A really nice thing just happened on my way to get my lunch from my husband: one of my colleagues who I'd consider friend (along with his wife) more than colleague, just told me that I look really great and asked what I had been doing. He is the first person to notice that I've actually been losing weight. I was upset a couple of months ago because I thought after a few pounds and some inches that someone would say something and the husband said "don't you know that our friends won't notice that because our friends like you for many many other reasons than how you look?" Which was nice. And true. I mean, I get the point the husband was trying to make. But part of me is shallow and a bit vain. So this made my day. But I think it's because in the last two weeks I've lost almost five pounds, and this week, well I won't be able to tell because I have some monthly bloat weight that will keep the scale from accurately reflecting what it should. And I do feel confident that I've lost some weight this week because the scale has not jumped to the astronomical number on the scale it usually does. But we'll see what happens tomorrow for my "official" weigh in and measurements. After moving at such a snail's pace since January, consistent, but still slow as all get out, it's nice to see some progress and things headed in the right direction a little bit faster.
Plus, I think the tan I have right now helps, too.
Anyway, this was not supposed to be about weight loss and such. Even though I only went over the take home final with the froshes today, I'm worn out by them. By my attendance policy, half the class should fail for their five absences. The take home final, which is my standard essay for the writing classes that requires them to evaluate their own performance and what they learned in the class and what they did to actively learn, and I told them that some of them were going to have a REALLY hard time with this essay because of attendance, participation, lack of effort, and that they needed to keep in mind that the course objectives are achievable with effort on their part as well, so they needed to think about that. I said that there were about three of them who probably wouldn't have that difficult a time with it. I have a headache though thinking about having to grade them next week.
There were 8 Fs on this last batch of essays. Six were eligible for revisions because they were turned in on time. Do you know how many of the students with Fs showed up during my office hours for a revision conference? One. Just one. And ze turned that F into a B. Good for hir. Of all the students who could have and should have revised, four showed up. One of those revisions was barely a revision, so ze's grade didn't change. One of the four didn't turn in a revised draft. And that was exactly why I didn't have a conference sign up sheet for revisions. I figured I'd get a slew of students showing up for conferences and then not turning in drafts.
One stu in the lit class with 11 absences begged and pleaded with me not fail ze because ze absolutely!positively! CANNOT fail my class! What could ze do? Ze would do anything! Ze asked for a chance to prove the rest of the quarter that ze was deserving not to fail. Uh, yeah, there are two short stories left! My response: "You've had the entire quarter to prove to me that you want to pass this class. But you show up every day with nothing but your phone and you text the entire class period. So all you've shown me all quarter is that you do not give two $hits about this class. Two days ain't gonna prove otherwise."So stu then sent hir friend to my office to plead on hir behalf (although stu 2 said that stu 1 had no idea ze was there). "Stu's a great person! Stu's been going through a lot this quarter that ze didn't tell you about. I mean, is like 11 the cut off for absences?" I'm like, uh, you're a nice kid, but I'm not discussing another student with you. And FIVE, if you recheck the syllabus, is the cut-off for absences. Sheesh! I've never had a student send another student to try to talk me out of failing a student. Which makes me even less likely to do anything. If you're getting ready to graduate then you're probably at least 22, so be a fucking adult and make another plan and don't send your friends to my office to tell me what a "great person" you are. I've failed as many "great people" as I've passed total assholes. It's nothing to do with who you are.
Anyway. It's annoying. It makes my head hurt. Oh well.
So at least this weekend we have some fun stuff planned. I'm going to make a nice dinner tonight. The husband and I will relax. I will spend tomorrow cleaning and reading/writing for this conference paper which is causing me no small amount of anxiety right now. I have no idea what I'm going to do for this at all. It also makes my head hurt.
In other news, to reiterate, I LOVE working out in the mornings before school. I love it. So at least I got that going for me right now.
I got the three revision essays graded. All the grades so far for all the classes calculated. I am kind of dreading the amount of grading that I will have next week, but maybe I can space it out enough and pace myself then it might not be so bad because that conference paper HAS.TO.GET.DONE. Because my research schedule for this quarter didn't happen. It needed to, but it didn't.
And I'm a little distressed now to see that the summer cap is EXACTLY the same as the regular quarter. The shortened summer quarter is capped at 25 freaking students. That seems wrong to me. Oy. I was really hoping it would be less than that. Fuck. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it. At least it's only six weeks. I need a nap now.
At least I'm pretty sure I can get everything from the other classes done next week before the freshman start turning stuff in, so that will be best if that's the final thing. At least by the time I get the take home finals, because they're worth 10%, it will be pretty easy to figure out which ones I don't need to grade at that point.
I'm so making a great dinner tonight and having some wine. I'm so doing that.
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