Verklempt!

I am truly touched that people have kept this blog on their feed readers.  I apologize for my long period of silence.  As my career has evolved I have found it less necessary to vent anonymously, and at some point I found myself with little to say.

In addition, having just finished almost a decade of not-really-administrative but yeah-it's-kind-of-administrative service, at some point in my role as a university representative I decided that exploding online, where anonymity is just an illusion, was unwise.  But my service is now over, and I find myself not quite so angry.

My students have not changed, though I find that I love them and handle them better than I did.  It helps that Angry Kid is now Angry Teenager (please send thoughts and prayers) and that I have learned to appreciate swift and appropriate confrontation even if it involves screaming.  I was also promoted to full, so I am now one of the silverbacks who seemed, back then, to be made of Teflon.  (I have not read a student teaching evaluation since, I think, 2010.)  My students will always disappoint me, and so it is on me to lower my expectations appropriately and try to meet them where they are.  You might criticize me for this, but the system is what it is; I can't change it, I can only adapt to it.  My students still drive me absolutely crazy, and, should I begin blogging on a regular basis again, I'm sure I will have lots of material to share.

Best to you all!