“Just a word of encouragement for everyone drafting syllabuses and pouring blood, sweat, and tears over assignment prompts and Moodle updates and readers: in my garage, I still have at least one large box of almost every single syllabus, prompt, assignment I wrote, notebook with in-class notes in them (which are really fascinating since they document not only course content but also random professorial quotes, narratives, and even script-like discussion), and readers or stray articles, going all the way back to my freshman year as an undergraduate. Point: that student might be in your class. I’m pretty sure I looked like a clueless and pretty unassuming student, at that age, who made a point to wear “nicer dresses” to class, in addition to being pretty introverted and sitting in the back of the room or by the door (because I’m claustrophobic). There are always a few students, maybe quiet, maybe shy, who are really listening and who are absolutely excited by your course — whether you are teaching Meteorology, Math for Artists, Intro to Psychology, Chemistry with Lab, Advanced Composition, Sociology of the Family, Introductory Poetry Seminar, or American History from 1865 to the Present.

Then again, I also assigned myself daily homework over the summer all through elementary school… so maybe there was just something actually wrong with me. Bombs away!”

— Sakina Bryant