Whew

Yes, I am swamped with grading to do: essays for the 102, enormous piles of homework for the 101s. I did get some marking done in Advisement this morning, which reduced the stack slightly--but then, of course, I collected more work from today's class, so no net gain their.

However, I am thrilled to bits that most of the conferences I will have with the students in 102 are scheduled on Thursday: four on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, nine on Thursday. Getting ready for Thursday will be a push, for sure, but I will be able to spend some time this weekend grinding through the work for the 101s. I at very least need to return their reflection essays to them; if I can get everything marked and back, that would be a bonus. I'm not counting on it, but it's a hope, for sure--in large measure because I will need time on Monday to review sabbatical applications (or I will be the very, very, very bad member of the committee--again--who doesn't do that part of her job).

I thought I would probably have to save for Monday the observation write up as well--but I just managed to hammer it out (and cheat the spacing enough to squeeze it onto two pages). It may be marginally incomprehensible, but ... it's done. That's cause for a large sigh of relief.

I haven't had time, however, to start on the Academic Progress reports that I am required to submit. There's no specific date by which we need to do those, but they do need to be done. Of course, the students who really need to know where they stand with the reports are the ones who are least likely to check, but ... I'll have tried, at least. The main thing is to remind those who are AWOL that they do need to officially withdraw or face a negative impact to their GPA. Well, the opportunity will present itself.

Speaking of GPAs reminds me of a student I saw in Advisement today. I almost called him "the" student I saw. I think I saw one other student, but this young man sat with me for an hour. If there had been a long line of students needing to see someone, I'd have pulled a Paul and simply said, "Nope. That's your responsibility. Here's what you get. Now go away" (though the last is always said in much more gentle language and with a smile. However, it felt like it would be a harder fight to get rid of him than to help him more than I normally would, so ... I worked with him. I did get annoyed when he kept asking me which of the many options I would recommend ("How would I know? I don't know you or your brain or what your interests are.") or which class was easiest ("First, don't ask professors that, as college isn't supposed to be easy. But second, again, how would I know? What's easy for me might not be easy for you and vice versa.") His two main objectives were 1. raise his GPA as much as possible and 2. Get to graduation as quickly as possible. I tried pointing out to him several times that those might be mutually exclusive goals, but he didn't want to hear it, so we evaluated several if/then scenarios and came up with a plan that would get him his degree by next August. (He really wanted it to be May, but he had too many credits to fulfill.) It was all just on the edge of annoying the fuck out of me, but he managed to skirt that edge just well enough (or I managed to drum up some patience and compassion from somewhere.)

For now, I have everything I need to schlep home for the weekend already in a tote bag; I have the folder for the Monday 101 in my wheelie pack, ready to grab and go on Monday morning; I think I'm about as together as I'm going to get. Eight weeks down; eight weeks to go