That was relatively painless...

I didn't get started working on essay grading until relatively late, but I've finished relatively early--and that includes some futzing around with stuff peripheral to the main work (fixing the check-list I use for the next step, the "mechanics" part; deciding that I don't really want to do that on electronic files but will do it by hand (I briefly thought it would work for me to do both kinds of review at once; nope. It will be easier for me to glance through the essays and do the checklist from there, hand 'em out in conference). I admit, I was helped by the fact that one student didn't submit her essay yet (the one who was in my office on Thursday), but I may be helped tomorrow by the fact that the students submitting essays probably will have done a pretty good job, which means I'll have less to do. I also found I could cut and paste most of the "overall" comments from one essay to the next, as they all dealt with the same topic and all had the same problems (good ideas but scattered all over and lacking evidence).

I still have an enormous stack of 101 homework to dig through, which I should do before I pack it in for today, but ... well, I'm not going to. Yes, I may regret the decision later--but never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. But I also have my own homework to do, studying in preparation for the continuation of my teacher training in Breath-Body-Mind. I almost bailed on getting the training, as I knew I'd have very little time in which to do the homework assigned (especially since it involves a lot of repetition and memorization), but ... well, I'll do what I can. If I'm the "bad" student, I'll take Level 2 again--or just be the student who just manages to squeeze out enough to do what's required.

So, here's the plan for the moment--always with the awareness that the mice and I may make best-laid plans but that doesn't mean they won't go agly: I will work on BBM stuff tonight. I will grade the essays for tomorrow (and I just realized that one of the students in the next batch also hasn't submitted his essay, so that helps there--assuming he still hasn't submitted by tomorrow). There are also two students who haven't been in class of late and who don't have conferences but who did submit essays, but theirs get graded last. If they sign up for conferences before I've had a chance to grade their essays, that's their too bad.

Then there's the student who was freaking out on Wednesday because she couldn't upload her essay (because she was doing it wrong)--but who then emailed the essay to me and figured her job was done. I've just sent her a second email (though clearly she never read the first one) telling her that it isn't my job to take care of her assignments. She hasn't signed up for a conference, either. So even though I have a copy of her essay and could conceivably upload it for her, I'm not inclined to do so. I kinda want to "larn" her. The sad thing is, she seemed like a very good and eager student, so part of me also is worried that something in her life has suddenly fallen apart--and of course, if that's the case, I'll be lenient. Possibly too lenient, but I will want to give her a chance to do well.

Let us now chant the mantra "We'll see." To be followed by a chorus of "I'll think about that tomorrow." You all know the pages in your hymnals.