Snow!

And I don't mean that the students are trying to put something over; it really is snowing. I didn't think it was going to amount to much, and I think it won't stay long, but it was snowing significantly enough that I now understand why the admin decided to cancel evening classes (though at the time I thought it was a bit alarmist).

Back-tracking on the essay grading: I was on a roll to finish up before our department meeting today, but then the student I met with at 11 asked a lot of questions (and was sometimes confused about the answers, so I had to explain more carefully)--and then after we finished talking about her essay, she wanted to talk about advisement and her major.... I finally said to her, "I'm late for a meeting and I have other work I have to do"--but I didn't say that until she'd already been with me almost 40 minutes instead of the mandated 20. [heavy sigh.] So, I raced through the comments on the last essay I had to grade--I barely commented in the final stage of my response process--and fired off the email, then dashed down to the department meeting. I missed the first two, I think--or at least the last one, and Cathy has been sending out reproachful emails about the general lack of attendance, so I figured I'd at least briefly be the "good girl." I did, however, leave before the meeting was over. The last chunk of the meeting was given over to the bookstore reps, and since I am not going to be dealing with the campus bookstore in the future, I figured I could come up to the office and get something done.

What I got done was to remind myself of some photocopying I absolutely needed to do before Monday. I couldn't both pull together what I needed to copy and actually get the copying done before class, but just having the specific things pulled out was helpful.

Class was fine--and when I got there, I realized I hadn't reread the chapters I assigned for today. I read them while the class started talking--not, I confess, with as much careful attention as I would have normally, but still. I know I read fast (my father used to say I didn't read books; I inhale them), but students complain about having so much to read--and I could get it done in about 20 minutes. So even if we double, or triple that... Really? Too much?

I let the 102 students go a trifle early and quickly got the bare minimum copying done before my first conference of the afternoon--and then I had students pretty well back to back until just a little bit ago. I felt bad for the students who were arriving late, as by the time they were on their way in, the roads were pretty slippery and bad. But they dutifully arrived, and these were for the most part good students, so the conferences went well.

When I had a few moments here and there between students, I started (finally) logging the appointments in the Writing Center software, and I turned in the "attendance confirmation" tallies, which we have to do twice a year (and which are due tomorrow but needed to include attendance from today). Since my last appointment, I finished up the appointment logging, got the photocopies into the necessary folders, watered the plants, and packed up the final versions of essay 2 for the 102 class, which I hope to grade at least in part over the weekend. I was supposed to go out with a colleague tonight, but she needed to get home to Queens, so she bailed. I may be the only person left on campus other than the maintenance staff and public safety; it feels very empty and silent around here. So I'm going to go shove the worst of the snow off my car--and since I was primed to go out, I'm going to take myself out for dinner, in celebration of having survived this particular essay tsunami. There will be one more, at the end of the semester (and all three classes at once), but that's still on the horizon. However, as of Monday, we will officially be in the "hold on to the safety bar and scream" part of the semester. Wee-hawken.