Posting from home

I had an opportunity to get out of the office early today, and although I could conceivably have stayed and gotten more work done (or at least more sorting of work into stacks), I decided that it would be a lovely treat to get home while it's still light out.

So, here I am. The observation with the adjunct was ... interesting. I won't say more about it. But one of her students did want to talk with me after, to express some concerns--and, I think, just to feel he had a connection with someone in a position of at least a little authority.

But a much better student encounter was before class. I didn't see the student I thought I might see (and I don't think I missed him, even though I got to the office much later than I anticipated), but I saw a student from the earlier 101. His face reminds me a bit of one of my nephews, which is interesting, but he came in--obviously having sprinted across campus--to ask me how much trouble he'd be in because his upload to Turnitin was late. Apparently he tried to submit a number of times last night, unsuccessfully, but finally tried again once on campus and was successful. Under the circumstances, I told him, I wouldn't take the penalty. He was greatly relieved by that--and he told me that just finishing the essay felt like an enormous relief. He is also concerned about the low marks on his discussion board posts, so we talked about how he could improve those--and then we just started talking, about what other courses he's taking, about his ambitions. He wants to be a marine biologist, specifically to study sharks. Very cool. I did tell him he'd be doing a lot of writing as part of that--and that the next essay will use APA style, which is what he'll use most often in the sciences. But it was great just to chat with him for a bit.

I love those one-on-ones. I know I say that a lot, but it's true. They're great.

Today's class, talking about the beginning of Oryx and Crake, was great, too. The Budding Literary Critic was there but not as aggressive and borderline snotty as he can be; in fact, he was uncharacteristically quiet, but when he did contribute, what he had to say was very intelligent (as it usually is) and perceptive. Just about everyone was coming up with good points to share, interesting ideas--and they inspired me to riff a little more, go a little further, than I normally would, in terms of bringing in some of the wider contexts. Not quite theory--though they've had an introduction to that from the Budding Literary Critic and the (now withdrawn) Sometimes Snotty Student--but a sense of what some of the more common themes are in SF generally. We talked about post-apocalyptic narratives, about dystopias, utopias, and eutopias, about SF as social commentary...

When they get rolling, they really are great. I know whatever high I feel from being in class with them will be brought crashing down when I start grading their essays, but, well, I'm sort of used to that.

And their essays (and reading notes that I've collected) were what I chose to bring home to work on this weekend. It might have made more sense to work on the essays for the 101s, as they will embark on their second essays before the SF students do, but the stack of stuff for the SF students was just not as unwieldy. When I collect final versions from the 101s, they come freighted with all the previous versions and various other bits, so they look a great deal more daunting than they are.

Oh, yeah: and I brought home the discussion board tracker, too. I've decided that Sunday afternoons will be my dedicated time to work on discussion boards (except in those weeks when I'm frantically turning around essays prior to conferences). I want to establish some habits for when I'm teaching entirely online--assuming I do teach Nature in Lit online in the spring. (Long story of SNAFUs there, which I won't get into now: it's too depressing, and I'm too tired.)

I think that's about all I've got for now. I will be leaving when my house-cleaner arrives, so the only question at the moment is whether to practice fiddle for a bit or just fiddle around. The former, I think, in the "get it done now and then you don't have to worry about it" plan.

And tomorrow, as we all know all too well, is another day.