Been There, Done That

I don't teach history, but English teachers have days like this, too. Click on this LINK and enjoy. Thanks, Eddy, for sharing.

They Just Don't Get It

I've been ranting lately about how students just don't get the connections between hard work, following directions, and their grade. Entitlement mentality rules. Here's further evidence. It's an actual student email, with certain details deleted to maintain the student's anonymity. All wording, spelling, punctuation, etc. is the student's.

"hey miss Eddleman. This is _____, I just check the Final score of mine for this semester, well, it was a D. but there is one thing that I'm planning to transfer to _____for this fall semester, and for the _____student requirement, I need to have a least a C for this class, so I can be able to get in to _____. I just want to know if there is anything that we can work it out to pumps my grade up to C? I know its tough, but I really need it.. so please let me know. Thxs"

I respectfully declined to change the grade. See how unreasonable I am?

Re: Tuesday's Post

When students who don't follow directions realize that they've earned a zero on their essay, what I often hear is this: "That's not fair! I worked too hard on this essay to get a zero! I deserve some points for all that work!"

So, I've been trying to think of some comebacks that they can understand (although I realize that they will still be angry, hate me forever, and believe that I am "unmerciful"). Here's my best one so far:

--Do you think that a referee would listen to a player who said, after a touchdown had been called back because of an offensive foul, "But I ran too hard not to get the points!!"

Got a great one to add to my list?

Too Much Sex

Title get your attention?

On Tuesday of this week, I taught The Thousand and One Nights in my world lit class. As the students were coming into class that day, I overheard one student say, "Man, I hope we don't read anything else with this much sex in it this semester."

On Thursday, I taught Boccaccio's Decameron. The same student said, "Man, this was my favorite thing we've read all semester."

Huh?

Confession is Good for the Soul

OK. I confess.

I was doing really well with my simplification plan. My life was becoming more and more orderly. I felt calmer. I felt . . . righteous.

But.

That was the first of the semester. Now, all the grading has hit and I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water. Oh, I haven't given up. I'm not quitting. But I'm not always "following through," either. Some days I toss my bag on the floor when I get in from work instead of putting it in its place. I don't always sort and put the mail in the nice little container I bought just for that purpose. My desk is not always a clean, organized expanse when I leave for the day.

I think I need to re-boot.

It's Better Than It Could Have Been

I've been thinking that yesterday's post didn't quite fit with my Simplifying and Destressing theme, but then I realized that without my simplifying and destressing efforts, my stress level right now would be even higher than it is. My decluttering and simplifying efforts at home are really going well. I have such positive feelings about my progress in that area. Because of some of the new habits I'm cultivating, my house is staying cleaner and clutter free, so although I may be stressing about work-related things, my home is not adding to the problem and it's a haven at the end of the day instead of one more thing to stress about.

And even though I'm not progressing as swiftly on the Simplifying and Destressing at the office as I am at home, a few things I'm doing there are at least keeping me sane in the middle of all the grading and prep. I've already told you about never leaving the office without a clear desk, and I would never have believed just how effective a strategy this is. I feel a sense of order when I walk out the door in the evening, and when I walk in the next morning things seem to be a little more under my control.

Another thing I've been doing is keeping a "Most Important Things" list. Before I leave for the day, on the top sheet of my notepad I list the things that absolutely, positively must be done tomorrow. These usually have to do with the following day's classes, but not always. On another sheet, I keep a running list of things that need to be done, but not immediately. When I get to work, I immediately start in on my must-do list, doing nothing else (but teaching classes) until those are accomplished. Then, I know I'm at least ready for the next day. If there's extra time, I move on to an item on the not-so-urgent list. These lists don't lessen my load or get my work done for me, but they do remove the fear of realizing at the last minute that I'm unprepared or have forgotten something important.

Additionally, I keep reminding myself that the extra work I'm putting into Comp I now will pay off in less stress in the future. A stitch in time . . .

Semester Stress

There is a time, every semester, when I feel in control. Prepared. On top of things.

That lasts about two weeks. Then I start having essays to grade, and real life hits me between the eyes. I think it's because I'm trying to do so much this semester. I have two new classes, which, of course, require constant preparation. Also, I'll be teaching a Women's Lit class this fall, so I'm doing some reading in preparation and trying to decide on which novels to teach. But I'm also re-working my Comp I classes. I've taught this course every semester since I've been at HU, and every semester I've done something different--used a new textbook or redesigned the course schedule.

