Notice about Cookies (for European readers)

I have been informed that I need to say something about how this site uses Cookies and possibly get the permission of my European readers about the use of Cookies. I'll be honest: I have no idea how the cookies on this site work. Here (I hope) are links to the pertinent information:

Google's Privacy practices: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=us

How Google uses information from sites or apps that use their services:

https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites





THINGS HAVE CHANGED:

Since I am no longer a professor in the classroom, this blog is changing focus. (I may at some future date change platforms, too, but not yet). I am now (as of May 2019) playing around with the idea of using this blog as a place to talk about the struggles of writing creatively. Those of you who have been following (or dipping in periodically) know that I've already been doing a little of that, but now the change is official. I don't write every day--yet--so I won't post to the blog every day--yet. But please do check in from time to time, if you're interested in this new phase in my life.


Hi! And you are...?

I am interested to see the fluctuation in my readers--but I don't know who is reading the blog, how you found it, and why you find it interesting. I'd love to hear from you! Please feel free to use the "comment" box at the end of any particular post to let me know what brought you to this page--and what keeps you coming back for more (if you do).





Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Weird day

A bizarre day on all kinds of levels. I did blow off the 8:45 meeting but somehow had a very rugged morning trying to get ready to come to campus so didn't get here until later than I intended. I have most of the 102 proposals ready, but not all, and I still have the proposals for 265 to grade. I haven't looked yet to see how many of those students didn't turn in anything at all: at least one (in addition to the guy trying to get caught up, the one I wrote about yesterday). In today's 102, of the students who showed up, three didn't have proposals; one at least had some sources and an idea, but two had zip, nothing, nada. Four students didn't show up at all. I'm now in a bit of a conundrum. If I follow my own rules, six students have now failed the class. A few may have been on that borderline anyway, but some stood fair to at least pass, if not do as well as they might have hoped. I'd hate for them to blow up at this point, but on the other hand, I don't think it's fair to the students who gutted out something to give the ones who didn't a buy on this. If they'd come to me with an explanation and at least an attempt at something, I'd have allowed them a little more time, but to have nothing at all? Especially when I have repeatedly made a huge deal about the fact that these cannot be late (since I have to turn them around so fast)? I'm having a hard time justifying being very forgiving.

Also had a difficult situation in a class in which a couple of students had a complaint about a group mate who was not coming through on the work. They had a truly legitimate beef, but if their group mate is to be believed, they didn't tell her there was a problem until today, in front of me, which wasn't the best of ways to handle the situation. Things got pretty heated among them, but I told them I couldn't adjudicate a no-you-didn't/yes-I-did disagreement: all I could do was come up with a solution. So two of the group members are now a group in themselves. (One of student previously assigned to their group has simply vanished: if he shows up, I told them to send him directly to me. They don't have to deal with giving him the bad news.) The student who was perceived to be the problem has been struggling all semester. She's talked a good game about trying hard and doing her work, but in fact she has been late with most assignments, or missed them altogether--or not done the assignment as instructed. Once the other students left, I had to sit her down and go over her grades with her. She left in tears, which makes me very unhappy: what a shitty day that poor thing just had. However, I'd hate for her to knock herself out to try to finish the semester when truly, mathematically, she cannot pass. I told her I'd let her stay and keep working if she wanted, and we'd come up with something productive for her to do--but I don't want her to do so under any false illusions.

Hate that. Really do.

Since that class ended so early, I was all set to do more work for tomorrow--but a colleague pounced through the door the second that last student left to talk to me about the P&B (Personnel and Budget) election. Utter madness there, too. Turns out, one of the people who ran still has a year to go in her term, so she wasn't even up for re-election. There was a lot of fuss and furor over what to do next, but it looks like the decision may well be (should be, in my estimation) to start over from scratch. And Bruce has persuaded me (ahem-strongarmed-ahem) me into keeping my name on the ballot. I understand the political reasons why I should, but if my numbers go down even further, it will be yet another slap in the ego. Anyway, I leave this to the gods: I'll run, and we'll see how things turn out. If I am elected, I will have the satisfaction of the endorsement from the department and the pleasure (if stress) of doing the work. If I'm not, my ego will recover and I'll have the relief from the work pressures. Win-win, I suppose, if I'm looking for silver linings (and why not?).

In any event, I'm not quite sure about tomorrow morning's meeting. It's immediately before 102, so either I have to be finished with all the proposals for both tomorrow's classes tonight (and there are two that came in a little later than the rest, plus two that need a plagiarism warning at least, depending on how much more time I can devote to tracking down the suspicious areas) or I have to bail on that meeting, too, so I can get the work done.

And life maintenance is getting in the damned way here, all the stuff I have to do just to keep my life operating--from dance class, which keeps me sane and exercised, to laundry, to getting my car to the shop for them to finish up the work they started last Friday. And I have to conduct another adjunct interview tomorrow afternoon, and have to write up the recommendations for the people I already interviewed, and other P&B business that needs tending to, almost forgot about another college-wide committee meeting that I really do have to attend ... and the list goes on beyond zebra. The screaming has commenced.

Funny thing today: in 101, students started talking about the summer and one asked me if I was going away. Part of the time, I said. Where, she asked. Out west, I replied. Like California? she asked. No, I said, Seattle to meet my boyfriend and then Montana to be with my family. Another student had two swift reactions. The first was, "Awww, how romantic, like Sleepless in Seattle," but the second was half serious, half joking when she said that suddenly I seemed very different to her, not really a teacher any more because now I seemed like just a person. She talked about the first time she was confronted with a teacher in civvies, as it were, and said although she knows teachers aren't kept in a box when they're not teaching, it was weird to think of us as having lives like ordinary people. So the fact that I have a boyfriend (a term that makes me gwinch a bit, but there isn't another good alternative) made me suddenly seem very strange to her. And yet, I pointed out, students always ask about my personal life (usually whether I have children, interestingly enough). The difference was, this time I volunteered something personal instead of answering only exactly what was asked--but I knew the question was coming (Why Seattle? Why Montana?), so I just headed it off at the pass: why be coy? Still, it was a funny conversation--and reminded me of how freaked out one former student was to have seen me (gasp! qu'elle horror!!) in jeans. I kind of like rattling their cages a bit, especially at this point in the semester, when we've established a good rapport.

Anyway, strange congeries of events.

I will be interested to see what happens with the students who did not turn in any kind of proposal: if/when I hear from them, whether they'll try to turn something in on Thursday. Trying to figure out the plan of response, whatever happens.

But now, back to our regularly scheduled grading.

No comments:

Post a Comment