Most of 'em

I've now met most of my students for this semester. The Native American Lit is the usual mixed bag: I was joking earlier to buddy Sara that there is one student who needs to be treated like the guinea pigs in Alice in Wonderland (suppressed by being put in a burlap bag and sat upon: he's a little over enthusiastic and doesn't quite know when enough is enough); there are a few that I can tell right now are headed for withdrawal (I hate to say it, but I know it's true); a few seem bright, engaged, and very interested--and the remainder, who can tell? Three of the fourteen currently registered were missing today: we'll see if they show up on Thursday.

I will say that when we got talking about the things that spring to mind when we think about the terms "Native American" and "American Indian," they came up with a lot of interesting stuff--more than I've often experienced in the past--and they really got into the spirit of the thing, tossing stuff at me as I wrote on the board. Very cool: I love when that happens. And I found myself bringing up some key concepts that I've not hit on so early or so clearly in semesters past. This is the advantage and the downside to the fact that my teaching is so improvisational: I often forget something crucial, or don't deliver it as clearly as I have at other times, but then again, I can be visited by an inspiration that does more than I'd have planned. I figure it all balances out--and it keeps me on my toes, which is the main thing.

Looking back on today, my primary reaction is to be astounded at how little I managed to accomplish. But I do at least have a better sense of what I need to do and in what order, which is comforting. I'll try to get an hour or two of work in before I go to Advisement tomorrow--and I will take work with me, even though I strongly suspect that the panic-stricken mobs will only have increased over the last two days, as more students realize they're shut out of their classes. We also have to attend a meeting with the powers that be over there. We just got an e-mail about that, and the agenda seems to me loaded with unnecessary items (the whole meeting feels unnecessary to me, in fact), but I'll be there anyway, so, enh.

As for the rest of what I'm facing tomorrow and Thursday: there's been a little bit of shuffling in the 102: one student who was there on Monday is no longer on my roster, has been replaced by a new student, and I've got one new student in Nature in Lit, in addition to the two who weren't there on Monday. And who knows what will happen with the students in Native American Lit, now that they've seen the syllabus and the first handout of readings. But the drop-add session ends on Friday; after that, I can't get any new students--though we know I'll lose some. OK, I'll lose a lot, but hopefully I'll keep a solid core group in all three classes.

Not much else to report at this juncture. I'm having dinner with Paul tonight, hooray, so I'm blasting out of here pretty soon. It will be interesting to see what I get done tomorrow.