Aaaaaaaaaaaah

I'm done! done! DONE for the semester.

I am soooo far behind on emails and LJ, not to mention the hideous pile of paper recycling in my flat, that I fear I'll never catch up. Not a single card has gone out. Narry a present is wrapped. But I feel immense relief.

This was perhaps my hardest semester so far. It wasn't my coursework, it was the overall pressure upon me. I taught two different courses at two different schools, and it was just too much to do. On the other hand, I have discovered a new ability to write very quickly, under pressure. I don't have grades in yet, but I don't feel like I sweated over the coursework. This makes me feel oddly good because I didn't struggle with any of the concepts in my courses at all. I just didn't devote as much attention to them as I could have had I not also taught. But I get to relax now and enjoy the holidays...at least for a few days.

For those of you who took the survey, THANK YOU. I know sequentialscott was particularly interested to know what we little academic devils were up to. ( click behind the text for academic stuff )

For those of you who helped out with the LGBT policy syllabus, know that it went really really well. The students universally expressed a great deal of pleasure in having learned so much about LGBT oppression. Even the students who were LGBT were moved by the depth of history and oppression they learned and hadn't realized they didn't know. Two of my students thought I was "cool" :snort: and one of them came out to me in privacy as transgendered while another thanked me profusely for encouraging her to enter counseling after confessing to me in private that she had been molested as a child. I am always pleased to see the intellectual and professional growth of my students. But these 'extra-curricular' bits made me feel like I've also made a personal impact on others' lives for the better. I definitely look forward to modifying and teaching this course again next year.

Now I think I'm going to make myself a well-deserved cocktail and put my feet up in front of the telly, kitties asleep on either side of me.

And before I forget, thank you for the lovely cards and assorted fun things from selinaenriquez, wrm_mpth_genuin, perosha and murmeltierchen!

Happy Winter Solstice, Flist!