TITLE: One of *Those* Days
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: March 30, 2006  4:47 PM
DESC: 
-----
BODY:
Some days, I walk out of the classroom and feel,
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2005-10.html#e2005-10-13T18_36_29.htm">
   Man, I am good</A>.
Today was not one of those days.  On days like today,
I walk out the classroom thinking alternately, "Did
I really just do that to my students?" and "What a
rotten day."

Such days don't usually "just happen".  (Well, except
when my
<A HREF="http://www.bio-chart.com/">
   biorhythms</A>
are out of whack...)  I think I can trace today's
not-so-good performance to a few things:
<UL>
<LI> I don't know all of CS well enough to teach every
     topic without suitable prep time.  Today, I was
     not well enough prepared.
<P>
<LI> I can't count on the last moments before a session
     to finish preparing.  Sometimes, other duties pop
     up at the last minute.
<P>
<LI> Even when I know an area well, I don't always know
     it in the right way.  Occasionally, I bump into
     something that I can <EM>do</EM> reliably, but that
     I can't <EM>teach</EM> without hiccups.
<P>
<LI> I can't cut the examples out of a lecture in order
     to cover more material without risking that students
     won't follow all of my material as well.  Then,
     when they seek clarification in an example, I'm not
     as prepared to help as I'd like to be.
</UL>

Fortunately for my students, I don't have too many days
like today.  Besides, it's good for the universe to remind
me every so often that I'm not that good.  Keeps me
humble.
-----