Week in review

There were eight students in 101 yesterday, and I had to send three of them away because they hadn't done the reading. (Reading on which their midterm and next paper will be based--which they know.) I told the remaining five that they may be it by the end. There is one other young woman who may return: she's smart but her attendance and work have been sporadic. The six of us who were there actually had a pretty cool time: the contrasting arguments put forth by John Muir and Marsden Manson regarding the building of Hetch Hetchy turned into a conversation about whether practicality trumps beauty--or whether "practicality" is often in fact just doing what is cheapest and easiest.... If the class ends up that tiny, it will be more like a senior seminar--and the five (or six) remaining students will get pretty fabulous value for their time and money.

The 102 was fine: they didn't set the world on fire with their analysis of the poems, but they got it well enough. I won't know if they get how to use the critical material until I see their papers. Of course, like everything, some will get it, some won't.

Today, before my ride, I did manage to get through a few assignments for 265--all pretty lousy, but done. Tomorrow after placement reading I'll go to the office and see what more I can crank through. I'm having dinner with Kristin tomorrow evening (seems like we haven't seen each other in decades), and if I can, I'd like to try to grade a little more even on the train on the way in. (I know I'll be too pooped to do any more on the way home, but any little bit helps). Then I'll have to see where I am on Sunday, and whether I can afford the time to go to dance class. I will be miserable if I have to miss it--but I might have to miss it. We'll see.

In any event, once again, blog entries may be few and far between for a while. Once this huge push through piled up assignments is finished, it will be (desperately needed) spring break, and I know I won't do any work to speak of over that break--and probably won't blog much, if at all, in that time either. Just so you don't worry I've fallen down a hole somewhere if the posts become far less regular.