Our English Department consists of three teachers — or four, if you count the college counselor who will teach a short course to seniors who are going to Israel this year — but it feels more like three. Of course, I’m one of them. The other two are Randal and Josh. I am in the odd position of being the only woman in the department for the first time in my career. Randal is probably the best writing teacher I’ve ever worked with. Josh is a first year teacher, but taught undergrad freshman comp classes last year as a grad student.

I gotta say… I think I’m part of the best English department I’ve ever worked with. We delivered the first part of a two-part presentation to the faculty on how we teach and assess writing. I didn’t get a chance to do my bit on the research paper, but that will come next week. I feel very privileged to work with these guys. Their presentation was amazing (I spoke little this time) and really interesting. They received a lot of compliments from the faculty. The faculty were invited to attend, but not required, which was one reason why I was so pleased by the high turn-out.

I asked Josh if he thought I should hook up the laptop and projector next week for the second half of our presentation and show the faculty my class wiki or would it suck up too much time? He thought it would be a great idea. I love being able to do that — just bounce ideas off the fellas. Our meetings are by turns really insightful and productive and completely hilarious — Randal and Josh happen to share a rather sharp wit. Actually, they’re a lot of fun.

I hope, if they run across this, they don’t mind me sharing a recent moment that really cracked me up. We were all in the classroom that Randal and Josh share. There were students in there, too, but I can’t remember why. One the students on yearbook came in to ask Randal if he could take his picture for the yearbook. Randal said no. They argued for a while.

I said, “Randal, quit being so cantankerous and let him take your picture.”

Randal: “No, the paparazzi killed the princess!”

Josh: “You’re no princess.”

Student: “And I’m not the paparazzi.”

Randal: “OK, fine.”

Hmm. On paper that isn’t even close to being as funny as it was in person.

I love being in the English Department.