7 August 2009

Last day of Class

Last day of my summer teaching as a graduate instructor was the day before. At the beginning of class, while I was just about to go upstairs to get some coffee for myself, a couple of my students running down the stairs handed me a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin. They walked towards me with the bag and cup in their hands and thrust both out towards me with me looking no doubt a little blank. "Yes. We got it for you. A little going-away gift. Thanks..." I was so touched that all I could say about five times and more was "Thank you so much. That was awfully nice of you..." They seemed equally gleeful and one of the boys informed me "...and we were worrying whether you'd beat us to the cafe." "Yes, so we ran upstairs as fast as we could..." said the other.

And on the same day right at the end of that last class on that last day, I'd barely said a proper good bye to all the students...there were a couple of girls who came up and wanted an A instead of a B for the course. One of them plaintively inquired why she hadn't done well in the last quiz even though both of them had studied together till 3 O'clock the night before the quiz. There were more comments. They wanted me to increase the number of points for their class presentation. They accused me of not having enough assignments (which is why they hadn't done well). And then one of the girls made the mistake of saying, "I didn't know that I'd get a B if I missed 11 points." That was it. I told her that the information was in the syllabus and that I hadn't kept it a secret, and if she had wanted to get an A so badly then maybe she would have done well not to have waited until the very last day of class.
That was that more or less.


3 comments:

Suvro Chatterjee said...

That's another watershed event, what?

As for the students' reactions, now you know how we teachers feel, especially those of us who have been at it for half our lives. Good luck to you...

Shilpi said...

No, it wasn't a watershed event, Suvro da. Did I make it sound thus?

I wasn't blowing the trumpets (of any kind) but it's true that I've never been offered a coffee and a muffin by any of my students (or by anyone come to think of it with a "thanks" at the end) before, so that did feel unusually nice. That indeed was completely unexpected just as it was completely unexpected when one of my favourite students (from the first semester that I was teaching), always used to greet me from across the road and used to come over to talk with me long after he had taken a class with me.

As for the other kind - I've had them every semester. There was nothing unusual nor unexpected about that.
It was just somewhat amusing in a dry sort of way that I encountered the two different kinds on the very same same day - that's all.

And I've never been completely insensitive to how teachers feel nor about how students react and respond, even if I say so myself.

Thanks for the good luck and (although you sound somewhat glum and terse) many thanks for commenting as always. I'd rather have a terse comment than none.
Shilpi

Amit Parag said...

Hello,Shilpi di,this is Amit(one of Suvro Sir's students).I am in the 12th standard and am preparing for the SAT exam.Could you tell me how is the college life in America.
What are people there like?
Any information and suggestions and advice which you may find worthwhile would be welcome.
My email id is: amit.parag006@gmail.com
With regards,
Amit