At the end of the year
There is a particular atmosphere in the room at the end of the year.
The work is finished, or as finished as it will be. The deadlines have passed. The presentations are done. The all-nighters have been survived, some more gracefully than others. What remains is something quieter. A collective exhale. And underneath it, something that is harder to name.
Students look at their work differently at the end of a year than they do at any other point.
Teaching something you are still learning
There is a version of teaching that presents itself as complete. The expert at the front of the room. The knowledge is transferred in one direction. The implicit contract: I have been here before, and I will show you the way. I have never been comfortable with that version.
First Draft, Pun Intended
I have been meaning to start this blog for approximately ten years. In that time, I have designed websites for other people, taught hundreds of students how to communicate ideas clearly and with intention, facilitated workshops specifically about the value of getting things out of your head and into the world and somehow, simultaneously, found every possible reason not to do this particular thing myself.