A minor miracle...

I almost am afraid to say anything, for fear of creating some sort of horrific jinx, but I think I can finish grading all the essays for the 101s tomorrow--and possibly even in the morning before my 102 class. I don't have my heart set on the "done in the morning" part; I do also need to make some kind of sense of the teetering, chaotic stacks of stuff that are all over my desk, on the radiator, around the computer--not to mention the stuff that's shoved into my wheelie pack--and it's important to do that before I go to class, so I'm sure I have whatever I might need when I get there. It's funny that I've been so deeply focused on the grading and the attendant conferences that the whole "I need to go into the classroom and do something instructive" part has almost entirely slipped my mind. I do hope I can get that back into the front part of my attention by the end of this week, again, so I can be sure I have with me what I'll need to take into my classrooms (and to my Advisement stints).

Speaking of Advisement, I took both this morning and tomorrow morning off; these are hours I'll have to make up, but I already have the make-up times set, and it shouldn't be too onerous. I'm rather hoping that for the next round of essays, the attrition will be such that I can do all my stints in a conference week--or at most, only miss one (which would be just two hours to make up, and that's readily do-able).

It seems like I ought to have more to report, but I really don't the conferences were fine. Only one got up my nose a bit, the last one. The student is an eager beaver; he's also on the staff of the campus newspaper (which is starting to be as much a red flag for me as "I write poetry" or "I went to Chaminade"). And he really, really wanted to make a case that colleges should teach life skills such as cooking, cleaning, money management and so on. Uh, no. Just ... no. Yes, I understand that not everyone is lucky enough to have parents to teach them those things. Yes, I understand that high schools don't teach enough of that stuff. But still: not our job. Even if one thinks--as this student does--that college needs to be narrowly pragmatic in its focus and applications ("why am I taking useless classes that won't help me in my future?"), it's not our job to teach you how to do the laundry. It just isn't. But man, he did not want to let go of it. And he pointed out that this was the second of his ideas that I'd scotched. His first was going to be about how mental health problems affect college performance ... or something like that. In any event, nothing with enough of a clear focus to work for a 4-5 page argument essay.

Oh, and that's been interesting: the number of students who say, "Oh, you want us to write an argument essay." Yes, I do. Didn't I say that? Sort of a lot? And of course, all the usual confusions are there: "I thought it was supposed to be my opinion." (Yes, but not opinion as in "I think a pink living room is lovely.") "I thought I was supposed to use facts." (Yes, but not just to say, "Here's something this author said. And here's something this other author said.") "But how am I supposed to write four pages on just ..." (fill in the blank. Four pages is just so much writing to do.)

Whatever. They're learning, and I keep having those, "Wow, this is probably the last time I'll ever do that" moments, as well as the "Wow, I don't have to think about how to do this assignment better next time" moments. Weird, weird, weird.

But it is now, of course, late, and of course I have to run an errand or two on the way home. So, hasta luego, y'all.