My awesome students

There have been ups and downs to this whole teaching gig. It's a lot of work, but it is a really fun distraction. I feel compelled to provide my students with something valuable, and in return, they spend hours preparing for my class. I'm very self conscious of how I give them grades- but the fact is I have a bunch of awesome students.

A pair mind boggling examples:
-As I was tallying the grades from last week's assignments (3% of the final grade), I realized I didn't have one from one of my students. I figured I lost it, since I couldn't find some other articles I thought were with it, and emailed him to ask for another copy. He declined, saying he hadn't done the assignment. Seriously, I basically gave him a free pass to get those points, and he demurred. Wow.

-Two students led last nights discussion, and they did a fantastic job with the material- they brought in some cases I was unfamiliar with, and the rest of the class got on board. It was a really fun discussion. While I was pondering their grades (Do I want to give them an A++ because I am so interested in this stuff, or because they actually did A++ quality work?) after class, they started talking about Med School Interviews. Turns out, one of my students was just on her first interview THAT DAY. Yeah, at Pitt, a top 10 ranked program. And then she came and rocked in my class like it was no big thing.

We are now just 3 weeks from the end of the semester, and by the looks of it, I'll be giving 9 out of 10 As, which I think absolutely describes the quality of work I am getting out of these students. I supposed I should make more of an effort to tell THEM how thrilled I am with the work they have done, but I didn't want to ruin the magic by letting them all realize their grades are basically secure at this point. Perhaps next week's class will start with some epic gushing.