Uninspiring

I started teaching The Hunger Games to my intro students today. Let's see - this is probably the fifth time I've taught this book in the last two years. It's the first time I've taught it to freshmen, though. And you know freshmen - most of them don't read. Well, let's say half of them don't. I had lots of absence today because of the March for Life in Washington (don't even get me started...) and then there were a few people who missed for no apparent reason. All together, I had bad attendance and only about a quarter of the students had read the assignment. Those who had read the assignment (about 70 pages) had actually ended up reading most of the book over the weekend. Right on. But it's tough teaching with enthusiasm when it's clear that a lot of people have no idea what you're talking about. I gave it my best shot, though.

I have to say, this group of intro students is frankly uninspiring to me. This is sad because last semester the intro class was my very favorite. They were smart and with it - always read the assignments. Of course, when the class is small (8 students) and the teacher calls on you if you don't volunteer to talk (waves!) then you pretty much have to read. Or be humiliated.

I don't want to give myself more work, but I might have to start doing daily reading quizzes. Ugh. So insulting to everyone. I don't want this to be a lecture class, though. I tried group work on Friday with mixed results. I think I'm going to have to figure out something else to make them talk. Otherwise, this semester is going to drive me up the ever-loving wall.

At least my drama class appears to be on top of things. I teach Trifles in there tomorrow. I taught that in my intro class last week. I hope that the drama class is far more inspiring than the intro class had been. Meh.