It's already started

I've been working like mad the last few days to make sure I've done all I can to help Bruce with scheduling and also get my courses put together. The Fiction Writing was the scariest, er, most interesting--and I'm still scratching my head for ideas for the second story-writing assignment (not to mention the third). I'm also not at all certain that the assignment I've come up with for the first story will be do-able: it might be way too ambitious, complicated... I don't know. But I was trying to make some kind of connection between what I'm having them read and what I ask them to do. We'll see.

Of course, I also just found errors in two of the three syllabi--which have already been photocopied. I made corrections to one of them by hand; the other, I'll just let the students know and have them make the correction. God knows if there are any problems with the third one: I certainly proofread it enough times, but I've been proofreading professionally long enough to know that mistakes can (and do) slip through anyway.

But what I meant by "It's already started" is that I already have the "Oh shit, what am I forgetting?" feeling. Maybe the last two days of scramble have simply been more productive than I am aware, and maybe I'm just more organized than I thought would be possible at this stage, but I think I'm OK for at least the first few weeks. I have to hope that the copy center comes through on time (or even early) with a huge bolus of handouts: I didn't want to burn out the department's copiers single-handed by running all the copies of everything I intend to hand out.

I have changed my thinking about a lot of handouts, however. I was about to make copies of one that I routinely distribute--and then I thought, "I have zero evidence that the little buggers actually read this, or understand it, and indeed, I have quite a bit of evidence to the contrary." So I thought, why make copies that won't be read? Instead, I've made a one-page list of all the helpful handouts that I've put up on my faculty home page: if they want 'em, they can go get 'em.

I'm working, too, on getting more electronic delivery systems set up. The students in 102 and Mystery have to submit their papers through Turnitin.com. It's intended as a teaching tool, to help students learn to avoid plagiarism--but Paul and I agree that when it's used that way, it just teaches them to be more sophisticated about cheating. So I'm simply using it as a first line of defense: papers go through the online check automatically, and I don't have to do a damned thing. I can also comment on their papers electronically, if I want to. I'm not sure about that, as I have very precise check sheets that will now accompany each version of their papers, so I still want things in hard copy--and again, I don't think most students read my comments anyway: they're too long, too detailed, and overwhelming. And they take me too fucking much time. So, I'm working on streamlining the process: I'll point out a few things that work, check things off the list, and leave it at that.

I think.

On another electronic delivery front, I'm trying to figure out how to use Blackboard, the online teaching platform that NCC has chosen. I took a workshop in how to use it just as a resource for fully face-to-face classes--and I retained bugger all from the workshop. (It's the perpetual flaw of teachers--including yours truly: we make huge and erroneous assumptions about what people understand and can retain.) I'm debating going in to a drop-in help session tomorrow (they've been running all week--but I've been running, too, and not able to run to a help session). I think if I can put the stuff to use for real, instead of in a "let's pretend" situation, it will be more valuable.

Well, I'll think about that tomorrow (when I'm stronger). I have a little more fiddling around the edges I need to do, primarily creating the shortened version of my syllabi that also includes when I need to be ready with various handouts (my cheat sheet for the term), but I deeply need to go to the grocery store, and if I dick around much longer here in the office, I'll once again be too fucking tired to go. So I'm wrapping it up. Off I go, into the wild blue whatever.