Making good use of insomnia

I got all the essays graded, thank God--largely because I had a bout of early a.m. insomnia. I woke up at about 4:20 (which is the usual "I have insomnia" time), and I was in that phase when one drifts on waves, up and down, from just barely asleep to waking to barely asleep--but I looked at the clock and it was 5:30. The alarm was set to go off at 6--and I genuinely couldn't reset it for later, as I had a morning conference time set up. So, what the hell. I got up. I also truncated my morning routine--shortened it by about an hour--and got in to the office at about 8:45 (a time when I'm usually getting ready to eat breakfast). That bought me a nice stint of time before the flurry of conferences began. I finished the last of the essays while I was in Advisement--and had a little time to start organizing the next mountain of work I need to address: all the homework that's been piling up while I've been working on grading essays.

The conferences went well today, and the three students I expected not to show in fact did not show--although one of them sent me an email asking if he could have an appointment with me as soon as possible. He sent it during the time in which he was supposed to already be here, so I wrote back, "You had an appointment with me today. You weren't here." I very briefly considered offering him a conference time tomorrow--I have two open slots--but I decided: no. I'm not going to put any strain on myself to accommodate this young man. He keeps coming in to tell me how important his work is and how much he wants to get a good grade--but then he doesn't make it to class, doesn't turn in his work (or turns it in so late I wonder why he bothers). And what really frosts me is that he keeps calling me by my first name in emails. I've corrected him three times--the first two rather gently. Today not so much. I've tried to be positive and encouraging, but he's now gone too far over the line, and I'm unlikely to do anything more than tell him he needs to withdraw. He may need to stay enrolled for a student visa, but I am not interested in having him continue to roll in late or not make it to class at all, then come to my office in a flurry. Get your shit together. And until you do, don't bother me.

I am also going to deliver a stinging verbal slap to a student in the 102, the self-described "hot mess." For his "revision," he submitted exactly the same essay he'd submitted the first round. He didn't even correct the format or any of the superficial stuff. Therefore, he didn't really submit the second version at all, so he gets zero credit. He said he didn't have the comments with him when he came to conference with me, which is true--but I did take the time to write the comments, and to send him a sheet about mechanics, and clearly, that was all entirely wasted effort. I am going to tell him that he has thus shown a blatant disrespect for me, my time, and my professional knowledge. He'll no doubt fall all over himself apologizing, but I'm not going to accept the apology unless it is accompanied by a radical change in behavior. The sad thing is, he's smart, and he reads with intelligence and sensitivity, and if he'd just stop fucking around, he'd be a great student. As it is, I'm not at all sure I want him in my class, despite the quality of his contributions to the class discussion.

Grrrrrrrrr.

Ah well. Moving on.

When I was in Advisement, I had this wonderful fantasy that somehow I'd be able to at least get homework marked for the 102 before I see them tomorrow, but ... nope. That's not going to happen. I have back-to-back appointments before and after class (apart from those two breaks, mentioned above). So I have removed the mountain of essays to grade, but now I have to dig away at the mountain of other stuff mentioned above. It will be another weekend of scraping away at my nose against that rough stone. I'm going to have one hell of a sharp nose by the time all this is over. But we're crossing off the days, and the weeks, until end of semester. Ten more weeks to go. Whee-hawken.