Of course I got going much later than anticipated today--somehow all the "getting my feet clear" stuff always takes forever--but nevertheless I managed to get most of my copying done for 101 and 102. I'm still pretty much in the dark about 265, but I figure if I have something for the first week at least (and I think I do), and can come up with stuff for the second week before Wednesday--doesn't have to be much--I'll be OK. I can sort of tap-dance my way to the Presidents' Week break and then sit down and come up with a more codified (albeit still flexible) schedule of assignments for the rest of the semester at that point. I generally find the Presidents' Week break annoying as hell: it breaks the continuity just when things are starting to pull together, so essentially we have to start all over, building momentum, once we're back. It's better now that they give us the whole week--when I first started, we had Monday classes on Friday (how incredibly stupid is that?)--and there are times, like this semester, when it can be a genuine god-send. I'd be in an even worse state of panic if I didn't know I have that moment to pull my head together. By that time I'll also have a better read on the students and how much material (and of what complexity) they can handle in any given week.
I picked up two more in the past week: class count is now at 19. And one of them e-mailed me today to find out what to do to be prepared for the class--what books to buy and so on. This is a transfer student, which suggests someone who flunked out of a four-year school and so is determined to make a success at NCC and return to the four-year institution redeemed. It'll be interesting to see if this enthusiasm and determination last through the semester.
Tomorrow I need to get in to the office early tomorrow: the main office (and thus mailroom with copy machines) closes at 2, and I want to get some more photocopying done--including those poems and handouts for the first week of 265--before the weekend, so I really can turn my attention to the promo folder without any looming worries about getting through the first week of classes.
But I realize I really desperately need a wife--or a personal assistant. Little niggly bits of life maintenance languish unattended for idiotically long periods of time while I either work frantically or collapse into slug status and refuse to move at all. Which is what I'm going to do in just a moment here. I hope by Monday I feel a little less like I'm in the middle of a game of blind-man's-bluff (or whack the pinata--in which I am both the blindfolded and dizzy person with the stick and the buffoon-like toy that's getting whacked). Only way to get there is one day, one hour, one task at a time. Much as I'd like to pole-vault past the worry and anticipation part to the "I got past it" part, the only way out (as they say) is through.
So, yeah, well, excelsior.
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I also received some emails prior to the start about what book we're using. Smart kids, hopefully. I also received an email from someone who would be missing class for a dance audition (I think it's for So You Think You Can Dance because I heard about it on the radio). And finally, I had a student show up late and leave early because of a court appearance. Yippeee, the semester has begun.
ReplyDeleteThe student who e-mailed prior also stayed after class today to tell me she feels she doesn't know enough about poetry (I told her don't be fooled: no one in the class knows substantially more than she does)--but that she's very excited about the class. She seems like a dear: I'll be interested to see how she can write. What do you suppose will happen if your student gets chosen for So You Think You Can Dance? Will you ever see her/him again? The court appearance thing... yeesh. The lives these kids live. But as you say, it begins: all the same brush fires in all the same places.
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