So, this semester, I said "Enough." I've adopted a book I really like, and I'm sticking with it. I'm also carefully structuring the course, devising a generic syllabus that will let me make minor adjustments in what I do without changing the basic syllabus (so I can reuse it every semester), making detailed lesson plans, and compiling a course notebook. I'm tired of reinventing the wheel. All the work that I put in this semester is going to save me tons of time in the future. But the future's not here yet, and this semester's really getting to me.

Is it spring break yet?

It's That Time of Year

No, I'm not talking about Christmas. I'm talking about the end of the semester. Papers to grade. Tests to make out. Grades to record. Curriculum mapping to do (I SO love assessment--irony alert). And prepping and teaching don't stop for these fun activities.

I've got Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" playing in the background, and I'm repeating The Little Engine That Could's motto. Two weeks to go. Yeah. Piece of cake.

I'm Tired

This has been a great year. I finished the degree; I'm back at work. But, boy, am I tired. I thought I'd have some time off between defending and going back to work, but with two new classes to teach this semester, that just didn't happen. And of course the prep from those two new classes has kept me busy, along with all the grading. And NOW I've got two new classes to teach in the Spring semester, so in addition to prepping and grading, I've been trying to do some planning.

So, I'm really looking forward to having some time off next week. I want to get up without an alarm. I want to go through the day without watching the clock. I want to do some recreational reading. I want to watch a good movie or two (NOT New Moon).

Maybe after that I'll be ready for the sprint towards finals.

Surely, You Jest

The other night I had the weirdest dream:

Dr. Julie H. from the History Department and I were team teaching a class. It was the first day of class, and the room was full. As we stood up to welcome the group, she made an announcement that was news even to me. "I've decided," she said, " that the male students will stay in here and we'll teach them. The female students will go into the next room and quilt." Yes, you read that right. Quilt.

I tried not to let my mouth fall open as I thought, "How in the world do I handle this? I can't let this happen, but I can't confront her right in front of the students!"

Lucky for me, I woke up. This one's ripe for analysis.

Holy Violence

This week, in our Brit Lit I class, we studied the works of John Donne. I've loved his poetry ever since I first read it for my own undergraduate British Literature class--it's so shocking, so beautiful, so different from the poetry that comes before it, especially the religious poetry.

We laughed over his carpe diem poem "The Flea," and we all appreciated the conceits in his "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," but the poem that engendered the most discussion was this one:

HOLY SONNETS. XIV.

Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you

As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend

Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,

Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,

But am betroth'd unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Not every student liked it, of course. But most did. And not just in a "That's an okay poem" kind of way. The fervor of the poem was mirrored in their responses to it. In a world full of bland clichés about God, the idea of someone longing for Him enough to beg for his violent posession holds a strange attraction.

I love classes like that.

The Dreaded Syllabi

I'm very excited to start teaching again in a couple of weeks. What I'm not excited about is writing the syllabi for my classes. Planning a whole semester's worth of work at one time can be overwhelming. I'm teaching two new classes this Fall--British Lit I and Honors Critical Thinking and Speaking, and I'm teaching two sections of Comp I, which I've taught many times before. But, for some unknown reason back in the Spring, I decided that it would be good to adopt a new textbook instead of just keeping the one I'd been using. What in the world was I thinking?

So, now I have three syllabi to design. Being the on-top-of-things type of person I am, I went in to the office the other day to get started. I'll just do the one for Comp I, I thought, and get it out of the way. After all, that should be the easy one. I worked on it a little while, left to meet my husband for lunch, and came back to a computer that refused to boot up because, it kindly informed me, there were important files missing.

So, I just called tech support and went to Little Rock instead. The best laid plans of mice and men . . .

Warning: May Cause Premature Aging

My son Travis is an adjunct History Instructor at Arkansas State University this year. The other day, one of his students came to visit him during his office hours. As the student was leaving the conference, he said, “We’ve been trying to figure out just how old you are. At first, we had you pegged mid-twenties, but you know so much about stuff that had to have happened way before you were born. The more you talk, the older we think you must be.”

“Well,” Travis asked, “how old do you all think I am now?”

“Mid-to-late thirties is what we’ve come up with,” the student replied.

“You had it about right the first time,” Travis said with a grin.

“But how do you know so much about what’s gone on in the world when you’re so young?”

Travis said the first thing that entered his mind was that he’d read or been read to all of his life.

Only after that did it occur to him that having both a BA and an MA in History and being almost finished with a second Masters Degree in Political Science might be contributing factors.