But the words were hardly uttered, before the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below.

Don’t believe what the students say: Gothic mystery novels are so relevant to my life. For instance, I completely sympathized with the expression of Dr. Jekyll in the passage above yesterday morning, when NOT ONE student from my class remembered to do her homework or bring her textbook.

Mr. Utterson at last turned and looked at his companion. They were both pale; and there was an answering horror in their eyes.

Oh, and did I mention this was the morning of my first observation? For my Master’s degree program?

“God forgive us, God forgive us,” said Mr. Utterson.

But Mr. Enfield only nodded his head very seriously, and walked on once more in silence.

I would have liked to follow suit, but what I did was calmly allow the students to get their books en masse; then borrowed an armful of copies from the workroom for the students who didn’t even have their books at school; then gave them a five-minute reading period before the lively discussion commenced.

And, for what it’s worth, my instructor was impressed at my handling of a difficult, though all-too-familiar, situation. “How long did you say you’d been teaching?”

“Six years,” I said proudly.

“So you know how it is.”

Yes. Yes, I sure do. It takes a lot more than that to freeze my blood.