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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, January 11, 2011

Getting back into it

I've been struggling with the transition out of last semester: I find I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the student reactions at final grades (and I am interested--read annoyed--to note, having gone back to campus today, how many students didn't bother to pick up their final grade sheets). I very much want to start the new semester with a more affable and friendly feeling, not the "goddammit, you little shits" feeling I ended the fall with. I did notice feeling significantly better having been on campus today and getting into it (however you wish to construe "it"). I did feel a little guilty: Bruce had been struggling with the tricky part of adjunct schedules without me, but he said he didn't mind (though he did make it clear that he'd been working longer hours than he'd have liked). Well, I'll earn my keep the next go-rounds--and he could have called me, so I'm not going to let that little bit of guilt get in the way of the overall sense of easing tension that I got from the little toe-dip today.

I had said I wouldn't respond to student e-mails over the break, but the first few days I was away I caved and not only checked but answered--until I realized I was having anxiety attacks every time. So I didn't look at my work e-mail again until a few days ago (looking for news about my electives--more on that in a minute). I saw that there were a few messages from students but I didn't look at them. Today, finally I responded to those student e-mails and one mother e-mail (a very brief "sorry, but I can't talk to you about it; I'm sending your son his grade sheet, which I'm sure he'll share with you"). I thought the son had contacted me on his own but turns out not: his e-mail has been hijacked by a spammer, so I was getting spam from him. Well, he'll get a very short letter from me ("You didn't pick up your grade sheet but you may not understand why you got the grade you did. Here's why.") He can share it with his mother or not. If I hear from her again, I'll turn her over to Bruce.

There were two other student e-mails that I'd been shying away from over the break, but they were simply saying yes, in fact, they would prefer a W to an F: I responded today to let them know the change is in the works. However, since so many students didn't pick up their grade sheets, I may still get a bunch of frustrated e-mails, but I'll simply say "check the door."

But--on the nice side of things--I did get one e-mail from a student thanking me for the B she earned in the short story class. She really did earn it: she worked her fanny off for that grade, and I was very pleased to be able to reward her efforts. I'm observing how different the student response is in 101 and the lit electives. The students in 101 still haven't gotten the clue about one of the primary ways in which college is different from high school: in college, it is not enough to do some of the work, or to do the work but do it badly. One must do the vast majority of the work and do it well. Weird, isn't it.

Regarding my electives, and my schedule generally, I'm sorry to report that Nature in Lit didn't run--again. I don't know if I'd have been able to get it to run if I'd been trolling the advisement lines as I've done in the past, but I doubt it. Too many students sign up without going through advisement any more. And since my fliers kept getting torn down, well.... (I'm hoping madly that the new Sustainability Studies major goes into effect: if it does, Nature in Lit is a required course, and that will save it from permanent archival due to lack of interest.) At this point, Native American Lit is still holding on but by the thinnest of threads (ten students registered as of today): Bruce may have to cancel it any moment. I'm ready to teach four sections of 102 if it comes to that, but Judas Priest, I hope it doesn't. Still, I took the reader pages back over to the copy center today to get two more sections' worth of readers printed up, just in case. I know I'll need one of those sections, hope to hell I don't need the second.

And tomorrow it snows. I could use another day of recuperation (was sick over the last weeks of the break, dammit): Thursday and Friday I have to be in at 8 a.m. to be there for contract signing--and at 10:30 I'll start work with my colleagues on the scheduling committee putting together the full-time faculty course assignments for fall. We'll go until 2:30 or 3--or maybe a little later, if our brains hold up. Unlikely we'll finish in two days, but we'll see what we can do and figure out a third day whenever we can. I'll be whipped at the end of each of those days, I'm sure, so I hope to spend tomorrow recharging my batteries.

I'd hoped to be copying syllabi this week, but until I know for sure what my schedule is, I don't want to do that. Not only do I await the fate of Native American Lit, I'm also hoping to swap a section of 102 with a colleague so I have a more compact schedule (and don't have to teach at 9:30 a.m.--which for me is ungodly early). I'll know more on Thursday, I reckon--and I suppose I'll be copying syllabi at Kinkos or some such over the weekend. C'est la vie.

And now, I'm going to snuggle down with a trashy novel and a huge cup of tea and call it a night. More anon.

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