Prepping for the start of classes and suddenly I realize what's missing: no first-year students. Yes, for the first time since--well, forever, I have no first-year classes this fall. No composition, no Honors Literature, no first-year seminar. Just two upper-level literature classes and a host of administrative duties.
I haven't taught the first-year seminar in a couple of years but composition has been part of my fall teaching schedule since the dawn of time, and I've been teaching the fall Honors Lit class for at least a decade. I love that class and I would happily keep teaching it until I retire, but our Honors program has been revamped and the class is no longer part of the curriculum. Will I ever have another opportunity to teach Cold Mountain? Probably not. I will miss it.
What I won't miss: trying to learn the names of several classrooms full of unfamiliar first-year students. Trying to humor the deer-in-the-headlights look off their faces and encourage them to put down their phones and talk to each other. Introducing these shiny new freshpersons to our library databases, our course management system, and MLA citation format. Deciphering their handwriting. Hearing myself repeat over and over the reminder that it's on the syllabus.
And speaking of the syllabus, I'd better get cracking. I'm mostly ready, I think, but I won't know where I'm unready until I step back into the classroom. Two more days! Here we go again, a little older and possibly wiser and refreshingly unencumbered with freshpersons.
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