I just finished my last class of the semester.

It was over Zoom. As have all my classes for the last few weeks as my university moved fully online after Thanksgiving.

As I gave my little “last day” speech, it felt very…surreal.

The semester is, of course, not over. I have another meeting this afternoon and there are still finals to grade. But, for me, the last day of classes is really when things start to feel…complete.

At least, they usually do.

As any professor (or teacher) can attest, this semester has been…weird. Half of my classes were online “synchronous” (i.e. I taught them live but online instead of in the classroom) and half my classes were face-to-face (i.e. traditional). But even those face-to-face classes, due to the requirements of the university that we livestream all our classes, were only half full (or less) with the rest of the students joining from their homes.

The lack of interaction with my students was a major downer. Especially as a theatre professor. There is something about having everyone in the room – the camaraderie, the collaboration, the bouncing of ideas – that simply wasn’t able to be recreated this semester. The digital dragon always created some sort of barrier.

And yet…it was fine. Like always, I took on too many projects. And yet, the biggest upside of the semester, I had a TA who took on the brunt of my grading which allowed me to focus much more on the actual teaching and creating parts of my job that I enjoy. I also learned to adjust my expectations of what made a “successful” class session, in a way that made it possible to be successful in these new formats.

I’ve also truly loved being able to have lunch with my family every day this week.

I don’t know what the future holds. Next semester I technically have all in-person classes. We’ll see how many students actually make it to class. But now that we all have a full COVID semester under our belts, I’m hoping that we’ll all be a little smarter, a little more generous, and a little more joyful.