From one student to five...

When I left home this morning, only one student had signed up for an appointment with me, the Grammatician. One student dropped in--and then dropped in again, which technically is verboten, but I figured, as long as I had the appointment open and no one else was waiting, why not help him. One was another of those students who just needed me to review an essay and sign off on the fact that she'd been here; I was complaining about those as a waste of my time earlier, but now I realize I rather like them, as they're generally pretty brief appointments. Then my final appointment was a returnee; I'm at a loss for a moniker for her. She is very sweet but rather slow; today she said she has a learning disability, which I probably could have told without her saying so. But it was good to know she's aware of it; too many students clearly have processing problems and have no idea that there is anything wrong. The first time I met with her, I had to really struggle to get her to understand that it wasn't her job to simply write down the prompting questions I was asking her but to answer them. This time, she needed help making sure she understood what a professor was asking for in a very specific rubric. She'll also need help with organization and clarity; that goes without saying. But I don't know whether she's given herself enough time to get it.

The Grammatician didn't ask any challenging grammar questions today; he wanted me to help with an essay, and his English has gotten good enough that I can talk with him about ideas, not just grammar, idiom, etc. I've probably mentioned that before, but it's quite a relief to be able to talk about connections, organization, filling in ideas.

The student I saw twice may become a "regular," with what little is left of the semester. He was working on an essay for a Film and Literature class; his professor had already seen it and given some feedback on mechanics but not much on content--yet part of the problem was that his essay was under length, which means he needs to develop his ideas. I can rather understand the bind he was in: the professor has very rigid parameters for how long individual paragraphs can be as well as for the length of the essay overall. At first the student was a bit grumpy because, as he explained, he gets feedback from her, changes what she pointed out, and still gets a bad grade. I explained that he is expected to re-evaluate his ideas on his own, too, not just fix what's explicitly shown to him. He then admitted that he's a math/science guy and taking some very challenging courses in that arena, so he tends to give the English course short shrift. This is entirely typical: students see the title of the class and think it will be easy, just watching movies and eating popcorn, apparently. They're shocked when they realize there is actually academic rigor involved, and that they need to read, write, and think (heaven forfend). I will give this young man credit: he wasn't averse to the idea of doing those things as a general rule; he just was prioritizing and the Film and Lit didn't get the priority. However, as we worked through his essay, he started to realize how many problems were caused by the fact that he had rushed it--but he was rushing again, and in fact he missed the already extended deadline for submitting the essay. It was greatly improved from when I saw it earlier in the day, but I worked through it again with him, in the hope that his professor takes pity on him and allows him to submit it. However, I explained, sometimes the learning experience is what matters, not whether one gets a grade, and he saw that. But he also says he'll be in earlier to work on his next and final essay for that class. Good plan; we'll see if he follows through on it.

Looking forward, it is interesting to watch my schedule silt up as each new day approaches. Earlier, I had one appointment scheduled for tomorrow. Now, there are three. At the moment, I have only one appointment scheduled for Thursday. I will be curious to see how many more I pick up by the end of the day.

And we're careening toward the end here. This week, next week, one more Monday, and it's all over. I imagine it will take a little while before I start freaking out about not having the income, but I find that it is extremely easy for me to have day after day of bugger-all nothing to do. Retirement suits me. Now if I could just also be independently wealthy....

I'm sure there was something else I wanted to say, but heaven knows what. If I think of it--and if it's important enough, I'll add a postscript. Otherwise, my faithful readers, I'll see you tomorrow.