eat light:

I just finished compiling and submitting final grades for all 80 of my students. WOW! That was a piece of work, man. I really enjoyed teaching this class. My only frustration is that I could not give each individual student the kind of attention and consideration I would normally prefer. There were too many of them, my contact hours with them were too few, and my weekly stack of grading was too tall, for me to get to know them as individuals. I got to know a handful of the more vocal ones, the outstanding writers, etc., but the vast majority of them kind of blur together. I don't feel great about that...but I did my best, and I'm happy with how the class went.

There isn't much to be done about these issues. I am going to make recommendations to the program administrators about some things I think would improve the class, but some aspects of it are just built in. My little curricular bit was a small part of a much larger, complex program--that's not going to change. They can't build in more contact hours. I would like to see them hire a second instructor and break the group into two sections--that would render the grading load a lot more manageable, and would also make class discussions more productive. Plus...speaking for myself, I think I'd be able to learn and retain the names and faces of 40 students, where 80 was just too many.

Anyway, I guess that's about it for today. Tomorrow we leave for the great American East. I'm really looking forward to the trip--not least because I really love traveling with glaucon. We complement each other well, I think, as long as only one of us experiences the almost inevitable travel-induced stress-out at a time--LOL.

Now I'm going to spend a little time chilling out with my friend L's dog (I've been dogsitting for her over in West Seattle since Tuesday). Currently she is curled up next to me on the couch, sleeping. I'm going to put on a podcast and knit for an hour or so, then I'm going to take a bath (L has no shower), eat lunch, and play the afternoon by ear. I'd really love to finish my February Lady Sweater today--I don't know if I can manage it. I have a whole sleeve left to knit, plus the sewing on of the 3 buttons. There's a very real possibility that my hands will cramp up before I finish even half of this sleeve. Plus, I have a couple of errands I need run before 5pm. Thus, it will likely be my plane knitting for tomorrow.

(sigh)

this quarter i had a great crew of students, and i will miss them. i'm going to see a couple of them tomorrow, and i might see a few of them on monday because i'm holding "bonus office hours." wednesday i collect portfolios in person, so i'll probably see a lot of them then, but i know some will turn in their portfolios at my office instead.

i hope i get some kinda teaching gig for next winter and spring (post-fellowship, yay!), because i really love teaching. so many young, impressionable minds to warp; so little time...

hmm. switched to a new theme for the journal. "california poppies." the poppy seems an appropriate symbol for my currently -happily- drugged state. i know, i know, california poppies don't contain any opium--or at least not in significant enough quantities to be worth extracting for recreational use. i'm also aware that the drug i'm on isn't an opiate.

...so?

truth is, i just like the california poppies. it's another favorite seattle (er...west coast) flower--and another i had never seen before moving here. they grow all along the burke-gilman trail, and i used to run there all the time.

now if i could only find a nice nasturtium patch. those are so yummy in salads.

speaking of the drug, i can barely feel any effect from it at all--just a slight......shift, toward ease.....when it takes effect. it makes me feel less overwhelmed by things, more capable (but not inordinately so), less threatened, more motivated. which is weird, since it's a trank. :::shrug::: i feels what i feels, explicable or no.

now i'm off to meet with an associate director in the expository writing program, to find out the parameters for the class i'm teaching next quarter. i've taught this class several times before, but they have switched from a 3-paper format to a 2-paper format, and i think they've changed a few other pedagogical parameters as well.