At the beginning of almost every class while students are filing in, I’ll split the stack of graded papers1 and hand them to a couple of students to return to their fellow classmates — I call it “paper duty”. I try to pick different students for “paper duty” every class, and of course, students are are always thrilled to help out.2

Well earlier this week, I attempted to give “paper duty” to a couple of young ladies who immediately scoffed and rolled their eyes at me, with looks of disgust that screamed, “WHO do you think we ARE?!”

I replied — in good fun, of course:

You girls are such DIVAS!34

Today, this is what I got when they turned in their group review assignment:

Cute.

With exactly two weeks until AP Exam day, I’m having mixed feelings. As far as preparation and planning and execution go, this year is the best that I have ever done in preparing students for the big day. Of course, this won’t necessarily translate into the best exam results, as there are so many variables at play.5

But like anything else in life, all that you can do is do your best… and then let go.

1. that need to be passed back to students. I’m too intelligent to pass them back myself, of course. [↩]
2. Okay, not quite. But after the first couple of weeks of school, they mostly learn to roll with it. The most common complaint is “But I don’t know anybody’s name!!!” FYI: passing out papers is one of the best way to learn students’ names. =) [↩]
3. Spoken with HEAVY verbal emphasis on the word “DIVAS”. [↩]
4. Which made them smile, if you’re curious. [↩]
5. Having our exam on a FRIDAY AFTERNOON does not help. [↩]