Hah!

I got everything marked with something like 10 minutes to spare. It feels awfully damned good to have that bolus of stuff disgorged (as it were). I have a few assignments for the Native American Lit students--which I may or may not get marked in time to return tomorrow (it would be great if I could, but I have an a.m. appointment that will put a bit of a crimp in my time). I will collect more stuff from those students tomorrow, and I have a very little bit of stuff I collected from the 102 students today (those who were there). So I'm not feeling too weighted down heading into the mad panic of next week when I get first versions of papers to respond to. It will be a mad panic, as I have a shitload of things on the calendar for Wednesday morning (which is when I'd normally be finishing everything up); I'll just have to put in a hell of a Tuesday, I think.

Of course, how hard it all is will depend some on how many papers I actually end up getting. There were only nine students in the first section of 102 today--though I think really there are 14 of them, if my assumption about who remains on my roster is correct. Actually, that's how many I think remain in the other section, too. However, now that they've seen their grades on their first papers, I may lose a bunch. I wish I could choose: you get to stay, you have to go. But it doesn't work like that, and sometimes I lose someone good but can't get rid of a lunk who drags everything down for the whole damned term. Next week will reveal quite a bit.

I like that we're at the point now that we tease each other a lot. The humor goes up as the comfort levels go up--and (not surprisingly) they also seem to learn better when that dynamic kicks in (if they're going to learn at all, that is: see above about lunks). Their work may be relatively crappy, but they're at least there in class, paying attention and connecting with each other. I didn't lecture about logs; I decided that I've said enough about them, and if the students haven't gotten the message by now, they're not going to.

I'm sorry I missed the first day of class and my opportunity to give the "college will change you" and "work through frustration" speech--especially because I had a nice e-mail exchange with the student from last semester who was most powerfully affected by that speech. She's the one who was an attitude problem at first but who thought, "what the hell; I'll try it"--and lo and behold, ended up doing very well. I wrote to her to ask for one of her assignments to use as a model, but I also asked (of course) how she was doing. She said, " Just to let you know I think about you and your class all the time.  It really helps me get through difficult situations. Your class really changed my outlook on many things.  I no longer look at something difficult as impossible.  I take it little by little and get through it.  I'm so glad I stuck through your class and I hope you continue to give your new students the same great advice because it WORKS."

I know that not everyone got it as well as that young woman did; some hear the same speech but never try to put it into action. But the fact that even one student has gotten so much benefit from it is a lovely thing to know. These are the moments that keep us going.

I have a lot of noodling that I could do tonight before heading home, but I think I'm going to leave it at this. I don't know what kind of energy I'll have tomorrow, but since I don't absolutely need to push myself, I'm not going to. Paul and I have postponed our steak night, so I may take the opportunity to do some life-maintenance (pick up prescription cat food at the vet's office, run a few other errands). Now that we've changed the clocks, my sleep rhythms are for shit, but it is interesting to be able to contemplate going home while it's still light out.

And the days are getting longer all the time. Spring is arriving. Pretty soon, I'll be counting how many classes are left--and we'll get to the down-rush of the roller-coaster. It seems like the semester will never end, but when I think about some of the stuff I have to do before it does, I realize how little time remains. (Conference paper? Qu'est que c'est la?)