The final winnowing

Detected one instance of just enough plagiarism to probably end up causing the student to fail--which would be a shame, as he has truly tried all semester. I hope he gets my email about it and comes in to talk to me. Depending on what he says, I may grant clemency--but only if he admits to the problem. One student withdrew. One student decided to gut it out--and I'm sorry I told her she'd get a D, as her final essay is nowhere near a passing effort. However, she is going to come to talk to me about her grade on Wednesday, and I can put the fear of god into her a that point.

Two students in tomorrow's class didn't upload their essays to Turnitin, despite my repeated exhortations. One is otherwise an excellent student; I sent her an email saying, "What happened?" I am almost certain that she "forgot," but I may grant clemency in her case, because she has been otherwise excellent. The other student, not so much. I don't know if I've mentioned her, but she's the one Paul would have booted in the second week, as she would not stay off her cell phone. Her work also was pretty shabby; clearly she didn't put a lot of time or energy into it, despite being "dedicated" to the class. (Um, no. Bat your big, blue eyes as much as you like, but I am not buying it. "Dedicated" would mean you'd actually work harder--and come to see me to find out how to get better marks.) I forgot to send myself the grade sheets from home (they're on that computer), which is a shame, as otherwise I'd total up her marks right now; my hunch is she may barely be passing, if indeed she's passing at all, at this point. I'm going to put the fear of god into her tomorrow, too--and I'll decide whether to be merciful or to follow my inclination and flunk her ass. I'll probably be merciful. I am more of a softy than I like to admit.

And somewhat to my amazement, Mom submitted the final version of her essay after all. I just took a look at it, and although I'd have steered her away from the "Indians and alcohol" thing--despite the fact that substance abuse is a very real problem in many Native communities, it always makes me uncomfortable, as if alcoholism is an inevitable part of being Native--but otherwise, she makes an actual argument. It's a bit shallow, but the shallowness kept her from going off the rails: it kept her focused. Good enough. I'll give it an A (though it may not quite deserve it)--and we'll see whether she manages to squeak out the A for the semester.

I'm already putting on my armor in preparation for meeting that class tomorrow. I am fully expecting a raft of veiled--or maybe not so veiled--snot from Mom and Daughter both. (Because, you know, they're good writers, so they shouldn't struggle and should automatically be considered excellent.) But we'll see.

The students today were remarkably open--and to my surprise, actually were very interested in hearing about my experience in grad school. I think part of it comes from the fact that they have enjoyed feeling like they have a professor who is intelligent and learned. (After all, I don't say "like" every second word, the way some of them do, and I can read with depth of understanding.) I'm happy to impress them; it doesn't take much, after all. I'll be curious to see if the other classes have similar responses.

As for tonight, I know I will regret packing it in so early; I really would like to get more done today, as I know I won't have much time tomorrow--and then I start seriously running out of time. I don't want to bail on Advisement--though I may opt to do so on Wednesday, depending on where I am with things. I am hoping it won't be very busy there tomorrow; I'm taking some work with me--though I know that all but guarantees that there will be students back to back throughout my two hours there. On the other hand, if the discussion in 102 doesn't take long, that could buy me a chunk of time. Ditto the 101.

But in between time, I may have to meet with an adjunct: I was actually called upon as the evening supervisor to talk to a student whose professor is one of our new hires this semester. And I definitely will have to meet briefly with Sabrina, the new assistant chair, to go over adjunct scheduling with her. (I asked Cathy whether I shouldn't maybe go over it with the new evening supervisor instead, but she felt that person--Christina--is too new at the position. I wanted to say, "So was I, and Bruce just threw me in the deep end." But that's one of the many differences between Bruce and Cathy.) So I'm not sure how my time is going to shake out.

Of course, that falls under the standard category "We'll see." I do hope I can get everything done by close of business on Thursday, but if not, I can always finish on Friday--even though that will set off huge waves of panic about also getting ready to travel on Saturday. Nevertheless, all that is worry for another day. Right now, what's most important is that I get my weary body home. It's rather nice, actually, that tomorrow is another day, because I'm really done with this one.