Good-bye ... and good riddance

The last meeting with the 2:00 101 class was lovely: they were, as they have been, bonded, talkative, interested, interesting. One particularly sweet moment was when one young man--I've not talked about him much, but he's been charming and earnest and a good worker and intelligent--said how much he learned from the thinking of a few of his classmates, whom he mentioned by name. (The fact that they know each other's names is evidence enough of what a great class it is.) I told him that he's one of those people for his classmates: they all get great ideas from him. He didn't know that he stands in the company of the best students in the class, but he does. Two students wanted to give me hugs, which I granted (though I'm always a bit nervous about the possible accusations that could arise, I tend to trust my students--and I don't offer if they don't ask).

The students in the 5:00 class? Not so much. When class started, only two were there. Eventually, we got to seven--out of ten who submitted the final essay. They didn't have much to say--though one of them, a young woman I've not been able to figure out all semester (snotty? not?), was talking with her classmates about other classes and professors, empathizing, making recommendations. They didn't look at each other--and basically couldn't wait to get out of the room. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Oh, and earlier, during my office hour, the Media Mogul showed up with his withdrawal slip. He seemed a bit chastened, and he did say he'd been upset about "failing" the class, but that another of his professors reassured him that sometimes it just isn't the right time. I agreed with that. He also said that he's been put into the honors program--and all I could think was "Based on what, exactly?" The only examples of his writing that I saw were hardly honors quality ... but I probably shouldn't get going on what I think of the direction of the honors program in the past few years. I do want to see whether the Mogul has signed up for Paul's honors comp for spring--and if he has, I'll issue a bit of a warning. That may not be fair; it might be best to let Paul draw his own conclusions about the kid--but then, Paul also sometimes reads this blog, so....

As for the grading process, I've read and commented on the essays for the students who wanted those comments. I have two more essays to read and leave on my office door with just the grade. Then I get down to the quick and dirty: read, calculate, toss in the box. I'll get essays from the SF students tomorrow, then I'll meet them for the end-of-semester debriefing and to collect their self-evaluations. By that time, I should have everything calculated, ready to plug that last number in ... so I'm hoping I can submit final grades early and be home early on Thursday.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I do have a couple of those "Oh, shit, I keep forgetting" things to take care of (responding as a jury reader to a potential publication that I've given feedback on several times before, trying to get copyright to use Le Guin's Paradises Lost in the online Nature in Lit--which is now up to a whole entire three students registered!!)--but none of that will happen tonight. I'm staggering home. We'll see how early (or, more realistically, how late) I roll in tomorrow, and how much I manage to get done.