Last post before spring hiatus

It was a maddening day, one when I kept having to sweep other tasks out from under my feet before I could get rolling on the paper grading. That means I still have a bunch to finish for tomorrow--and that means another early morning tomorrow. But spring break is almost here.

Adding to the agitation of the day, I just finished an observation of one of the evening faculty. A very sweet man, but he's--I'll be delicate about this--past his prime, shall we say? There were many more problems than I'll go into here, but among other things, the students were, for the most part, completely disengaged and confused; the "lecture" was half lecture about critical receptions and articles the students knew nothing about and half questions that were so leading they didn't need to be asked; when students had an opinion different from the professor's, instead of challenging them to present textual evidence in support of their views, he'd say "Do you want to change your mind? Do you want to pass the class?" He was joking, but still, the message was that there is only one "correct" interpretation: it's his, and he doesn't need to defend it or demonstrate where it comes from in any substantive way. (I had a professor like that in grad school, whose response was always "read it again; you'll see I'm right." All he taught me was one of the many ways not to be an effective teacher.) This poor professor also had no idea that there's a spring break: he has an exam scheduled for next week. I have to write this up, and I chickened out of telling him to his face that the class didn't pass muster. I did tell him I'd talk to him after I write up my report but before I officially submit it, but in that moment, I just couldn't figure out a diplomatic way to tell him that the performance review will be unsatisfactory.

Oh dear, oh dear. Well, that's why I'm getting paid the big bucks.

This also means I'll have two observations to write after the break, as it's a lead-pipe cinch that I won't be getting them done tomorrow. I'm supposed to write them up within 10 days. Oh well.

What I need most right now is to stagger home and start my (very protracted) evening wind-down. I didn't sleep well last night (kept waking up as if I'd been kicked), and I'll do a lot better getting the last papers graded tomorrow if I stop now. As per the title above, this will be my last blog post until after the break: tomorrow I get Ed from the airport after my class, and even though I'll be here on Thursday, I certainly won't be taking the time at the end of the day to write. I'm going to shake the dust of this place off my feet as rapidly as possible and pole-vault into "I'm on break" mode.

So, I'll "see" you all at the end of April.