In the past 24 hours I have been a grading machine: Over 150 finals graded and grades submitted for four classes. Two more to go tomorrow...
I also had my performance evaluation. What an amazing experience. I had forgotten what it was like to have a boss who understands teaching. He also taught for a decade in the US so he knew just how much I was a fish out of water.
He said he was surprised my student evaluations were as high as they were. "Last semester you made every student retake the midterm and not one of them complained on the evaluations." I said, "Really? Not even the comments in Arabic?" He assured me the Arabic comments were all positive.
At the end of this semester I look back on my year here and shudder to think how green and naive I was upon arrival. Back then I thought, "Oh, teaching will be the easy part. Getting used to the culture will be hard." In reality it's been the exact opposite. Students saw the newbie and it was like I had jumped in a pool of piranhas.
The word "shudder" above is accurate. I honestly shake as I think of the various ways students played me last term. "Steep learning curve" doesn't begin to describe this experience! I told my boss that I had hoped for a "Most improved" award at our departmental dinner. He laughed and said I shouldn't feel bad about a semester of adjustment. It takes some people years.
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Now that grades are in the parade of tears continues to phase II. The e-mails have already started, "Sir, sir, please give me a better grade. I'm only 3 points from a higher grade. You must help me, sir."
My inbox has over 200 e-mails for the past ten days. Sadly, that's no exaggeration. And, sadly, for my students I really have become cold-hearted bastard.
The excuses of last fall are humorous to me now. The "(Sir) (Dr.) Steve" that got played last fall will take just a bit more work from now on.... Not a lot, (I'm still an easy mark) but a bit more work...
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