I'm back, but then, I never left...

I know I haven't blogged alot lately, and it's (1) because I've been teaching off and on and (2) not much has gone on lately. I have one more week of teaching this summer at the Midland Center For The Arts. I taught last week during the C.O.O.R. MEAP summer camp thing at Kirtland Community College. I was the Photography instructor. Usually my wife teaches it with me, but she was in Midland teaching Ceramics. So I was solo, with help from a couple other instructors who admitted they were photography-blind.
This was the last year for this MEAP program due to budget cuts. I've taught every year for the last 9 years. It's a shame, because I get parents come up and tell me their kid was in my class and now he/she's taking photography in high school or college. And every instructor in the program has similar stories. It's one week that the kids and their parents tend to remember for a long time. And in the case of kids in my class, it's been a positive memory for them. Some kids had siblings in the class and ask me if I remember them. HA!! "I don't even remember YOUR name, and you're wearing a name tag for the class!" was my recurring comment this year. You see, the reason both my wife and I taught was because every year, we have up to 35 students in the class. The average has been about 29 for 9 years, so I've taught roughly 261 students, and it's one week out of the Summer. I can't remember last YEAR'S class, much less 3 or 8 years ago! The sad thing is, most of the years, we would have run-ins with kids, parents or instructors that would sour our interest in teaching the next year, but these past 2 years have been the best kid-wise and all around feel-wise. And now it's over.