Monday, December 07, 2009

'Tis the season

Classes ended last Friday and accompanying the brisk pace of students finishing their independent lab by the prescribed 5:00 pm deadline, considerable time was spent simply putting "one foot in front of the other." Questions were answered, crowds were handled, and the pressure of completion was felt by one and all. It often feels things ends abruptly, even after six weeks of reminders and a large countdown sign on the IRC door.

Last week a young woman stopped in the IRC and took a few minutes to tell me how patient everyone was with her throughout the term and how much she appreciated the time taken to answer all her questions.  She gave me a thank-you card containing a gift certificate for a local pizza shop. It was a thoughtful gift that I passed along to my students this morning; each of them now has a pizza break financed during finals.

It was a very nice moment during a week filled with deadlines and revisions.

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