Whoof...

OK, so.

1. I am not used to the actual rhythm of the week yet. This is the first Monday I've taught, and I was blissfully going by my Tuesday hours in Advisement (10:30 to 12:30), forgetting that on Mondays, I have class at 12:30, so my hours are actually 10-12. I wondered why I seemed to have such a luxuriously long time between my arrival on campus and having to be in Advisement.... I realized that I was on the wrong schedule in enough time that I was only a minute or two late to class, but still: momentary panic there.

2. I am already drowning in assignments. Thank God Wednesday is a day off: I'll be atoning for the sins of my year by doing a load of marking. Fortunately, I can sleep in, which will be a godsend.

3. Speaking of sleeping in--and, actually, drowning in assignments--I almost made the decision to sleep in this morning, but thinking about all that work I wanted to mark, I opted to go ahead and suck it up for today.

4. And then  promptly forgot to return everything I'd marked once I was in class.

5. And, in part, I guess, because the rhythm is not established in my body yet, I was thinking I still had almost a half-hour of class left and then (again, in the nick of time) realized the students were getting restless because it was time for class to end. (But note to self: even using your phone to check the time is verboten. I need to get on the students about that.) But in better news, part of why class almost ran long is that the students were actually working in their groups--and were actually participating in class discussion. Of course, a number of them didn't actually do the work they were supposed to do, but those who did seemed more engaged than they have in the past. The work in small groups certainly helps (they still won't respond much when I just ask questions of the entire class before they work in groups). And I do wonder how much the classroom itself creates a stultifying effect. I know that the fact that every dry-erase marker I've taken to class has been good on the dry part but not on the marker part contributes to the problem, as I can't put anything on the board, and we are a visual species: it's not simply a matter of  "students don't know how to listen any more." I've ensured that I have in my wheelie pack a marker that will live up to its name, ready for next week.

6. Backing up to the start of class today, I was taking attendance and was certain there was one student who was going to be a no-show: I think he's been on my roster since the beginning but I haven't seen him yet. But no! I got an email from him today, explaining some long, involved thing that didn't really make sense and asking if he'd already missed a lot. (At least he didn't ask if he'd missed anything; he assumed he'd have missed something and was simply trying to ascertain how much. One Brownie point.) I sent him a long email in which I demonstrated how much work he's missed--and I strongly recommended that he withdraw. Nope. He's opted to stay. It will be very interesting to see if this is the student who is that exception to the rule. I honestly don't think in my entire career I've ever had a student join the class this late and successfully make it to the end of the semester. Those of you who have been reading my blog since its inception may be able to remind me of a case I've forgotten (assuming there's been once since I started blogging), but I really think my memory serves here: nary a.

7. Tonight was my night to "babysit"--i.e., to sit downstairs in the main office in order to provide back-up for the student aides. (File under, "I never had to do this when Bruce was chair.") I actually was able to help mollify a justifiably angry student who has been trying to contact her professor since the start of the semester. In fairness to said professor, several people have again been experiencing the glitch of important emails going into their spam folders. (Happened to me once, and has happened to others in the past. Maddening, of course, because unless someone says something about an email that went out to everyone, we don't realize we're missing stuff, in the floods of emails we get daily.) But it also should be said that said professor was supposed to be in her office for office hours and was not. Um, not good. But our redoubtable Cathy is on the case--in addition to her work to try to handle the massive fuck-up of the new bookstore, the crumbling classrooms, slashed budgets, and general insanity. God love her. It's pretty fucking thankless work, but I sure am thankful.

Tomorrow will be another non-normal day, as it's a Monday again--and as I'll be meeting my students in the Library. But next week, we'll be on the real, normal rhythm, and the only break to that rhythm will be for Thanksgiving (well, and the Thursday I miss to go upstate)--but by then I'll be dialed in well enough that the disruptions won't (or shouldn't) lead to confusions like today's. I have to say, I keep thinking, "Jeezu, it's a good thing I'm retiring, as clearly I am rapidly losing my ability to function." I've always been a bit the absent-minded professor but I astonish myself with how little I am able to keep in my brain at any one time. Seriously, gnats probably can focus better than I can.

But sitting here blogging when I have to run errands before heading home is not the way to get a good night's sleep so, hasta la pizza, y'all.