Saturday in Late September

It's a beautiful early fall day here in the southland. Check out the blue sky:

I can't take a picture of the low humidity and comfortable temperatures, but trust me, it's a beautiful day. What am I doing on such a gorgeous day? Nice of you to ask. I'm staring at these:

Yep, that's approximately 170 blue book exams. The damn grading fairies have gone on strike, so it looks like I'll have to grade all these exams all by myself. Just looking at them (even in this picture) makes me nauseous and gives me a headache. I've been feeling woozy, headachy, and run down for about a week now and really wish it would go away. I thought it was stress, but now I'm wondering if there I've caught some sort of nasty bug. I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that I can't seem to find enough hours in the day to my work and I'm not sleeping or eating very well. Nah, can't be any of those things.

Despite not feeling well, I dragged myself to the grocery store, figuring the only way to solve the eating problem was to, well, eat. I decided I'd make one of my favorite pasta dishes for dinner. It's really tasty and I think I could use a feeling of accomplishment right about now. Things started to look up when I checked out at the store and got this for free:

Almost made up for the staggering nausea. I'm seriously thinking that I need to spend the rest of the day lying here:

Eating these:

And reading this:

Exam Fall-Out

Yesterday, I returned to the classroom for the first time since my students took their exam. Some students were in good spirits and seemed to be relieved to have the exam behind them. These students were in the minority. More of my students fell into one of three categories:

1) Surly McPissed: These students were noticably irritated about something. I can't say for sure if I was the source of their irritation, but they were less than cordial. One of my good students was positively seething in the front row, slamming her computer shut at the end of class and bolting from the room. Others chose to express their displeasure by whispering to their neighbors and scowling. One group of boys were particularly irritated when I neglected to say that they didn't need to copy down a bunch of population figures I'd posted in my powerpoint lecture. One slammed down his pen and looked completely exasperated. I felt like saying, "Dude, I'm saving you some work here. If you'd like, I can make you memorize the population of the top 10 US cities in 1820. Would that make you happier?" Instead of doing this, I called on him, by name. I never underestimate the power of learning students' names. He muttered a half-right answer and paid attention for the rest of class. Message: You can be pissed at me, but don't disrupt the entire class. And I know who you are - and all of your little friends, too.

2) Mr. or Ms. Damage Control: While Surly McPissed shut down for the day, I had other students who positively came to life. Students who'd never said anything in class before contributed wholeheartedly to discussion. And they weren't just blowing smoke. The regular contributors kept swiveling around to see who was stealing their thunder. The New Talkers were joined by a legion of students who are now much more invested in taking good notes in class. I'm slowing to a snail's pace in lecture, but I'm willing to trade pace for attention any day.

3) Absent McMissing: In 3 out of 4 classes, I noticed regular attendees who were noticeably absent. Again, I know the world doesn't revolve around me and my class, but I can't help but think that their absence was related to the exam. Maybe they decided to give themselves the day off. Maybe they couldn't face the class again. Maybe they're suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and are under the care of medical professionals. Who knows? I checked my class rosters and none of them has dropped the class. I guess I'll wait until next week and see if they decide to materialize.

I figure that I'll get students re-acclimated to the class just in time to give the exams back, thus touching off a whole new round of responses.