Running on empty

Since my last class ended at 5:15, I've spent some time on the phone with a student who wanted to lodge a complaint about a faculty member (part of my position as evening supervisor). She'd already dropped the class, but she wanted to go on record with the problems she perceived about the professor. I listened; I was sympathetic; I told her she'd done the right thing in withdrawing, even though that was a difficult decision to make--and I offered to help her choose a section for next semester that would be more congenial to her. In the end, she was so thrilled to get the guidance for her fall registration that I think she almost forgot the complaint. Case closed.

And exactly when I finished with her, one of my own students showed up for an appointment to get help with the paper he was supposed to turn in yesterday. He actually did turn in something yesterday, via e-mail, but he told me he was unhappy with it and asked for time to do a better job. I'm treating the e-mailed version as a place-holder until he can turn in something he's satisfied with. I don't usually do that for 102 students, but as I think I've said, at this point in the semester, I'll give every chance I can to any student who shows promise. And this young man does. I won't get all the papers marked over the weekend in any event--and students who e-mail papers have to print them out for me (the e-mail merely stops the late penalty), so even if he weren't still working on it, I might well have to wait until Monday to get the printed version anyway. Given all those factors, I decided to let him keep working and hand me a printout on Monday. If that printout is different from what he e-mailed, I'll pretend I don't notice. Just now, working with him on the version he'd e-mailed, I could see that he had made some improvements, but after our conversation, I think his paper will markedly better. As for the bending of the rules: what the hell.

I just realized, however, that one of my best students not only wasn't in class today but didn't submit her paper via e-mail, as we arranged. Hmmmm. Not sure how to handle that one.

For the most part, however, I've collected everything I'm going to get. If I keep my resolve to mark minimally, I should be able to get them graded and back relatively quickly. My fond (and perhaps foolish) hope is to get ALL of them marked before Wednesday evening, no matter when I actually return them. Not only do I want them out of my hair, so I can go into spring break with nothing hanging over my head, I have a lot of other stuff I want to get done between now and Wednesday, all in preparation for an enjoyable spring break.

One would think, therefore, that instead of noodling around blogging, I'd be getting some work done. But even though I'm somewhat in Energizer Bunny mode (with no off switch), I'm not sure how productive I'd actually be at anything of substance. I was thinking I'd try to get a few more things done, but perhaps not. One more task (which should be quick and easy), and then I'm outta here.