaaaack.
As of this moment, I am done teaching (for at least a week), and all of
the things I've been neglecting are finally back on the agenda. And E2
is high on the list ... if only slightly behind sleeping and painting.
In any case, I spent the last five weeks teaching introductory physics
to pre-meds at my university. This summer course setup is intense.
I was only doing discussion sections (also known as recitations for those of you at hoity-toity colleges), but it was absolutely consuming.
But so rewarding.
Teaching was an absolutely wonderful experience. I got to see someone
get it. Over the course of a single five-week session I saw my
students change their method of thinking. I saw them grow. I
watched them learn how to attack complicated problems and apply what
they'd learned to situations they would never have dreamed of ever facing
before. I witnessed as they entered the doors of a course they didn't want
to take (but had to) and rocked it.
But after three-hour review sessions and piles of papers of grading I was beat. And they knew it.
And when I walked in the door today at the beginning of their final
exam, they broke out into spontaneous applause. With my professor clapping right with them. Wow. (Somebody must have told him I was here until ten o'clock)
... I'm so ready for the free time that I finally get to enjoy for a little
while, but I know I'm going to miss this.