After having a relatively quiet summer in terms of academics, I got a phone call this morning from the department, asking me to get in touch with a former student. I called his number, left a message, and he called me somewhat later. It was just as I expected. He wants a grade change so he can stay in school and on the football team. He knew what he'd done wrong: there was an essay he never turned in. (He says he thought he did, but he didn't.) So I agreed to let him write another essay and then I'd change his grade.
Normally I shy away from doing anything like this, but this young man is a struggling minority from inner-city Detroit. He's also a father. I don't give a damn about the football team, but I do give a damn whether he stays in school. I just wish we'd handled this dilemma last semester. (He was my student in Fall 2007.) I can't believe that he wasn't told last semester that he was on academic probation. I guess no one cares until the football season begins. It's wonderful how we all have our priorities in place, isn't it?
On the flip side, I also got an email this morning from a former student from GVSU. She was a wonderful student and is a delightful young woman. She caught me up on what had been happening in her life since she'd last gotten in touch. It does me good to hear from the good ones as well as from the less-than-successful ones. Last year was not my most outstanding year as a teacher, I'm sorry to say, and to hear from a great former student means that someone is thinking of me positively. It helps my fractured ego.
But these two contacts have me acutely aware that we are only days away from the semester's beginning. It's time to get cracking on a number of things: cleaning my home office, preparing syllabi, sorting and filing and all those little actions that help the semester get off on the right foot.
That's actually what went wrong last year. I was hired at the last minute, trained (badly) at an even later time to use my school's technology, and stuck in an office cubicle away from the rest of the department, where I had no interaction with anyone. Then, given the horrors of the dissertation and the way my committee ripped my soul straight out of me, I wasn't in any mental state to deal with more stress. The semester's ending was also bad because I was rushed both in the fall and in the spring to get grades turned in: first for my own graduation, then for my son's. This year, knock on wood, I'll have a more leisurely finale for the semester.
I think it will be helpful, too, to be on campus for three days. That way, I can get a lot of work done without being distracted by a dirty kitchen, a stack of laundry, and other household chores.
Speaking of housework, I need to do a little of it before my spouse returns tonight. It will be nice to have him home. For one thing, I'm sure to sleep better. Once again, I tossed and turned for hours after going to bed last night. It's comforting to me to hear his little sounds and movements as I'm drifting off to sleep. Knowing he's there, "keeping guard," makes me feel secure. He'll probably miss his great view of the marina in San Diego from his tenth-floor hotel room, but at least he got to experience that great view for several days. (He even got to watch the aircraft cruiser Kitty Hawk dock.)
I have an idea for a warm-up ice-breaker for the first class (for my English 150 students). I've thought of bringing crayons and paper and having them draw a portrait of themselves to accompany a short essay on the topic of who they are. Nothing smells like school starting more than crayons. It might also help me to get to know them more quickly (assuming, of course, that their portraits aren't so abstract that I can't see any similarities to the actual people).
Most of all, it's mid-August, that time again. Time to put the world in order, briefly. Then, let the chaos begin!
No comments:
Post a Comment