A.M. Reflections
Charlie Eppes sighed as he sat at his desk and looked out over the bleary eyes of his 8 o'clock class, his 8 o'clock freshman class, never a good combination. As much as he loved to teach, he couldn't stand the blank, still-half-asleep looks this class always gave him.
If there was one class that he tried every semester to get out of teaching it was this one, but the Dean thought with his relative youth (relative compared to the other professors who were 50+ years old) and his flashier (as the Dean called it) teaching style, the young and inexperienced freshman students were likely to learn more and not give up in frustration (something that might lead to them eventually withdrawing from school, thereby taking their money with them and that was not something the Dean was willing to risk).
Though he had to admit that teaching this class had helped him come up with some of the most creative and interactive lesson plans that he used to help get through to the young minds and keep them awake and interested in the math.
This in turn gave him his latest material for a journal article he had had published the month before, lovingly titled "Death to Dull Looks and Blank Stares: Interactive (and Fun) Lessons for Teaching Math."
Admittedly it wasn't one of his best works or anything ground-breakingly new, but sometimes it was important to remember that he was as much a teacher as he was a mathematician, and in the teaching profession it was common courtesy and common practice to share the ideas that worked well and help improve the ideas that had little to no success.
Charlie looked at his watch and sighed, (something he did often in this class, although he did his best to hide them) the time piece read 8:05, meaning it was time to get started.
With this class it was his policy to wait five minutes or so before getting started, because without fail 6 or 7 students would walk in tardy and it wasn't worth the waste of breath to try and talk over the sounds of the door opening and closing and chairs and book bags being moved around.
He grabbed a piece of chalk and stood up, his signal to the class to get quiet.
"Ok guys, let's go over the homework" Charlie dutifully ignored the groans and turned his back to the class to start writing, glad they couldn't see his grin.
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Wow, this is probably my shortest story ever! Of course I wrote it while I was in my physics class, it was the only thing that kept me awake.
I may or may not write another morning reflection for Charlie, because I'm incredibly busy planning my wedding, working, and going to school, so it doesn't sound likely right now. I just hate to leave it so short.