To answer that question: probably awful if on a long-term basis. But I’m thinking about how energetic I am right now in regards to teaching tomorrow morning and how excited I am to talk about the assignment, to look at examples of writing, to proceed forward with student projects. I’m thinking about all this energy.
And how hard it is to have that energy at 8:30 when I actually do teach. I’m very much a morning person, but in the industrious work hard type of morning person. I have energy in the morning, but it’s more introverted energy. My extroverted energy (that my teaching thrives on a bit) comes later: around 10 am to 4 pm and then again around 7 pm on.
I have a hard enough time being energetic and coherent at 8:30 am. My students are usually lethargic. They work well in small groups, but would rather not talk to the whole class. Unlike my other 4 classes, who talk pretty freely to the whole class, my 8:30 class sounds like crickets when I ask questions. I’ve found that rather than whole class discussions with this class, small group discussion work a lot better.
But I’d rather have my 11 pm energy than my 8:30 am energy with this class.
Then again, I’ve taught a night class before (two years ago), and the energy was so much different than day classes. I’d like to give teaching at night a try now that I’ve had a bit more experience teaching.
Interestingly enough, I ran into one of my former students from that night class today at a restaurant. I almost didn’t recognize him. It then hit me that by the end of this summer, I’ll have left OSU having taught 450 students or more. That’s pretty intense. Or at least it feels that way.
