A Monday at home

I decided to let my exhaustion factors weigh more heavily in the balance than my financial worries, and I took a full sick day today--not just from Advisement but from everything. I got some work done over the weekend, though doing so was a challenge, given the intensity of the training I was going through--but the events on Sunday went later than I'd realized they would, and--this being New York--of course there was insane traffic on my route home, so instead of being home at about 8:30 or 9 as I should have been, it was 10:30 by the time I staggered in the door. So, this morning, I slept. They may hate me in Advisement. C'est la vie. They only have to put up with me for a few more months.

But having gotten some sleep, I did finish up grading the essays for the 102, so those are ready to return tomorrow. I hope I can get some work done in Advisement in the morning, clearing out homework that I've been collecting, but we are getting into the time of the semester when I can't count on having any moments to do my own work when I'm there. Fall is always busier than spring at about this point; students can't think "Oh, I don't have to worry about that for months," the way they do with summer break in front of them--and the fact that they may have gotten closed out of classes or otherwise had to deal with scheduling problems this semester will be fresh in their minds. The real onslaught won't start until November sometime, but the early birds are already out and starting to form flocks.

In terms of those essays: the change I instituted this semester--requiring a "show your work" copy, in which they had to mark up for revision--generally worked very well. I don't delude myself that this would be universally true; I think it's just that group of students. But still, it's nice that it is working more often than not. Mostly their essays were improved--and some were improved significantly (though I still didn't give any A's).

But once I finished and put all those back in my wheelie pack, ready to schlep to campus tomorrow morning, I realized I needed to carefully think through my work flow over the next few weeks. I will be getting the next round of essays from the 102 on Thursday (making for a very happy birthday weekend for me)--and I have the second versions of the first essay for all the 101s yet to mark, on top of a fairly huge wodge of homework. Right now, that wodge is mostly from the M/W class--and I see that this is how the semester will go. I put lots of energy into the backlog of stuff for the T/Th class, and while I did, the stuff from the M/W class was silting up. Now that will flip the other direction, but the wave will continue to slosh back and forth between the two classes.

And there's some required reporting I need to do: I haven't filled in the mandated "academic progress" reports yet. Usually I do those pretty early, but I just haven't had a moment when I've had my records in front of me and a little window of time for that sort of silliness. Maybe tomorrow after class. Or not.

It will all get done, one way or another. This week is the half-way point: it's week 8 of a 16 week semester. Still not at the tipping point when everything races toward the end, but damned close. I know I'll still worry about stuff--but I won't have this kind of work load to weigh me down. And that will be a little slice of heaven.