Entering the Empty Classroom

Each new semester, I wonder if this time, I’ll feel exhausted and bored and burnt out when I arrive to sign my new teaching contract in the English department. I wonder if this is the year I’ll experience drudgery. I wonder if I’ll resent the work–the lessons plans and grading and office hours.

Those feelings never come! Praise God for fresh joy and energy! I visit my empty classrooms with so much curiosity and giddy anticipation of which students will sit where, what I’ll learn about them, and what I’ll read of their writing. What a privilege and sacred vocation teaching has become in my heart! What a wonderful task ahead!