Keeps getting better

Seriously; I'm not being sarcastic. It does keep getting better. I don't know when the idea began to formulate itself, but I was thinking about how small my two lit electives are, and yet we're in rooms with lots of (empty) desks, in a little circle trying not feel like the few huddled survivors--or the students are dotted around a huge circle, and I feel like I have to use semaphore to communicate. Yet, just down the hall in this very building, there's a nice little conference room--and I know other professors hold classes there. Hmmmm, I thought; I wonder if I could move my classes there, even at this point in the semester?

Answer: yes. I had to fill out some paperwork--and the request does have to be officially approved--but I can't think of any reason for the powers that be to say no. I've already told my Native American Lit students that the change is effective as of next week; when I meet with Nature in Lit on Monday, I'll let them know, too.

There are two reasons why this change delights me. One is that we'll be sitting around a table, which reinforces the "senior seminar" sensibility in both classes. If I position myself along one side, rather than at the end of the table, there's more sense of equality--which I hope will encourage them to respond more directly to each other, instead of feeling everything has to be mediated through me. It's more relaxed, more comfortable, and we have room to spread out materials (important when students need to have notebooks, logs, and texts all in front of them while we work: hard to do on the skimpy little classroom desktops, so students are perpetually dropping notebooks, texts, papers, pens...).

The other advantage is that it's right down the hall. I actually enjoy walking across campus (unless the weather is completely revolting), but staying in the building buys me just that little bit of extra time. And any way that I can squeeze a little more time out of any situation is a boon.

So, hooray.

Classes went well. Mr. Irrepressible repressed himself, amazingly enough (he learns! miraculous!); he realized he was about to get off topic so he stopped himself. The woman I've been crowing about was even more confident, readier to jump in with her (excellent) comments: she's a shining star indeed, and is coming out of her reserved shell. I think Nature in Lit is settling in, too: it's becoming apparent who is going to stick and who is going to drop by the wayside. (It's a little harder to tell with Native American Lit just yet; I'll know by the time we're back from the Presidents' week break.) I'm very happy with both classes and am being very lenient about late assignments, attendance, and so on. At this point, if they're doing good work, good enough. I'm happy.

The only less than delicious news is that this is the first weekend of the semester (so far) when I have to take work home with me. I could stay and try to burn through more tonight, but I'm tired, dammit. I realized this morning that this early schedule simply doesn't work very well with my circadian rhythms. I was staggering around the house, bleary-eyed, and found myself counting how many more mornings I have to set that damned alarm. We have twelve more weeks to go. That's twelve more 5:30 alarms--assuming I can get away with only getting up that early on Mondays. On the other days, I'm getting up at 6 or 6:30, which is still uncomfortably early for me, but it's those 5:30s that really hurt.

But only twelve more? That's not horrible to contemplate. In fact, it makes the semester seem really really short. It will feel longer, I know; I'm counting only the Mondays when I have class, not the two that occur during the breaks. And I'm only counting Mondays, not thinking about full weeks--but it still seems short. On the other hand, it does feel like we've been at this a lot longer than merely three weeks. This is a sort of Doppler effect to time that I've noticed. Deadlines approach with frightening rapidity; what's passed feels remote. ("That's tomorrow? YIKES!" versus "That was yesterday? It feels like ages ago.")

Ach, I'm rambling. I'll stop. No yoga class tonight, I don't think; I'm going to run a very quick errand or two on the way home and call it a week. The only big decisions I am facing are what to eat for dinner and whether to read or watch a DVD. Life is rough.