Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Not a fantastic start...

Talk about staying one step ahead here, and flying by the seat of your pants.
 
Today, I did the briefest of brief cruises about Expository writing. I know what it is (duh), but teaching it is another matter. I was re-reading my info over it last night.
 
So I was already feeling shakey about that, and then I could NOT sleep. I kept flailing in my sleep. Then, around 2am, I got a horrific case of cramps. Damn it all. I managed to swallow down some advil and then I just squirmed in pain for about an hour until I was finally able to fall asleep.
 
Unsure of material, crampy, sleepless and cranky. What a fantastic way to attempt to teach. I was SO CLOSE to throwing in the towel and calling in sick. Kept having to give myself a pep talk this morning: fake it till you make it.
 
And then, the mother of one of my students emailed questioning her daughter's score on the essay. Good student, really, but she handed it in LATE. Per my C.T.'s already long established procedures, late material is only worth 1/2 the possible points. So, thankfully, my C.T. was able to quickly and effectively counter the parent on that, but it still sucks. These parents would be better off telling their kids to do their work ON TIME. Believe me, when you get to college, your professors are going to laugh in your face.

1 comments:

Andrea said...

I hope it went OK - I'm feeling at a real low point too. I've worked SO hard since July and whilst I'm not making a loss my profits aren't huge. I've covered my start up costs, and the school fees and stuff, which I suppose is pretty good. But I guess it's the time of year - it's not the really exciting begining but it's not a point where you are established either it's just head down and keep going time. And I don't suppose anyone likes this bit.