All-Star Lessons

As I get set to watch today’s baseball All-Star game, it amazes me how I still look forward to this event. I have been watching it for over 30 years. You would think I would have gotten board by the game. You would think I would no longer find it the thrill it once was. True, the players change from year to year, or at least some of them do, but this game is much more for show then it is about anything that matters. You can argue that with the change a few years ago in terms of the game resulting in home field advantage for the World Series, it now means something. I guess that is true, but still, the players and fans, for the most part, see this as just an exhibition game.

It is the joy and anticipation of the game that actually teaches me a lesson when it comes to teaching. It is the challenge of taking the same material, year after year, and making sure that I am still excited about teaching it. It is taking the same material, year after year, and being concerned with how I need to present it so that my students will still find it interesting and even exciting.

It is the baseball All-Star game that helps teach that lesson. Just like a number of the players remain the same, so does a lot of the lesson plans and presentation. Still, just like the performance of certain players during the course of the current year leads to changes in those who start at each position from last year, so too does the performance of my class, with the different students, need to lead me to make some changes.

I look forward to this years game and eagerly await the outcome. I look forward to this upcoming semester’s class and eagerly await that outcome as well. Obviously, I will not wait nearly as long for the game as I will for my class. My challenge is to make sure the eagerness and excitement of teaching the class stays with me up until the beginning of the semester, and then all the way through the semester.

I am up for that challenge and look forward to it.