Surprisingly Productive

I got in a bit earlier than usual today; I was here at 9, when my normal Wednesday arrival time is 10--but I'm still surprised by how much I got done. Part of that productivity was abetted by the fact that things were pretty quiet in Advisement, so I was able to grade the last two papers for today's class and get some P&B business done. There's more (of course), but it's not so daunting now that I've started it. I always forget: a task is generally much more fraught with difficulty in anticipation than in reality.

I have the last batch of journal-logs to mark for 102, and the non-English-speaking plagiarist rewrote his second paper, eliminating the plagiarism, so I need to read it and give the grade (half the credit he'd have gotten if he'd done it right the first time--and no comments, just the grade--but it's a hell of a gift, better than the zero I'd usually give a plagiarized paper). I'll have a couple more journal-logs from the lit classes tomorrow, but that's damned near microscopic. And really, the rest of the triage list is pretty short.

I can't remember if I said this before, but I decided to cancel the May meeting of the ecocrit reading group. Only two people had told me they could make it; two declined and the rest hadn't bothered to respond at all. Since holding the meeting would mean once again figuring out where to have it, blah blah, I decided (as Dad would have said) that the game wasn't worth the candle. We'll communicate via the Wiki over the summer--or at least I hope we will--and in the fall I'll try to get things rolling again.

I'm still trying to decide whether to re-up for an appointment to the college-wide assessment committee. I hardly went this year, and I am more than a bit burned out on the whole madness (as stated in yesterday's post), but if I intend to go up for another promotion, I need to keep my hand in some kind of college-wide committee work. I may take a little time to figure out which committees I'm still on, which I still think I'm useful on, and where I want my energies to go in terms of this utterly fucked up place. Hard to decide whether I want to summon up the fire in the belly to fight this nightmare administration. If I don't, I may hate myself for not having at least tried to stop this developing debacle. But if I do, that's yet another thing drawing energy away from where I most want to put it. I guess the real question is, do I think my efforts would actually create an better situation for myself down the line? If I can make my life better by putting in some painful work now, it may be worth it. But if not....

Sigh. It's a crappy position to be in, but that's the cleft stick in which I'm presently stuck.

Shifting gears to somewhere I actually do like to put my energy, class was pretty good. Most of the students had done the reading, and most had questions or comments--but, as if often the case, they missed the bits that would be most useful in writing their papers. Most of them--all but one, actually--are writing on the gender issues in Left Hand of Darkness; for today, they read Le Guin's introduction to the novel (brilliant) and her essay "Is Gender Necessary? (Redux)" (also brilliant). Particularly in terms of the introduction, not a one of them picked up on the most important point in terms of the gender topic. I truly do not understand how they've been taught to read--or rather, how they've been taught not to read. I wish I could figure it out; if I could, I might be able to address it.

In any event, we talked about both pieces; then I returned their second versions of papers and told them to stay, read my comments, be sure they saw me about anything I said we needed to discuss further, and that they understood my comments and how to address them. Typically, they were slow to begin asking anything, but the questions snowballed as the period drew to a close. One student, one who has been almost entirely silent until very recently, admitted that he was lost about how to proceed. His paper was pretty disastrous, and my comments were pretty fierce, threatening him with failure if he didn't get some things cleared up. He was free to meet me after class, so we sat and talked. It was great to hear him ask questions, answer questions, work through ideas--and to see him smile. I believe he left feeling much more sure about what he needs to do, and I believe he's capable of doing the work to make an significant improvement in the final version. I reminded him it's his job to be sure he gets help about places where he feels uncertain, that I can't help him if he doesn't show me where he needs help. Monday the entire class period is devoted to precisely that; we'll see who takes advantage. I'm not going to make them stay if they feel they can put the time to better use (including studying for other classes). But for those who want help, I'll be there, on tap. Hot and cold running professor.

By now, I've wound them up like clockwork toys, and it's time to let go of the key and let them toddle off. I say I'm done teaching, but that's not true. I'm done trying to get through to them en masse. I'm still working with them individually, if/when they want the help. I like this part.

I had a bit of a weird moment after Silent Bob left the office today. I suddenly thought, "How do I know how to do that? How do I know what to say?" I have no idea. I suppose a lot of factors are involved, everything from remembering how professors spoke to me to my own years of doing it and feeling my way forward, always looking for a better approach or explanation. Today, for instance, I had a realization about how to explain what students need to do in order to find a good title for their own essays. I said, "Remember what it was like when you did your research? One of the ways you found the pieces you wanted to use was by glancing at the title. Imagine your paper is subject to the same kind of search. A whole bunch of papers have been gathered together, and someone is looking through: 'Here are the ones about Hemingway; no, don't want that. Oh, good, here are the ones about Le Guin, and better, the ones about Left Hand of Darkness--and look, here are the ones about gender!' You need to let your readers know what they'll find in your paper--what author, what work, and your own particular take on the issue." I also told them not to be afraid of long titles (easy for me to say, as I am the self-crowned Queen of Long Titles). It will be interesting to see if this approach creates a positive result.

But now, I'm calling it a day. Anything sitting over there on my desk is fine to sit there at least until tomorrow, if not longer. I can head for home and my evening plans, knowing that I've just about knocked one more week off the countdown to done.