If I only had a brain...

Today I had some time to do my own work in Advisement, so I marked a late paper for today's 101. Then I lost it. I mean, completely, utterly, no clue where it might be, lost the paper. I didn't feel too awful about not having anything to give to the student for the classwork on revision plans today--especially once I found that she hadn't dropped off a hard copy for me. (I'd printed the one I marked from her Turnitin.com submission.) She won't get my comments for revision until Wednesday, which puts her behind the curve in terms of getting any revising done, but if I'd had the hard copy from her on time, she'd have had my comments on time.

The borderline hostile young man (the only young man left in the class, apparently) hasn't submitted his paper to Turnitin.com. I told him I wouldn't give him the copy with my comments until he does.

At this point, I'm pretty sure three students will pass. The other three? Not so sure. And everyone else has disappeared one way or another. From eighteen to six. Sad, sad, sad.

I was also interested to note that the two students from the T/Th class who begged me for extra time on the extra credit assignments have not submitted their essays to Turnitin either. (Nor has one young man in the class, but he's not asking for special favors.) As far as I'm concerned, they blew their chance at my mercy over the extra credit.

What is it with the Turnitin submissions?? Why why why can't students seem to remember to do them--especially as the direction to do so is on every freaking assignment sheet, not to mention having been discussed over and over and over in class? It's something about the freshman mentality, I think. Students in the lit electives seem to be better about crossing the I's and dotting the T's--not always, but usually.

I need this semester to be over. I really, truly, deeply need this semester to be over. My patience is gone.

However, I do have to summon up a little more patience, as I have all the papers for the T/Th class yet to mark. That means an early alarm (urgh), but I'm out of gas for today. And once I have those submissions marked, I need to do the mechanics stuff for both classes, plus mark assignments for the Poetry students--and they really do need those assignments back by Wednesday so they have them for their final papers.

I'm interested to note that, generally speaking, I'd rather turn my mental attention to next semester than deal with the dregs of this one. I keep thinking what I'll do for 102, how I'll change things--because that's still a shiny idealization of a class, not the disappointing reality.

So, this week looks like it's going to be a bit of a frantic push--and then I'll be collecting final papers and self-evaluations, and it's off to the races, sprinting toward the submission of final grades. I see the M/W students three more times. Perhaps I can survive.