The Energy of In Person Classes

I had a great teaching day yesterday:  three sections of English 102, three discussions of Antigone, the play by Sophocles.  Perhaps it was less discussion than me lecturing.  But lecturing sounds dry, and our time together was not dry.  For one thing, we had the opportunity to talk about Antigone's family, her father Oedipus, the psychological idea of an Oedipal complex, a concept that was very new (and shocking) to most of them.

There was an energy in the classroom, and I had forgotten how wonderful that energy can be.  When I taught English 102 at the same institution in Fall 2023, I never managed to manufacture that energy.  Of course, we didn't discuss Antigone.  

I mention that I taught three sections yesterday, because I had the same kind of energy in each of the classes, which is almost never possible, as I remember on-ground teaching.  There's usually 1 class that's a dud or one class that's much more high energy than the others.

I didn't have as many people talking/discussing, but they stayed alert and focused, and occasionally, offered an answer--and it wasn't the same person all the time.  In all three classes, this happened.

On Thursday, I had a similar experience in my American Lit survey class as we talked about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  But I only taught one section, so I thought that the high energy of Thursday might be limited to that class or just a one day phenomena,

I realize that it's early; the energy might be because we're in the first days of the term.  But frankly, as the years have gone on, I see less of that kind of energy, and last spring, none of that first week positive energy at all.

As I was walking to my car yesterday, marveling at the way the day unfolded, I laughed a bit at how surprised I am that the literature classes went so well.  After all, my first teaching love is literature; it's what I've been trained to do, and what I believe in passionately.  I teach English Composition in a way that allows me to be enthusiastic, but I'm not teaching English Composition because of my passionate devotion to the first year essay or research paper.

I feel so lucky to have a chance to do this again.  I don't know how long I'll be able to do it, which puts me in a feeling of even deeper gratitude.  And I've been teaching long enough to know that my classes may not always have this energy--another source of gratitude.