On teaching less.

My teaching-related stress and anxiety are way way down this spring, for multiple reasons. The biggest reason is doubtless that I'm now teaching only one course, and this is my unheard call to cc admins everywhere to lighten the load for all your full-timers. I was teaching three, but two of them were half-semester courses and are now done. And as poetry editor of our in-house litmag, I get another courseload reduction. (Our editor is gunning for one reduction per semester for us, rather than per year.) The result? My one class, an honors class, has 10 students. Shhh! Don't spill it! Summer and fall won't be this leisurely, so I'm trying to savor it.

I'm also taking a break from teaching learning support. Initially I told myself a year off and then a re-assessment. Now I'm re-assessing and believe I'll probably take another year off from it. The kind of b.s. one can encounter in a LS course happens in other courses, too, but generally to a lesser extent. Plus, I think I'm weary of teaching grammar and mechanics.

More to the point, simply teaching less has enabled me to focus on what I'd rather be doing. This has largely encompassed poetry, of course.