I love this class

I taught one of my evening composition classes tonight. There are eight women in the class - no men - and all of the women are my age or older. I just love it. It's such a refreshing change from my other classes because the women are all comfortable with each other, and everyone seems willing to speak up and respond to one another. They help each other, and it really feels like a community, a cohesive group. And I don't have to force conversation - if anything, I have to pull us back on schedule because we keep talking and run out of time if I'm not careful about the clock. The crazy thing about tonight's class was that we spent the entire time working on their first round of essays, due next week. And everyone listened carefully and offered helpful feedback, and even though they came into class telling me how concerned they were about their papers, they all left saying that they understood how to improve their drafts and they had a better sense of how to approach the short stories we've been reading. It's such a refreshing change, particularly from some of the students in my Saturday morning class who seem to want me to write their papers for them. And I can't get over how much I enjoyed a draft workshop class, one where we weren't even discussing literature directly. This reminded me why I love teaching.