Last night I finally finished grading the research papers for my three courses. I believe grading is the most difficult task a professor has. When students come to seminary, they want to do well and want to receive a good grade in the courses they take. The fact is, although students work hard in class, not every paper submitted to the professor deserves the top grade. I am glad that what one learns in the classroom is not measured by the grade one receives on a paper.

This has been one of the busiest quarters for me in a long time. The reason for the challenges of this quarter was because I had to teach one additional course in the Fall quarter. This was a new course at Northern Seminary. This additional course meant that I had to develop a set of new lectures, read additional papers, and make additional preparation each week.

I have to confess that it was a wonderful course. I had thirty students in my new course “Exploring the Bible.” These students came to my course eager to learn and to develop a deeper appreciation for the Bible, its formation, and its content.

When a teacher has eager students who want to learn, it becomes easier to teach, and the dialogue in class becomes more exciting. Over all, it was a great quarter. Now that the Fall quarter has ended, I can concentrate on other things, like reading books and blogging.

Because of my heavy schedule, regular blogging has suffered this quarter. The reason I did not blog regularly was because of the amount of reading I had to do. Since my academic work required so much time, something had to give. And what had to give was blogging regularly.

I will be taking a few days off to celebrate Christmas with my three sons and my granddaughters. Christmas is always a time of celebration in the Mariottini household and I am glad that my wife and I will be able to spend Christmas Eve in worship and Christmas Day with our children.

I take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year. Once again, I would like to express to you my appreciation for supporting my blog. I am glad to share with you the results of my study of the Old Testament. At times, you may not agree with what I write, but what I write comes from the heart of a teacher who wants to impart instruction.

Enjoy this Christmas video. It is my Christmas card to you.

Merry Christmas.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Blogging, Christmas