Early Morning Call Out...

I was up last night until about midnight, reading drafts of student papers and trying to send those papers back to students in our course management software. Unbenownst to me (but I know now), the administrator of our system takes it down at 10pm to back it up. Sure would be nice if he'd let us know this. I spent almost another hour, between 10p and 11p, trying to send the papers back. Another good reason why my students shouldn't wait to send their work to me.

So, I set the alarm clock for 8am (usual on a Tuesday night). I don't leave my house on Mondays or Wednesdays until about 11am, but, this morning, I needed to leave a bit early because I was scheduled to present a talk to another class at 11am. But I really wanted to sleep until 8am; I needed it after a day of reading essays and fighting the computer.

This is something of a digression, but Tuesday was a horrible computer day. I couldn't get into the lab where I usually teach my first class because someone had jammed the door and neither I nor the secretary could get it opened. So, we had to move to another lab. Then, in my second class, the computer/overhead system wouldn't work because the computing services department hadn't signed on to the administrator's computer; whenever they take the campus-wide system down, any computer that needs an administrative login has to be reset. And they won't give anyone in my department the code to restart the computer. But, if I call them to come reset the computer, I'm lucky if they show up 45 minutes into the class. I need the system to work when class begins, not when it's half over.

Well, okay. I had a frustrating day with the people who deal with computers and with idiots who can't shut doors properly.

Exhausted and mentally drained, I went to bed and slept soundly until...

7am, when the sound of chainsaws ripped through my dreams. I looked out the window, and there, in my neighbor's yard, a tree-service company was cutting down a pine tree. I tried to go back to sleep, but the chainsaws just kept working. Finally, at 7:30, I got out of bed, made coffee, and went outside to put the trash at the curb for the garbage person.

I walked to the truck parked in my neighbor's driveway and asked for the guy in charge. I pointed out my bedroom window and explained that I had worked late last night, and why on earth were they chopping down a tree at 7am? Even though I live in a small town, I am not a farmer and I don't get up with the chickens. The guy apologized and said he was working with CLECO. He didn't schedule the work; he just did it when they told him to. I asked him to take a message back to his contacts--if they are going to schedule an early tree-cutting session outside of my bedroom window at 7am, I want a week's notice so I can get to bed earlier.

Maybe I'm just getting to be one of those crochety old ladies who wants everything her way. I don't know. I just know that this has been a frustrating week. I want the universe and its minions to work with me, not against me! Above all, I just want everything to work the way it should.

Wake-Up Call...

My friend, David Lewis, and another friend wrote a song with this title that was recorded by John Mayall. If you haven't heard it, you should go find it. It's great.

And, of course, it's a perfect title for my finals' week blog because, once again, I have these students who, all of a sudden, wake up and realize they probably won't pass the class they've been taking with me all semester, or that they probably won't make the grade they "need" to keep up their GPAs.

Well, I'm sorry, but it's too late for most of them. I understand illness, I understand procrastination, I understand "it slipped my mind," but now is not the time to ask for help or consideration. It's not as though I've added any "new" assignments to the schedule. I pretty much have it all mapped out at the beginning, so students shouldn't be surprised when they have work due.

Since last week, I have been grading papers, averaging grades, searching for grades I might have missed, looking for papers I might have overlooked (probably because they were turned in late), and I'm exhausted with excuses. I have one final to give and, after that, I'm turning in my grades. I need a break before my conference in Boston and before summer school begins on June 1. I just do not have the time or the inclination to cut anybody any slack at all.

I made it clear to my students that they were NOT to discuss their grades with me after dead week began. And what do I find in my email inbox? Questions about grades, of course. And, for my lit class, I went over the final exam questions--I read them out loud! And I have students bugging me to email them the questions because they missed the class. NO! If you didn't come to class or you didn't record them, don't ask. Enough already! Next thing they'll be asking me is to take the test for them. Please!

Every semester, I talk about personal resposibility, about being responsible for your own learning and your own success. At times, I feel that students want me to do everything for them; they want me to allow substandard work or give them a free pass if they can't do what I've asked them to do. I spend an enormous amount of time building my course sites--including information to help my students with their work. Half of them don't look at what I post and then get upset when I take points off their papers because they don't do what they are supposed to. How difficult is it to create a Works Cited page? Obviously, it's incredibly difficult because they haven't looked at the document I created and posted that shows them exactly how to do it!

And what's the deal about not asking for help during the semester? If you can't figure something out or have problems writing a thesis statement, why don't you ask the professor for help? It's part of our job. But please don't ask me to read your mind! I gave that up when I became mortal!

Yeah, my end-of-semester rant!

I love the students who hunger for knowledge for knowledge's sake--they're here for more than a grade. I just keep teaching for them.

Now I think I'll go check on the garden. Everything's growing in great leaps, and I can't wait for the first ripe tomato.