Post #2607596

I just finished grading real analysis midterm exams. I am exhausted, not just from the focused effort (it the largest real analysis class ever taught at UW, I believe: until last year, the largest was 40, and mine is 85 students!), but from the feeling that I am hitting most of my students with a stick. I don't mean to, but I have to assess their performance (we've not successfully worked out alternative to grading here (yet?)). Many students did not do well, and I find it very difficult emotionally to have to be the bearer of bad news. It's a really problem for me (I talk to my therapist about it often). Something about how I need to understand that people can handle their own emotions, and it's not my fault that they do poorly on my exams (and homework). But I can't get over the feeling that other people (my students) are going to get some information from me that will make them feel bad (which makes me feel bad enough) and then they will have negative feelings about me. I've been struggling with this for a long time, and I imagine it will only stop when I retire, which I would love to do but it's not the easiest thing to arrange. I look forward to summer and no teaching for a bit! So that's what's going on with me. How are you? Happy weekend!