JOURNAL: September 26, 2006

Yesterday I started the day with an efficient hike up and down the long hill near my house, and from then on things seemed to move along in an unusually well- organized way. My morning classes were quiet and controlled. The kids, as is customary on a Monday morning, were not especially talkative, but they were attentive and respectful, and we moved through the lessons in a resourceful manner. In fact, in some ways I felt like I was teaching in a more structured way than I ever had. After a quiet lunch with my advisees, during which we discussed some goals they had for the week, my afternoon classes (9th grade) seemed even more efficient than the morning ones. We had a visitor during one of the classes, and he may have made the kids even more attentive than usual. They sat up straight, listened carefully, made thoughtful comments, and we quietly thanked each other at the end of class. My college classes were similarly proficient. Everything seemed to proceed in a spick-and-span way. I covered the material I had planned to cover, and the students, for the most part, seemed satisfied with what they were learning. It was a day of systematic, shipshape occurrences, one after another, and I felt lucky to be a part of it.