back in the saddle agin

Well I'm back in the classroooom today and I must say it feels good. Not too much rust to shake off after a long vacation.

Can I whisper something? Don't tell anyone, but...

It is nice to be in-class. When I am in here I am not out there. accessible. interruptible. needable.

Out there I have to be the good guy all the time. It is hard having to be "on" all the time. It actually makes me like people less when they are always demanding. My whole team are very "feeling" people. Very high-context communicators. I am not quite on that level of chirpiness all the time, so when I am focused on my work I get accused of being a cold, uncaring...blah blah blah ;?p

-sigh-

It is true that I don't care now. Or rather that I have priorities too. and being easily distractible I have to work hard at focusing. So in those rare moments when I can achieve robotic perfection I have to use it.

In here, in-class, I can be focused and more or less work with people on my terms. That may sound kinda funny as a teacher of grown-ups. They are supposed to be this rabble of independent thinkers and trouble-makers.

Nonsense and other remarks. They are highly-invested collaborators. Treat them with respect and show them commitment to resolving their challenges together and they will purr like cats. Even the I.T. students. Especially the I.T. students - though their purrs sound unnatural and freakish, coming as they do from bodies that consume way too much Red Bull* and are very much aquainted with robot-like perfection.

(I.T. Dads are excepted from the freakish purring category, though I am not sure I quite want to hear that sound coming from pop unless someone is scratching his back. Back scratches trump any other rule.)

*hint: any amount of Red Bull is too much. even very high values of zero.