on the fly

About to run off to dance class--passing up a golden opportunity to do damage to my blood pressure by attending tonight's Board of Trustees meeting.

The good news is, I'm caught up on P&B business. Now I get to turn my attention to paper grading. A small but significant portion of the 102 students haven't yet turned in the final versions of their second essay--and next week we start the process of their final papers. I've also decided I don't want the half-assed crap they've been submitting in lieu of actual plot summaries/logs/glossaries--so I've told them to button it up, do good work (i.e. something approaching completion of the tasks I've actually assigned) and turn it in all at once.We'll see how that flies. It will be a bit of a crunch for me in terms of marking, but I'm not going to comment, just read enough to assign a grade.

One student I thought I'd lost for sure showed up after class today, ready to resume. I'll let her try--she's smart and had been a pretty good student until the storm, which coincided with a death in her family. I don't know if she can pull it off, as she hasn't even started reading the novel yet, but it doesn't hurt me any to let her make the attempt. The funny thing was that she showed up with her twin sister. At first, I saw the twin and thought she was my student, but then I saw the other face, and I said, "I'm looking at [the one not my student]--but that's my student there." They were astonished I could tell them apart: they may be genetically identical twins, but their faces are distinctly different. They were cute about it; cute in general, in fact. We'll see what happens.

I ended up giving both classes the "this is for you" speech, the one in which I say that it's their responsibility to ask questions and make sure they have the information they need. "It's your education; take responsibility for it." The ones who most need to hear that of course don't--or don't right now. I hope that somewhere down the line the words will return to them in a time of need.

And I note again the marked difference between the two classes. The first one was like wading through cold, congealed oatmeal; the second included laughter and good points, good understanding. I told the second class that I'll be teaching Native American Lit in the spring. I didn't mention it to the first class.

Ach, whatever. I told Paul today that between the two sections, I have approximately one section's worth of students. He said that should count as "recognized distinction," the criterion for promotion to full professor. I couldn't agree more.

But now off I go. I hope to post a slightly better crafted, more coherent precis of tomorrow, but those dancin' feet are callin' me.