Catching a breath

[meirwen_1988]

All right, I admit it--I'm procrastinating. The papers are sitting in a folder to be graded, I've got to go teach a class in 40 minutes, another at 2...

So I've been reading live journal, thinking,...anything but grading. Trying to decide whether to put in to go to the NCTE conference next month in Pittsburgh (my boss cautions me to fly because it's "quite a hike." I snicker quietly to myself. "No? Really?")

It's midterm week, so there's lots of planning, regrouping, trying to figure out where we go from here. How much of my original plan is essential, how much can I dump, fiddle with,....? The kids are all exhausted, from work and the psychological exhaustion that comes from knowing there is no break until Nov. 22, and from the successive plagues that have been running roughshod through campus. Very nasty bugs, both of them, that the Drs. advise fluids and rest for. The fluids they can do, but rest isn't really an option, and truly is the only thing that works. Yes, they need to tough it out, but at a certain point there is a law of diminishing returns--they keep going they get sicker and can't do the work, they don't keep going they get so behind in the work they can't catch up.

I'm so tired myself I can hardly keep track of where I am. Didn't want 7 classes ever--I hope the college figures out we need more faculty soon.

There are bright spots--the student who wrote the paper that was both on the assigned topic AND funny. The dozen (out of 150) who are really committed to doing the work and doing it well. The ones who don't expect me to bend over backwards when they've been irresponsible. I got to show an episode of Buffy and a Bugs Bunny cartoon on Monday, and today is an episode of Star Trek. We're doing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and we're looking at other versions, or heavily influenced examples. I wonder what they'll think of Spock and Kirk.

Okay--time to muster.

Comments

[mg4h.livejournal.com]

Pittsburgh. Quite a hike.

*snerk*

Looks like the conference is downtown at the convention center. From there getting to just about anywhere won't be too bad, especially if it's not during rush hour. The annoying driving around here usually stems from being on one side of downtown, and having to drive through it. Traffic patterns are weird sometimes.

I'd love to be in your class, if you get to show such interesting videos. Which Bugs Bunny cartoon was it? I always loved the opera ones, they cracked me up as a kid.

[meirwen.livejournal.com]

"Hyde and Hare"--I wanted to do "Mad as a Mars Hare" and "Hyde and Tweet," too, but they aren't on DVD yet.