I kinda hate breaks. I never get stuff done or get relaxation time. This time was compounded by the problem of getting really bad cramps --- and just a sense of exhaustion along with 'em --- in the middle of completely unscheduled free time. I think I'd rather have energy and a good feeling during my vacation time and use the busy, overscheduled teaching days to distract myself from feeling crappy. It's just too hard to concentrate and make myself work when I'm feeling bleah.
But then today I went back to school and zoooooomed through my to-do list that I had been suffering under all week! Ok, I'm not done, but I have a non-teaching day tomorrow to get back to my job apps and article and whatnot. See? It's like being on vacation is bad for me or something.
In addition to getting another pile of grading done and handed back and a lot of class org stuff done, I worked on the prompt for my comp class ---- by the way, I really don't like how they have set up a proposal/biblio/research paper structure for this class; I feel like I have been hauling ass covering all the ideas that need to get covered in order for them to propose and research a project by the due date time, and now we have the entire second half of the class to expand the completely-researched proposal into a paper that's only a few pages longer. I have all these teaching days I need to fill now! I guess I have to re-teach all the stuff I went over really fast? Meh.
On the bright side, I had a fun time teaching today and meeting back up with my students. Even the comp students, who I haven't really bonded much with this semester --- they're all pretty low-key and reserved compared to previous semesters, and with the way the research comp class is set up I don't learn as much about who they are as people and thinkers compared to the intro class. And I have such sporadic attendance in that class --- today 11 out of 24 people showed up; probably because the draft was due today.
And I brought the hammer down on two more and dealt with a student athlete meltdown as this person has just figured out that being gone on sports trips constantly has put the student behind in all classes. And oddly, I even had fun with all the student confrontations --- I just laughed at the screwups ("what do you mean you haven't started your project and you blew off your conference with me? Get yer ass into the library right this instant and turn in a list of sources by the end of the day!") and mapped out a new, doable schedule to turn in assignments for the athlete, talking that person down from complete panic (though I have doubts that this person will really pull it together). And I handed back two zero assignments with a plagiarism warning in another class, and even that didn't burst my good mood. See how weird I am? It would be a totally different situation if I didn't have alternating teaching and non-teaching days, though. I'm weird, but not that weird.
1 comment:
I got a lot done over break, but only did so with sheer resentment. The major difference between a regular work day and break to me is that I don't work at night during breaks -- just during the day. During the regular work week, I work most of the day and much of the night. I think I really need to get a life.
Glad you got some work done, though. I am counting down the days until summer. Sigh...
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