A Night with the Green Pen

I correct my students' work in green. When they correct their own work, they use red, but I use green so as to make the page look less like it's bleeding. I suppose that on some alien planet there is a teacher who uses red ink because her blood runs green. But at any rate, tonight I've been up correcting papers. A big stack of them. And I'm only half through it, and today at school I'm sure to get another stack. But I'm going to quit for tonight and get a couple hours of sleep before going back.

I love this time of year because many of the students tend to be at their best. It's splendid to look at the papers and see how much they have learned, and to see the new ways they're using the language creatively. My third and fourth years do a journal every week. They are so fun to read, especially when the topic allows them to really be creative. I also love this time of year because most of the first years are finally settling down a bit. There is a break through point where the language seems a little less foreign--it usually begins to hit some of the students after about a semester, although for some of them, it hits the next year. For one student, this is the fourth year of working with the language and it's finally opening up. I get this mental image of their heads just opening up and light streaming in and out.

I love teaching!