My First Term as a Teacher

As of ten thirty this morning I finished checking the last of my students' take-home exams. The experience was oddly cathartic, but more than that I feel immensely relieved that it's over.

Teaching for the last three months at De La Salle University has been rewarding in more ways than one. It's helped me develop aspects of myself that I never even knew were there before. And it helped me get over my fear of ever setting foot in La Salle again (after the bar).

I don't know if it's something I'll get to do again any time soon. For one thing, I won't have any load from DLSU next sem so I guess I'll have to spend the next six months at my day job, and whenever possible honing my skills for a possible second crack at the noblest profession.

As enjoyable as it was, however, I do confess that it was a bit of a nail-biting experience at times. You see, La Salle kids are smarter than a lot of people give them credit for, and more often than not they were (almost) able to put me on the spot. It was actually one of my fears that at some point the students would realize what a fraud I was, and how little I knew at that given moment. Suffice it to say, to cure myself of this early phobia I studied harder than I ever had in my life (with the exception, of course, of the bar). God, teachers have to study even freaking harder than students.

There has, however, been payoff, other than the obvious paycheck. I've been in an enclosed space with nearly thirty kids about ten years my junior, and it has helped...well...rejuvenate me. It's not that I feel I'm ready to be put out to pasture by any stretch of the imagination, but given that I'm a relatively new dad, it's nice to spend some time with a room full of adolescents and post-adolescents to prepare me for the trial that my children's own tween/teen years is likely to be years down the line.

Whether or not I get to do this again, I'm definitely grateful for the chance I've gotten. Maybe I'll write a paper or get a graduate degree before I try this again, or maybe I'll rack up some more teaching credit so that I can get a graduate degree. I don't know. Either way, this has been one heck of a ride.