Brief-ish

Another bullet to the feet dodged: I did not shoot myself in the foot by putting of the paper grading until today: I got it all done before class--even with the time I had to spend in the longest advisement session I've ever had with one student (he kept asking the same questions over and over and would not leave)--and I still had enough time to eat my soup before class. Two of the AWOL students were back today, but strangely not the two I anticipated. One of the returnees was a young woman I was hoping would return; the other I thought for sure was gone.

The one I thought was gone has not been doing very well, on any level (and didn't turn in the first version of her paper), but she showed me what she'd written and at least she's now on the right track (she seriously missed the boat with her first paper). The other young woman should by all rights be getting at least B's, but she had a family crisis and isn't sure she'll be able to turn in this essay at all. She can still pass (potentially), even with that huge zero--but not with the kind of grade she ought to earn. I told her to keep coming, and if she can keep on top of all the rest of the work and do it well for the rest of the semester, we can talk about options at the end of the term. This is my own personal code for "I could give you an incomplete," but I no longer say those words, because students then think they can bail on just about everything--and because I truly hesitate to offer the incompletes anyway. We know how those usually turn out.

The Somewhat Angry Young Man had a few bones to pick with me about his first paper. One issue he was right about: I'd taken points off for a missing works cited page, but in fact it was there, so he got the points back. The other issue was about his suddenly shifting from talking about forgiveness to justification for a crime. He said he hadn't confused the two terms. I said I didn't imagine that he had, but he had brought in a whole new idea that had no bearing on what the rest of the paper was about. He gave one of those dismissive "I don't really buy it" shrugs, and the sound effect to go with it. I said, "What does that mean?" and imitated the gesture and sound. He said he didn't see why it really mattered--and that glanced off one of my hot buttons. Precise use of language and focus of intention are indeed things that matter. He tried to shrug that off, too, and to argue with me, but I cut it short: "This is one of those times when you simply have to trust the professor." Clearly he didn't like that; fair enough. Mostly, I was happy with myself that A) I didn't cut him off at the knees, and B) I didn't engage in lengthy argument/justification. I'm right; you're wrong; get over it.

In terms of the lit electives, I decided just a few minutes ago that I'm not going to beat myself up to get papers and journal/logs returned to the Nature in Lit students tomorrow morning. They've been so slow getting stuff to me, why should I knock myself out to get it back to them? I'll tell them that tomorrow--and I'll go over the changes to the schedule necessitated by their chronic tardiness with work. I'll also let them know that I'm not going to keep on doing this. I mean, yeesh.

But I did promise the Native American Lit students that they'd have their papers back tomorrow, and to that I hold. Not a problem: I've already graded two and a half of the four, so they're almost done. Then I will turn my attention to prepping for my substitute duty tomorrow. The papers and journal/logs for Nature in Lit will just have to wait until I'm damned good and ready.

I came very close to bailing on the adjunct observation I have to conduct--again--under the "I'm tired and cranky and I don't want to" excuse. But it will not get easier, no matter when I do it, so I might as well get it over with. I do, however, plan to take myself out for dinner after, and to have a sizable drink. Unless I'm simply falling over tired, in which case I may pour myself into my car and wobble on home to snarp down a bowl of popcorn and call it a night.