Practicing a little gratitude...

Class today took place in a sauna. Well, actually, simply in a classroom with no AC on what turned out to be a relatively hot and very humid day. It was miserable--but as I left, wanting to bitch about it, I remembered to be grateful that 1) there is a classroom in which I meet my students, and it's the same classroom both days when class meets; 2) said classroom has enough desks for the students; 3) said classroom has a white board and a chalk board, as well as a desk and chair for me. On the first day of the semester, not all of my colleagues could say the same--and many still can't say that their classes meet in the same room for both class meetings. This is because the administration, in their infinite wisdom, rented one of the buildings in which we frequently held classes and closed another for "renovations"--which haven't even started yet (and which, mysteriously, despite there being plenty of money in the budget for it, won't include replacing the windows--because they're "new," having been installed in the 1960s). The registrar assured all the department chairs whose classes would be affected that 1) in most institutions, the registrar "owns the real estate," so no department has certain rooms in which that department's classes meet (unlike what has been the case here since the institution was created), and 2) that there were plenty of rooms. It's the reverse of the Mad Hatter's tea party: "Plenty of room! Plenty of room!" "But ... there isn't any room."

Ah, well. Signs of the times.

I will say that at first I thought--through the combination of class chemistry (which seemed to be lacking) and heat (which truly was excessive)--the class would be one of those when I need a hydraulic jack to get the students up of the intellectual floor. I will say only one of the groups was overflowing with things to talk about--but they were sort of the A team, based on what I'd seen in their notes or heard from them in previous classes. The A team, by the way, included the young man I was so peeved about on Tuesday--and his demeanor was at least mostly different today. He was a bit snotty about the "statement of self-defined goal" assignment (a preliminary writing assignment that asks the students to set for themselves something specific they want to get out of the semester)--he hadn't done it because he could only come up with two sentences, he reported. But once the group got talking, he was animated and engaged. And despite the lack of energy in the other groups, the discussion actually was quite good and got into some pretty high-falutin' territory: Frankenstein's creature as his shadow (we didn't use the word doppelganger), or as a metaphor for his loneliness (a contribution by the sometimes snotty student); Frankenstein's youth contributing to his ego and his lack of willingness to take responsibility for his creation and its (his) actions.... and so on. Fun. Felt like being a real teacher for a little while.

No, I do my 101s a disservice. I feel like a real teacher there, too; we're just working on a different kind of material and at a different level. I do notice, however, as I am marking their discussion board posts, that they haven't really read the directions about discussion boards--not surprisingly, I suppose, as the directions are much longer than the students' attention spans. But I do need to go over the parameters again. (Just "I agree" isn't much of a response, either to the reading or to classmates' posts--and before you can agree or disagree, you'd better be sure you actually understand what the other person meant.) And I've discovered some kind of glitch in Blackboard, or in how I set things up. Too technical to get into here. If you use Blackboard and are interested, post a comment, and I'll explain--especially once I have a chance to contact the SUNY help desk and get the problem solved.

But the fact that I do need to get the problem solved means that I have to take some class paperwork home with me. And tomorrow, I need to read and score more of the discussion boards, as more deadlines will have passed. So, I figured, what the hell and put all the homework I've collected in a tote bag to tote home with me. I hope to put in a good stint at it tomorrow, and possibly more over the weekend--at least enough to tell what I can reasonably expect to get done on Monday before my classes.

And wham: just like that: I hit the wall. Just now. Hit the "enter" key, and entered a state of "stick a fork in me" doneness. Even though I'll be working (some) tomorrow, I probably won't post; I'll work right up until I have to leave to continue trying to learn how to ride a horse (a usefully humbling experience in all sorts of ways). Maybe I'll post on Sunday. More likely not. So, I wish you all bon weekend.