Another "hurry up" blog post

I have to leave earlier than usual tonight to get to PT, so I don't have much time in which to write this post. I'll try to cover what I can.

I was very happy to have gotten everything marked for the 101 class today, so I could return it all. Of course, I collected more today--which I really do want to be able to return to them by Monday, so my decks are clear for when their essays come a week from today. (Yep, already. Groan.)

And I have at least sorted through the enormous stack of stuff I have to mark for the SF class before tomorrow's class. I haven't checked my calendar recently, but I think my day is clear up until class. I intend to set an early alarm (well, not super early, but earlier than I might normally) so I can get my butt in here and start cranking on all that work. I told them I would try to have it all for them by tomorrow, and I do want to do that for my own sanity, as much as for theirs.

Speaking of the SF class, in crowing about them yesterday, I completely forgot to include one of the best moments I've had in a very long while. After class, a student stayed after everyone else had left to talk to me. He said, "I just wanted to tell you I am very sorry for your loss." He told me he had read my email about Le Guin's death, and about how much she had meant to me (still means to me), and that he found it very moving. He said he thought losing a mentor was harder than almost any other loss, and he told me that his grandfather had been such a person to him: far more than a grandparent, but a mental giant (I think those were the students words) who, before his death, profoundly affected my student intellectually, personally, emotionally. And he genuinely did want to empathize with the sorrow I feel in the wake of Ursula's death. It was lovely--and surprisingly mature. He is, by the way, one of the best and brightest minds in that class (and is very well read), so I hope to keep him around all semester--and perhaps he'll be one of those students who stays in my life in one way or another long after leaving this campus. I got an email last night from a student who was in Nature in Lit with me eons ago; we've kept in sporadic touch since, and he was moved to send me a link to an article about Ursula. Nice.

Today's 101 was a bit better than they've been, though one of the groups was lacking in vigor when they were discussing the reading. Still, we got into a pretty good conversation about the readings--and a few of the shakier students asked very good questions about how to do the homework effectively. I probably should write myself a list of the things I want to cover in class on Monday. They'll have brought in articles they found through their own research, but I don't care if we don't get to talking about those; the main part of that exercise is for them to have their research (and some thinking about it) done before they have to start writing their essays. But most of the class will probably be spent on showing them how MLA works, showing them how to access the Turnitin submissions, that sort of stuff. So be it.

And now, I am out of time--just like that. Wish me luck for tomorrow.