Not done yet

I think of the bit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "I'm not dead yet; I think I'll take a walk."

But I'm not done yet; I have to try again to do the observation I was unable to do last week because the faculty member was 20 minutes late. I'm trying to maintain as much objectivity as I can muster, heading in to his class tonight, but I know that I'm not likely to be quite as forgiving as I might normally be--not because of last week but because this person has an established track record of problematic behavior. His personal life is hell--which he tells us, in excruciating detail, all the time--and I understand that under the circumstances, his professional life also will suffer some, but it's getting to the point that I fear he may be downright detrimental to our students, and much as I feel for the man as an individual, part of my job is to do what I can to ensure that we are providing an educational experience for our students that we, as a department, can feel good about.

I can't spend much time on this post, in fact. Not only do I need to be sure I get to his class a little early, I also need to spend some time putting together my triage list. I'm having a difficult time mentally prioritizing, and even though I know the priorities will likely shift a couple of times before I get everything done, it will help me to have it all written down so I can at least keep track of what I'm juggling.

I'm concerned about two of my students in the second 102. One is the young man who was my student last semester, the one who was not in class on Monday, didn't have a paper.... He came to class today, but there is a personal situation that requires his attention, so he still didn't have his paper, and he couldn't stay in class. I have asked him to come to my office hour tomorrow so we can discuss options. He hasn't really done good enough work to deserve the offer of an Incomplete, but on the other hand, I don't want to make him take the class a third time, particularly as this end-of-semester implosion is not anything over which he has control.

The other is a wonderful student in some ways: he's terrific in the class discussions, energetic, intelligent, enthusiastic--irreverent. However, he has missed class quite a a bit, and his work hasn't been anywhere near what I think it could be, or should be. He wasn't in class today, so he didn't get his in-progress paper back with my comments, which are intended to guide the next version. I sent him an e-mail so he'd know where/when he can retrieve the paper and comments, and I've asked him to come to my office hour, too--but I have no assurance that he'll get the e-mail, or respond. Sigh.

But the class discussions were OK. This was one of those days when the earlier section was the better. It's interesting to me how they've flip-flopped all semester.

Nothing else stands out from the day. Tomorrow is going to be hell on a stick, I have so much to do--and I have a big symposium to go to on Friday (which starts at 8-fucking-30 in the morning, thank you very much), so that's going to put a kink in my recuperative time. On the plus side, however, if the symposium ends early enough (or if I bail before the end), I might get a little work done on Friday before my riding lesson, since I'm going to be on campus anyway.

But now, off I go. I'll at least put together the triage list. Maybe I can even cross something off it before I have to head to the observation.