Systemic resistance to the work

Man, I am just ferociously resistant to actually doing the work I need to do. I did manage to get one (one!) essay graded for the SF class; I have no idea what else I got done, but it sure wasn't much. I did write up a new version of the progression from first submission of essays to final version for the 101; I realized that--with the schedule now rather significantly truncated--if I gave them all the individual handouts for the various steps, they'd be utterly lost. So I removed almost all the explanation and made a check-off list. For each step, there's a box to check off, "Done."

I don't think it will help, but maybe. If it does, great.

I also had to redo a couple of handouts, because of changes I've made that hadn't tracked through somehow--but now I have a bunch of disorganized papers, some already copied, some that need to be copied, some I will hand out, some I won't, all over my desk, and I have to sort them out tomorrow.

That observation? Not written up. We'll have to see how tomorrow goes.

And the rest of the essays for the SF class: that's first priority tomorrow. Today, they got (again) the fuzzy end of the lollipop, as I had to get my shit together for the 101.

And in the 101, there were seven of twelve students. Most had done the research (though they didn't say so at first), so we talked about what they'd found, how they can use it, how they can focus their ideas ... they actually did pretty well, helping each other out a little, making suggestions, asking good questions. Those seven students know about the change to the assignment schedule. One other student may know now because he wrote to tell me why he couldn't be in class today. (Clearly he didn't check to see the email from me). One student responded (well, sort of) indicating that he'd gotten the information--but he wasn't in class today. The other two? AWOL. One, possibly (probably) permanently.

My salon consisted of just me and one student today; the other student who usually attends couldn't make it (her work schedule has changed), so I'll see her on Thursday.

Oh, yes: and I met with the student who plagiarized and then told me she hadn't. When I presented her with the evidence, she said that obviously she had, though she didn't remember doing it. We talked at length about it; I told her that I was mostly concerned that there was a pattern of dishonesty going on. I think that hit her harder than any affect on her grade; I said, "This is going to sound harsh, but really, this is theft. What should happen to someone who steals something, is warned, and then steals again?" She suggested arrest--which I can't do, obviously. At first she'd asked if she could do the work over, but when I put it that way, she understood why she shouldn't be given that opportunity. It's a zero; her marks have been low, so the zero may or may not hurt her at the end of the semester--but she said she understands that if she screws up again, there will be no reprieve: she'll simply fail the class. Yep. I'm being generous letting her stay--but she's within a hair of graduating, and she is one of those students who probably didn't need to go to college, should have found another route to a solid career, so I don't see any reason to punish her any more harshly. She'll pass or she won't. Up to her, really.

In any event, I do want to get out of here pretty damned soon--and I will, by God, be in relatively early tomorrow, so I can get a flying start on all that work that's silting up the desk right now. So, for now, I'm outta here...