Progress is made...

Well, Cathy and I got as far as we could with the adjunct schedules. There are two classes we don't have staffed; we're waiting to hear back from an adjunct on one of them, and the other is newly created, so at the moment it doesn't have enough students in it to run, though chances are very good that it will. We think we have an if/then contingency place if it does run. We also did as much as we could to protect full-time schedules, but there are a couple that leave us praying for a sudden surge in enrollment: whatever if/then scenarios we have planned will be complicated to implement, and that's putting it very mildly. But we can't really do more until we see what happens to enrollment over the weekend. It really is frustrating that we have to pull the trigger so soon, when we know--absolutely know--that students will be scrambling for classes right up through the first week in September, and if we close sections that are running light now, those students won't have any place to go.

The other problem is room: actual, physical space in which to hold the classes. As soon as we cancel something, the room disappears--unless we have something else to immediately slot into the space. Well, "disappears" as in another department in equally desperate circumstances grabs it. It is the Oklahoma land rush out there.

And I did start printing and organizing files for my classes. The only handout I can think of that I haven't yet worked on at all is the final essay for the SF class, but I'm going to let that dangle for a little while. I'm pretty sure I have everything else worked out. (Whether I'll still like it when it comes time to use it is a different question.) Also, after printing the same thing about 40 times and then being unsure which was the most up-to-date version, I decided that I would start adding a footer to that kind of document, so I can see at a glance which version is the most recent. I probably should add such footers to everything. Not only will it help me be certain that I am using the latest version, it will let me see when something has been languishing without reconsideration or fine-tuning for a long while and probably could use to be revisited.

I'm going through my usual thing of feeling somewhat baffled by the fact that I'm not running around like my hair is on fire. It seems like I should have to be getting ready to dash off to go somewhere, do something, but nope. There certainly is plenty of work I could be doing (getting some licks in on that online Nature in Lit, for instance), but I'm going to call a halt to work-type proceedings today. I'm still getting my body used to the early to rise (if not early to bed) routine, and since I had a spell of serious insomnia last week, I'm still a bit behind on the whole "rested and ready" part. I will, therefore, pick stuff up off the floor, then make sure I have all my toys and head home.

Strictly speaking, I don't have to come in tomorrow--but I probably will, to start making photocopies of handouts if nothing else. Of course, I still don't know how many handouts to make for the SF class or for the late-day 101, but the other 101 is full to capacity (ka-boom, like that, from yesterday to today), so I know I need at least 27 copies of all the handouts just for that one section. I can always make more copies as my classes grow, I suppose--or just wait until next week to make the copies for the other 101 and the SF class. The more I think about things, the more fluttery and anxious I get, so I'm going to try to retain a Zen-like calm and head for home--tomorrow being another day, as we all know all too well.