...and miles to go, again.

I just finished grading the second of the two essays for tomorrow's conferences--or, two that I knew were going to have conferences tomorrow. I think I mentioned the student who emailed her essay early but never completed the upload to Turnitin. She finally got back to me; her grandfather died (I know: oldest excuse in the book, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt)--and she apologized profusely for being "silly" not to have taken better care of her own work. I still don't know whether I'm going to give her credit, take a late penalty, what--but I will provide comments, mostly because I want her to have every chance to do well that she can get. If she "misbehaves" again, I'll be less generous, but for now, I'm inclined to be merciful.

But she signed up for an appointment tomorrow morning. I should have done with her what I did with the two students who submitted essays on time but were not in class to sign up for conferences: I told them they had to sign up for conference times but not for tomorrow or Wednesday morning; only Wednesday afternoon or Thursday. I didn't give her that instruction, so I can't fault her for wanting an earlier appointment--but it does put me under the gun a bit. I'd have marked her essay tonight, but she submitted PDFs, and somewhere along the line, Adobe Pro got deleted from this computer, so although I can translate from Word to PDF, I can't go the other way except from my home computer. Argh. (And I spent a good while "chatting" with Adobe tech support--which is how I finally understood why I was having the problem--but I don't have administrative access to install software. So that was a mammoth waste of time.)

Anyway, I told the emailing student that I might not have a chance to read or evaluate her essay before her conference, so if I don't, I don't.

As for the students who submitted on time but were otherwise AWOL, I ran into one on my way back to the office after class today. He's clearly very bright, but man, has he ever been dropping the ball so far. I told him he was in big trouble, and he gets that. He had, however, just signed up for a conference with me--Thursday afternoon. He didn't have much of a reason for why he's been so lax so far, something about having a hard time getting used to taking day classes instead of evening classes (? I don't know, it made sense to him), but I told him if he doesn't button it up starting right now, he won't pass. He gets that.

The other student I don't expect to see or hear from. I really should have a withdrawal slip all signed and ready to give him, in case I ever see him again.

One student did show up for a conference despite not having turned in an essay at all. No good excuse there, either: "I only had two days left to do it in." So instead of doing something and working from there, you opted to lose 150 points and get no feedback from me? A little bit of the "you need to be proactive about your own education" lecture but I pretty much said, "Well, I guess you're on your own then. See you next week."

As for today's class, it was not exactly wonderful--but I wasn't in the best frame of mind to try to make it work. Of course I came nowhere near getting their assignments done (that stack just keeps getting bigger), but I have four essays to grade for the 102 tomorrow, and after that, all my attention can go to getting those 101 assignments done and out of my hair--before I face the onslaught of grading for the 101s. And that's going to be ferocious. Ten students are signed up for Monday, and there's a chance some of the students who were absent on Monday or today may fill in more of those slots. I've just told Advisement that I'll have to miss my time on both Monday and Tuesday, so I'll have time to do some grading; Tuesday is light (three appointments), Wednesday slightly heavier (six appointments)--and Thursday is a killer: ***Thirteen*** conferences that day. I know that seems like I should have plenty of time, but ... I won't. I know I won't be as disciplined this weekend as I need to be (though maybe I'll surprise myself), and even with the time I usually spend in Advisement on Monday and Tuesday cleared for essay grading (plus a reasonably large chunk on Wednesday), that's just a fuck of a lot of essays.

Of course, I can always hope that lots of them don't submit, which is a dreadful thing to hope for, but really, it would make my life infinitely easier.

Along those lines, I'm usually happy to have students withdraw, as it lightens the load--but today one of the students I liked most in the 101 had a withdrawal slip. I gave him a hard time about it, telling him we'd talk after class, but he was very insistent: polite but firm. "Professor, I've made my decision." I finally signed it for him and apologized for giving him a hassle, saying he absolutely should do what's best for him. All this was going on under the eyes of the rest of the class--interesting to hear the murmur of the "audience" reacting to the little drama playing out in front of them--and after I signed the form, he said maybe he'd take the class again in another semester and have me for his professor. I said, "You won't." Surprise: "I won't??" "I'm retiring at the end of this semester." He clearly felt a brief pang at the thought that he wouldn't have that option--and again, there was a reaction from the crowd: not quite gasps, but audible sounds of surprise and (dare I say) maybe even dismay. Sorry, students. This is your one chance to experience my excellence... (I kid, of course. I'm still pretty damned good, but no one is getting excellence from me this semester. I'm too fucking tired.)

Anyway, it's now getting very late, and I really do have to get home. I realized yesterday that I've entered the part of the fall semester in which I get up before light and get home after dark. Thank heaven I have to get out and walk around campus, or I'd turn into a mole person. Or a mold person. Mushroomy. Etiolated. (Ain't that a splendid word?) And if I go much longer without food, I'm going to get a crashing headache, so I am outta here.